How your business can compete to hire and retain highly qualified employees

Hiring the very best executives for your organization can feel like bidding in the NFL draft. Major teams are vying for the same individuals, and when the spotlight shines too bright on one person they know they have the power to go anywhere they please.

Seasoned recruiters know that extending a compelling offer to a top-tier candidate who was previously passive can also turn them active with other firms. Once you remind them of their worth in the marketplace and convince them to pick their head up, they’ll use the interview skills and résumé they dusted off for your role to apply for others. The result: missing out on your preferred candidate.

To avoid this scenario, it’s important to treat every interaction with equal weight. The actual interview starts from the moment you reach out and doesn’t end until they’ve walked through your office doors and sat down behind their nameplate.

This reality means you should delegate more time to understanding candidate motivations, avoiding process fatigue, managing pre-closing and assisting with relocation (if relevant) than your competing employers.

Understand the four reasons A-Players change jobs

There are four core reasons that talented executives switch jobs, and we’ll preach them until the end of time: the company, the people, the job and the opportunity.

The company: Attracting top talent requires companies to effectively communicate the story of where they’ve been, where they are now and where they’re headed to build interest and establish cultural alignment.

The people: Hiring authorities must actively promote their company’s culture and leadership style to appeal to top candidates. Even the most mundane tasks can be meaningful with the right leadership, making cultural and managerial compatibility essential for long-term job satisfaction.

The job: To attract top performers, hiring authorities must go beyond basic job descriptions and clearly communicate the position’s responsibilities, title context, reporting structure, growth potential and available resources.

The opportunity: Organizations hoping to recruit top-tier talent must present a compelling value proposition—clear career acceleration, meaningful impact and a polished, thoughtful hiring process that signals high standards and strategic vision.

Use these four reasons during the interview process to sell your role but also to find out exactly what motivates the candidate. Maybe they have an impactful job right now but want a better culture. Maybe they love their culture but their role’s trajectory is unclear. Any information like this can help you understand them as a person and better formulate your pitch for them to leave their current role or turn down competing offers and come work for you.

What is “process fatigue,” and how can you avoid it?

Hiring an executive takes time, but that’s no reason to draw out the interview process. Long periods without communication, a lack of clarity surrounding next steps or interview bureaucracy can lead candidates to “process fatigue,” where the interview process itself turns candidates off and leads them to other opportunities.

To avoid losing candidates due to process fatigue, have an action plan for your hiring process before taking an open position to market. You should know the exact steps to your interview process and how many people you can realistically have in this process at one time to remain communicative and reachable. You should also outline this process with candidates at the start so they know what to expect.

Related: The ultimate Charles Aris guide to executive recruiting

If you know it will take longer to evaluate candidates or make a hiring decision, simply share this with your candidates. Maintaining an open line of communication will keep them engaged, and additional tidbits, like sharing that they’re one of three finalists, will keep morale high. Never let yourself become too busy with multiple interview processes that you aren’t available to answer candidate questions within a reasonable timeframe.

Pre-close your top candidate at every stage of the process

Before you even think about extending a formal offer, ask yourself: did I pre-close the candidate? Pre-closing means you’ve properly sold the opportunity, identified (and addressed) tripwires and feel confident this person will accept. Pre-closing is also your chance to address competing organizations head on. You can always ask candidates directly whether they’re in process with other firms. If they are, this is your opportunity to sell your role and figure out why they would or would not sign your offer.

Compensation is another potential tripwire critical to address when pre-closing. The last thing you want is to lose your best candidate because you didn’t communicate their compensation. We recommend sharing all compensation details during the interview process but also doing so early and often. The candidate should never question how they’ll be paid after starting in your role.

Make relocation a non-issue

Moving for a new job is the easiest way for a candidate to get cold feet. It makes the process feel “real,” because for the first time they’re involving their families, friends and associates in the process. If your role requires the candidate to relocate, there are steps you can take to ensure this process goes smoothly and that candidates feel confident about their decision.

The first way to support relocation is through financial incentives. Aside from being scary, moving is also expensive. Many companies will pay the first year’s rent on an apartment to help the person settle and house hunt. Others will go a step further and help buy down the candidate’s mortgage rate on a new house. Having a trusted realtor support their journey is a nice touch.

The second way is to get the person comfortable with the area they’re moving to. We recommend driving them around town and showing off the best sites, neighborhoods and restaurants. The best person to do this doesn’t have to be involved in the hiring process. It could be a trusted coworker from outside your division, or the realtor you hire to assist the candidate on all their relocation questions.

If your position is remote, the same philosophy applies. Invest in tools that make them feel comfortable and confident about the conditions they’ll work in after accepting your offer. Have remote work veterans show them the ropes and make them comfortable with new technologies. Don’t let hazy logistics scare away your candidates.

The most important takeaway

If you truly want to land an A-Player, you need to be a competitive interviewer. Luckily, none of this is rocket science. The best way to be competitive is to be communicative and supportive. Answer questions promptly, be transparent and don’t let top candidates fall to the wayside through process fatigue or last-minute reservations.

Every organization can land top talent, but it requires a thoughtful interview process that supports your candidates every step of the way.