A great deal can take place in a little amount of time. Therefore, your second round of interviews need to happen swiftly. Without taking advantage of the momentum, you may end up losing the best candidates to your competitors.
Be sure to select the selection commitee quickly for second round of interviews, and make sure they understand the importance to move swiftly through these interviews. Remember, if a manager who needs to be part of the interviews is too important to be there, or too busy, then it is highly likely that the candidate you’ve chosen for a second interview will be too busy also.
If you are working with a recruitment company who is helping you identify and secure interviews with candidates, then be sure that the consultants don’t view recruiting as just a numbers game, that each of you involved in this process don’t waste each other’s time.
Best practices in the recruiting field dictate that any candidate sent to your company should be seen and interviewed within two weeks of the initial contact. The reason for this is that it gives you time to take the best candidates through to the second round of interviews without wasting time or missing the opportunity. Take too long in any of the rounds of the process, and you run the risk of letting the best candidate slip through your fingers.
