Guest Blog: Andrew Jackson (BravoTECH) - Candidates Have a Shelf Life

Today's guest blog is from Andrew Jackson. Andrew has spent the last 30 years building and managing technical service companies.   In 1996, he co-founded Bravo Technical Resources, Inc. (BravoTECH) an information technology professional services firm headquartered in Dallas. BravoTECH has experienced award winning growth with BravoTECH employees currently performing IT assignments across the United States. Andrew received a BSBA from Illinois State University and was recently inducted into the ISU School of Business Hall of Fame.

Andrew has been chairman of the board of the following organizations: Texas Association of Business Dallas and Ft Worth Chapters, the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas and the Dallas and Ft Worth Chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He serves as a mentor on the Associate Board of the Cox School of Business at SMU, and has been a member of the Dallas Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM) since 2002. He Just completed his sixth term as SIM’s VP of Conferences and Seminars on the SIM International Management Council.

Candidates Have a Shelf Life

Do applicants for your technical positions have a shelf- life? You bet they do, and right now the shelf lives of top candidates are getting shorter as demand for skilled technical professionals is increasing. An unemployed or under-employed technology worker can find three to five viable career options in just a few days.

Many employers are finding that qualified candidates who had expressed an interest in their firm are gone by the time they finish their traditional, often slow-paced hiring processes.

BravoTECH has worked with hundreds of clients to help them expedite their hiring and onboarding processes in order to secure illusive A player candidates. Some areas that should be evaluated and can often be improved are:

1. Number of interviews for a single position. Consider condensing the interview process by using group interviews. If numerous people are needed for a hiring decision, schedule multiple interviews on the same day.


2. Background investigations. It's wise to perform a basic background check before making an offer, but unwise to delay a hiring decision while waiting days or weeks for results. An option is to make offers contingent on receiving positive background check results.


3. Departmental inefficiencies. If other departments are involved in your screening and interviewing process, make sure they have the same sense of urgency as your team. Make sure they are aware of how soon you'd like the new position filled and how the new hire will contribute to helping your department meet its goals.


4. Process and quality control. Believe it or not, some firms have totally automated or outsourced the applicant screening and selection process or they have empowered low level administrators to do the work. As a result, some very good applicants never make it to an interview. Make sure you know how your firm is screening and identifying potential candidates and if you do use an automated, external or non-technical person to screen applicants, allow for an exception policy so that candidates or services can protest an unreasonable deletion from the process.


5. Drop unproductive, old school beliefs. One such belief is that you must interview three applicants for each position before making an offer. Instead, when you find a the right candidate, make a decision. Don't fall prey to analysis paralysis. By the time you look at the third applicant the first may be off the shelf!

Finally, remember that applicants are individuals who have expressed an interest in, not made a commitment to your firm. Their career options will grow the with the passage of time. Don't let processes keep you from hiring your share of the A Players who will likely not stay on the shelf for long.