Regardless of the role, its critical companies run efficient and well-structured interview processes. They should allow both the company and candidate to feel they’ve been granted sufficient time and access to make an informed decision. As an interview experience that is long, drawn out and/or lacking transparency can leave an impression that the company is indecisive, disorganized or even disinterested, maintaining a streamlined experience should also be a priority.

In general, the number of interviews should correlate to the level of the position. For example, entry level and hourly contributors should generally require only two rounds, at most three. While C-suite executives can expect more, depending on the size and profile of the company with whom they’re speaking. However, at all levels, consider opportunities to build efficiencies into the end-to-end process to foster a positive candidate experience and a more expedient selection period.

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While realizing a one-size-fits-all interview workflow is near impossible, Pillar does suggest templates that can be amended for various roles and circumstances. There can be as many as 5-6 stages depending on the role. It should also be stated that some companies include HR/TA as participants in all interviews, while others do not. For the sake of this overview, HR is only specifically listed as part of the screening process. Also note that this overview does not include non-interview hiring criteria such as assessments, pre-employment testing or psychological evaluations.

With the above in mind, here are suggested guidelines.

Initial Screen

Whether over the phone or via a video conference, a TA recruiter/search firm should conduct a brief preliminary interview to ascertain whether a candidate is even a viable option for the role. Does their background align with the skills demanded of the job? Is the candidate onboard with the organization’s goals and values? If the answer is no, this is an opportunity to narrow the candidate pool.

The screen is also a candidate’s first introduction to the company. This conversation should get them excited about both the company and the opportunity. Ensuring the interviewer can deliver the company story compellingly is important.

These screens should generally last 20-30 minutes.

How can Pillar help?

Recording the initial phone screen allows the TA recruiter to quickly gut check their initial impression by instantly sharing AI-generated highlight clips and bulleted summaries of a candidate with the hiring manager. This allows the hiring manager to weigh in on whether advancing the candidate makes sense. It only takes minutes, but can further narrow the candidate pool and eliminate unnecessary interviews. In addition, leveraging Interview Guides/Scorecards can help to ensure the screen is both concise and upbeat.

First interview

Initial conversations should be a one-on-one interview between the applicant and the hiring manager. This is time to ask questions and better understand work experience and skill set, as well as to let the candidate raise questions and decide mutual fit.

First interviews last roughly 45 minutes to an hour.

How can Pillar help?

Having already spent a quick few minutes reviewing video highlights and bulleted summaries from the phone screen, the Hiring Manager enters this interview prepared with a fresh set of questions in their interview guide that they know are not duplicative from the initial screen. And since this conversation is also being recorded, it too can be shared with other stakeholders. The HM can also review the clips to refresh memories when it comes to making a final decision.

Panel Interview

Whether a single group interview or a few back-to-back, these are generally conversations between the candidate and potential peers within the company. Interviews should be orchestrated so each interviewer has a specific area of focus, and to ensure questions aren’t repeated. This is also an opportunity for both sides to determine team fit.

Panel interviews done in a group could last anywhere from 45-90 minutes, depending on the role. If the panel is a series of individual interviews back-to-back, each interview should not last much over 30-45 minutes.

How can Pillar help?

By empowering your hiring panel with structured interview guides and scorecards, each knows exactly their areas of focus and the topics to be covered. This helps minimize interviews that devolve into “buddy” conversations about personal interests, hobbies and weekend plans. In addition, “live” scoring means feedback is collected in the moment, reducing recency bias and saving time spent chasing feedback. Finally, the above also results in a better candidate experience by minimizing duplicate questions and enabling quicker followup on next steps.

Final Stage

Depending on the role, this stage either reverts back to the hiring manager, or may advance to senior leadership/hiring manager’s supervisor. Regardless, this is when the stage is set for a final decision. Here is the chance to ask deeper questions, sell the candidate on the role, and have the candidates sell themselves!

How can Pillar help?

After interviews are complete it’s time to conduct candidate debriefs. This is when scoring can be reviewed, candidates can be compared and final decisions are made. As Pillar has automatically recorded the scoring, generated short video highlight clips, and summarized each interview along the way, the hiring team can easily review the final contenders to refresh memories and ensure any biases that may have crept in over time (halo effect, first impression, recency, etc) are set aside.

Now that we’ve outlined the various interview stages and detailed what happens and who might participate during each, let’s translate that into real-life, role-based interview scenarios. You’ll note that for each there are both Formal Interviewers and Informal Interviewers. Formal Interviewers are those that actively participate in the interviews themselves. Informal Interviewers are those that may have an interest in better understanding the candidate, but don’t feel the need to prolong the process with interviews of their own. In this case, interview recordings, highlight snippets and/or written summaries generated from Pillar can be shared.

C-Suite/Executives Roles

Because of the high profile, high risk/high reward nature inherent to executive hiring, it’s not unusual for the interview cadence to contain four, five, even six or more interviews. This is both ok and expected, so long as the interviews are well structured, run efficiently and conducted over a reasonable window of time.

Potential Participants

Interview Rounds:

Estimated interview process timeline: 3-4 months

Leadership/Management Roles

While the stakes are not as high as hiring for the C-suite, general leadership roles certainly need more vetting than an individual contributor. An interview process consisting of 3-4 stages including a chance to meet peer leadership is ideal.

Participants

Interview Rounds:

Estimated interview process timeline: 45-90 days

Professional Roles

For positions below Director, there should seldom be a need for more than 4 rounds of interviews, preferably only 3. As candidates at this level are often interviewing with multiple organizations, efficiency is key, or they’re likely to move on.

Participants

Interview Rounds:

Estimated interview process timeline: 30-45 days

Tech Roles

Similar to Professional roles, candidates interviewing for tech positions are often in demand and have multiple opportunities in play. While ensuring they have the technical skill set required for the role is a priority, delays or unnecessary steps can result in a lost candidate.

Participants

Formal Participants: Direct manager, HR/TA, 1 peer

Informal Interviewer: DM’s supervisor

Interview Rounds:

Estimated interview process timeline: 20-40 days

While an ideal interview will include organic conversation that puts both parties at ease, it’s important to balance that free-flowing sense with enough structure to ensure both interviewer and candidate gather the information needed. With most interviews lasting just 45-60 minutes, literally every minute can count!

Here are some tips for keeping the conversation on track:

The only honest answer to this question is also a largely unhelpful one: it depends. It depends on the role, the company’s processes, the candidate’s availability, and any number of variables that insert themselves along the line. Still, setting forth benchmarks that outline goals to track against is a worthwhile endeavor, and have been included in the guidelines above.

Note that a recent report by The Josh Bersin Company revealed that the average time-to-hire rate was 44 days in Q2 2023. That’s up from 43 days the previous quarter and a new all-time high. At the same time, Indeed instructs its users to apply to as many as 15 job postings per week. This means that over those same 44 days your candidate may apply to 90 other jobs!

Needless to say, without an efficient, coordinated and time-sensitive interview process in place, companies risk losing candidates to more nimble organizations running more streamlined programs.