I previously recorded an episode on how companies are wasting job applicants time by posting disingenuous job openings on career pages and so this episode is an extension on that topic because companies also need to compensate job applicants. For their time and energy and effort spent during the job interview process.
Currently, an asymmetry exists where companies can completely waste a job, applicant’s time on a lengthy interview process, and, and one that spans weeks if not over a month. And the job applicants, if they’re not chosen, get. nothing at the end. And so that needs to stop. And my proposal is that it is mandated that companies pay two and a half times, at least two and a half times the hourly rate for that position on the high salary side.
For job applicants. So what this would mean is if the job was to pay, let’s say, 40 an hour, and we can calculate this from the salary. If it paid 40 an hour, then the applicant would get 100 an hour. For the time spent during the interview and the reason why it’s two and a half times is because of course We know there is more time and effort that goes into the interview process Beyond just the minutes It’s in the duration of the actual interview.
So job applicants are preparing for the interview. They’re researching the company. They’re rehearsing their answers. They’re scheduling times in their calendar. They’re fragmenting their calendar because we know that these interviews don’t take place back to back. They occur usually a once a week interval, maybe even longer.
And so sometimes the job applicants may be taking off of work. They may be using their lunch break for these interviews they are getting ready for the interview and they are making care arrangements, possibly for pets, possibly for, for kids, but whatever the reason what’s happening is the job applicants are investing a serious amount of time and energy and effort into the interview process and companies need to reciprocate.
That, that effort by compensating the job applicants and it needs to be at a, a higher rate so where the job applicants time is valued. It’s not enough to say thank you for interviewing, sorry we went with someone else. This way companies have skin in the game so there is, there are going to be less disingenuous.
interviews. Now, under this proposal, there is no, there’s no compensation for merely accepting job applicants or resumes or applications or cover letters. That’s fine. But if the process extends further, Then compensation needs to happen. And so there’s also the opportunity cost of, of interviewing. And I got, I got into this with some of the previous bullet points, but there’s a real opportunity cost, especially in the aggregate.
When we think about all of these potential interviews, and it could be for multiple companies. When you start stacking that time, it really starts to add up and the, the companies need to pay for that because the job applicants are potentially losing. out on other side hustles they could be doing to earn money.
They could be losing out on other networking opportunities or other job applications. So companies need to pay for job applicants. They need to compensate job applicants for all of the time and effort they are putting into potentially working for their company. And one more thing. There are commonly HR staffs where their entire job is to interview and find prospects and recruit people in, which is fine, but sometimes these HR staffs are, the HR staff is It’s making the interview process longer or interviewing people that they know won’t fit because it’s a way to justify their own job.
And, and so this can make them look more detailed. It can make them look more thorough. But it also can waste people’s time when the HR staff knows. They know for a fact that they, that this person will not get the job and yet the job interview process continues on and job interviews can go several rounds.
Two to four rounds is fairly common and when you get into the higher positions, it can be five or six rounds. And so at that point, someone has really spent a lot of time, so they must be compensated for it. So I think just like. Sometimes job openings are mandated for, there might be compliance reasons that you have to have a certain number of demographics or you have to have the, the opening up to the general public, even if it’s for and it’s, it’s going to be, you know, the person’s going to be an internal hire.
I think there also needs to be a legal mandate. That people are compensated for for the job interview process, for the interviews that come after submitting an application. This way, we will level out the playing field, the companies will have skin in the game, and they will be disincentivized to waste people’s time.