A good hiring process should help an employer find the right person without asking candidates to spend hours proving they deserve an interview.
That sounds obvious. Yet it is surprisingly easy to turn a straightforward application into a long list of tasks.
A candidate applies for a job and is immediately asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire, record a video introduction, complete an assessment, answer additional questions, provide work samples and perhaps spend an hour or two on an unpaid assignment.
All of that can happen before the candidate has spoken to a single person at the company.
By the time an employer is ready for a real conversation, some of the strongest candidates may already have moved on.
The problem isn’t that assessments, work samples or video introductions are always bad ideas. They can be useful. The problem is when they are introduced, how much they ask of candidates and whether each step actually helps the employer make a better decision.
Start With One Simple Question
Before adding another step to a hiring process, ask:
What decision will this step help us make?
If five minutes of conversation gives you the information you need, there may be little reason to ask candidates to complete a 30-minute questionnaire.
If you want to assess communication skills, a short conversation may tell you more than asking every applicant to record a three-minute video.
And if you need to know whether someone can actually do the job, a practical assignment can be useful. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be the first thing you ask for.
Every additional step requires time from the candidate and from the hiring team.
So every step should have a purpose.
Don’t Turn the Application Into Unpaid Work
One of the easiest ways to lose good candidates is to ask for too much, too early.
Consider the list some applicants now encounter:
- A resume
- A cover letter
- A lengthy application form
- A video introduction
- Personality questions
- Skills assessments
- Writing samples
- A take-home assignment
None of these is automatically unreasonable.
The problem is what happens when they are all stacked together.
At some point, an application stops feeling like an introduction to a job and starts feeling like another job itself.
That is not just a theoretical concern. In its 2025 State of Frontline Hiring Report, iCIMS found that 60% of frontline workers had started but not finished an application. Half of those who abandoned an application said the form was too long or time-consuming.
The lesson for employers isn’t that applications need to be reduced to one question.
It’s that candidate effort should be treated as a limited resource.
If you’re asking someone to spend an hour on your hiring process before you’ve established that they’re a serious contender, don’t be surprised if they decide their time is better spent elsewhere.
This becomes even more important as AI makes it easier for candidates to apply to more jobs in less time. AI is making it easier to apply — but harder to hire, which means employers need to think carefully about what their application process is actually measuring.
A Loom Video Isn’t Always Better Than a Conversation
Video introductions have become common in remote hiring.
There are roles where seeing how someone communicates on camera makes sense. For a presentation-heavy position, for example, a video can provide useful information.
But asking every applicant to record a Loom video before anyone has spoken to them can create unnecessary friction.
The candidate has to find a quiet place, check the camera and microphone, record the video, perhaps record it again after stumbling over an answer, upload it and send the link.
And at that point, they still don’t know whether anyone at the company is seriously interested in talking to them.
There is a simpler option:
Talk to the candidate.
A 15- or 20-minute conversation can tell you a lot. It also gives the candidate an opportunity to ask questions and decide whether the company is worth pursuing.
That’s an important part of hiring that employers sometimes forget.
Candidates are evaluating you, too.
A hiring process shouldn’t feel like a one-sided audition in which applicants have to keep proving that they deserve a few minutes of someone’s time.
Save Time-Consuming Tests for Later
None of this means employers should abandon assessments.
A practical test can be one of the better ways to evaluate a candidate, particularly when a resume doesn’t tell you whether someone can actually perform an important part of the job.
The question is when to use it.
Imagine 200 people apply for a position.
If all 200 are asked to complete a one-hour assignment, candidates collectively spend 200 hours on a company that hasn’t even decided whether they are serious candidates.
If the employer first screens the applications and has short conversations with a smaller group, the same assignment might eventually go to 10 finalists.
That’s a much more reasonable use of everyone’s time.
The assessment itself isn’t the problem. The timing is.
A good assessment can be part of a good hiring process. It doesn’t have to be the first step.
Don’t Ask Candidates to Prove the Same Thing Five Times
Another common problem is repetition.
A candidate explains their experience on a resume.
Then enters much of the same information into an application form.
Then discusses it during a screening call.
Then answers similar questions in another interview.
Then completes an assignment designed to demonstrate a skill they have already discussed.
Some repetition is inevitable. Different people on a hiring team may need to assess different things.
But employers should experience their own process from the candidate’s side.
If the same information is being collected again and again, the problem may be the process rather than the candidate.
The goal isn’t to create as many opportunities as possible to evaluate someone.
It’s to gather enough useful information to make a sound decision.
Tell Candidates What Comes Next
Candidates shouldn’t have to guess how your hiring process works.
If there are four stages, say so.
If there is a practical assignment, explain roughly how long it should take.
If a candidate will meet several members of the team, let them know beforehand.
And if the timeline changes, send an update.
A short message saying, “We need a few more days and will get back to you by Friday,” is far better than silence.
SHRM has pointed to long hiring schedules, unclear roles and a lack of feedback as factors that can contribute to candidates dropping out of hiring processes.
