Great news: you’ve found the perfect candidate for the job! You’re completely confident they’re the right fit for your organisation. After all, you and your managers have read their CV thoroughly, cover to cover. You’ve interviewed them several times. You’ve spent weeks now discussing the merits of their hire, and have invested months in preparation for offering them the job.

Problem is that when you do get around to offering them the job, they decline.

Turns out they’ve already found a job somewhere else… and have been happily employed there for weeks.

Does this situation sound familiar?

While most organisations have respectable timelines for their HR processes, others can… drag. There’s often a tendency, particularly in a candidate-rich market, for organisations to think they can afford to delay or wait when making a decision. But if you don’t contact a candidate or keep them fully updated on the process, people will assume you aren’t interested, or that the job itself has fallen through.

So how do you make sure you don’t lose your talent before you have a chance to hire it?

Top tips to keep your talent...

• Don’t let the resumes of candidates sit about on your desk, gathering dust. The more talented these people are, the more likely they’ll be to get job offers from someone else.
• Have you got funding and financing sorted out for this hire? Do you have complete approval for the recruitment process? It’s simple: if you don’t have confirmation for the role, don’t start advertising the position.
• Do you think the scope of the role may change in the hiring process? If so, start talking about the fact _now_, not later on. If you’re using internal HR to do your recruitment, it may be an idea to talk to a specialist about how to manage a changing role description; alternately, discuss the matter with your recruitment consultant.
• Keep your candidates in the loop. Be honest with them about their chances of securing the position. Are they your current first choice?
• Have you told your candidates when they can expect a response? Have you _given_ them that response, within the timeframe you specified? Be punctual about your communications.