* Challenger, Gray & Christmas cites reasons employers are taking their time when making hiring decisions
As you climb the corporate ladder, it takes longer and longer for companies to make hiring decisions. According to executive recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, companies took an average of 4.4 months when searcing for senior managers and executives. This marks the seventh quarter in a row in which job search times for this level of position took more than four months on average.
It makes sense that with fierce competition for jobs, employers can afford to be choosy. However, Challenger cites many other reasons for this heightened level of scrutiny:
* A wrong hiring decision is costly. It can cost $40,000 or more to replace a top executive who doesn’t work out.
* Corporate governance challenges require thorough personal background checks.
* Firms associated with defense and homeland security are among those that are experiencing the most growth, and these industries necessitate a far deeper investigation of job candidates.
* The information/service-based industry needs top talent. Multiple interviews involving different levels and disciplines of the business are increasingly being used to find the best candidates.
“We have not seen job search times fall as they did in past recoveries, and the most likely reason is that employers are being especially selective when it comes to adding new people, particularly those at the upper levels of the corporate ladder,” Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger says. “Job seekers 50 and older are typically going for senior positions, which are fewer in number. The fact these positions pay more, have more responsibilities and more access to sensitive corporate information requires employers to spend more time scrutinizing these candidates.”
In order to avoid the cost of making a bad hire, companies are subjecting candidates to more rounds of interviews and investing in extensive pre-employment screenings, such as intelligence, personality and psychological tests. Firms are also using third-party investigators to conduct extensive background checks to weed out possible criminal or unethical behavior.