This doesn’t require a sophisticated system.
It requires someone to communicate.
Not Every Interview Needs to Be Another Test
Remote work has made scheduling interviews easier for many companies. That doesn’t mean every position needs five rounds.
A recruiter may need to establish basic qualifications.
A hiring manager may want to discuss experience and how the candidate approaches the work.
A final conversation may be useful for meeting future colleagues, resolving remaining questions or discussing an offer.
But if every interview covers the same ground, the process gets longer without necessarily becoming better.
The same applies to interview questions.
If every interviewer asks the candidate to “tell me about yourself,” the company isn’t gaining much by hearing the same answer three times.
A better approach is to give each conversation a clear purpose and make sure interviewers know what they are responsible for evaluating.
Structured interviews and consistent evaluation criteria can help hiring teams make more consistent decisions. Greenhouse, for example, describes using scorecards with consistent criteria and required notes in its own hiring process.
If You Ask for Real Work, Respect the Time It Takes
There is a big difference between a 15-minute skills exercise and a three-hour project.
The closer an assignment gets to actual work the company could use, the more carefully employers should consider what they are asking candidates to provide.
Candidates should know approximately how long an assignment is expected to take and what it is designed to measure.
For a senior or highly specialized position, a substantial assessment may sometimes be justified.
But if a company is asking finalists to spend several hours producing meaningful work, paying for that time may also be worth considering.
Respecting a candidate’s time doesn’t mean lowering hiring standards.
It means being deliberate about where those standards are applied and how much they cost the person being evaluated.
Look at Where Candidates Leave
Employers often track time-to-hire.
That’s useful, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Companies should also look at where candidates stop moving through the process.
For example:
- 500 people apply
- 300 complete the application
- 80 pass the initial screening
- 30 agree to an interview
- 12 complete the assessment
- 5 reach the final interview
- 1 accepts the offer
Those numbers tell a story.
If a large percentage disappears after a 45-minute assessment, perhaps the assessment is too long or is being used too early.
If candidates leave after the first interview, perhaps something about that conversation needs attention.
If finalists repeatedly disappear before an offer, the issue may be compensation, expectations, communication or the role itself.
Candidate drop-off isn’t just a recruiting metric.
It can show employers where their process is creating unnecessary friction.
SHRM similarly recommends looking at candidate drop-off as a signal of problems in the recruitment process rather than simply treating it as evidence that candidates are not interested.
A Better Hiring Process Isn’t Necessarily a Shorter One
This distinction matters.
The goal isn’t to create the shortest possible hiring process.
Some jobs genuinely require several conversations, technical evaluations, portfolio reviews, references or other checks.
The goal is to make every stage earn its place.
A straightforward process might look something like this:
1. Application
Ask for the information you actually need to decide whether to continue.
2. Initial screening
Use a short call or structured screening to establish basic fit.
3. Real conversation
Let the candidate speak with someone who understands the role.
4. Practical assessment
If one is necessary, use it to answer a specific question about the candidate’s ability.
5. Final conversation
Resolve remaining questions, introduce relevant team members and make sure both sides understand what working together would look like.
6. Decision
Don’t leave a strong candidate waiting indefinitely after they have already invested significant time in your process.
The exact structure will vary by role.
The principle shouldn’t:
Every step should justify the time it asks from the candidate.
Apply for Your Own Job
There is one simple test every employer can run before publishing a job:
Apply for it yourself.
Go through exactly what a candidate is expected to do.
Upload the resume.
Answer the questions.
Record the video.
Complete the assessment.
Wait for the email.
Schedule the interviews.
Then ask yourself:
Would I finish this process if I had three other companies I could apply to today?
If the honest answer is no, there is probably something worth changing.
This exercise can reveal problems that aren’t obvious from the employer’s side of the process.
A form that seems reasonable to someone who created it may feel exhausting to someone filling it out for the tenth time that week.
A 45-minute assignment may seem minor to a hiring manager but significant to someone applying for five jobs after work.
A video introduction may seem efficient to a recruiter but unnecessary to a candidate who would rather have a 15-minute conversation.
The only way to know is to experience the process yourself.
The Best Hiring Process Gives Both Sides Enough Information
Employers need enough information to make a confident hiring decision.
Candidates need enough information to decide whether they actually want the job.
Neither side benefits when the process becomes a collection of increasingly complicated hurdles.
Use technology when it saves time. Use assessments when they measure something that matters. Use interviews when a conversation can tell you more than another form.
And most importantly, don’t make candidates complete half the hiring process before deciding whether you want to talk to them.
A strong remote hiring process doesn’t need to eliminate every test, interview or assessment.
It needs to use them at the right time, for the right reason, and with a reasonable amount of effort.
That is how employers protect their own time without wasting someone else’s.
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Sources
- SHRM — Candidate Drop-Off Is a Signal of Why Gen Z Exits Hiring Processes Early
- iCIMS — 2025 State of Frontline Hiring Report
- Greenhouse — Interviewing at Greenhouse
- Greenhouse — What Is an Interview Scorecard?