Increase Your Success Rate of Hiring Infosec Candidates
Okay, we all get it, it’s a tight labor market and information security and the demand for infosec talent is far outstripping the supply of information security professionals available. This is causing a huge shift in mindset for many HR departments round the globe. No longer can you run a candidate through 5 interviews over 2 months and expect them to be sitting on the sidelines patiently waiting for you to make a decision.
Smart companies are making BIG changes. After losing top tier candidates to competitors, one company decided to speed up the process and take more risks in order to hire more, better candidates. What had been at least a three-month interview process with a consensus hiring posture involving four different Directors, has become a two-week process from interview to offer.
In this case, one Director is in charge of the process and the timing is closely monitored by the CEO, who is deeply invested in making hiring work. Once a candidate is presented to the Director, the clock starts. Initial interviews are held within days, an onsite interview is scheduled for the next week and the offer is prepared and available for delivery at the time of the second interview with the hope that there is mutual interest.
Here is the skinny on what makes this work:
- Executive buy-in (this cannot be stressed enough)
- Flexibility in HR process
- Risk tolerance
- Team participation
- Candidates are prepped for a swift hiring decision
- Firing decisions with “bad hires” are handled swiftly
Without all pieces in place, this process does not work. Leadership MUST take the lead in a cultural/process shift of this nature. Everyone in the organization must know that the risk of losing top tier talent is far more caustic than the possibility of a making a bad hire. Most of us have policies in place that afford us the ability to remove bad hires from our organizations, yet we are loathe to utilize them.
Take a risk. Your competition is starting to get the hint and you might get left behind!