Show some respect during the interview process. Possibly make their point of contact an engineer rather than an HR person. I interviewed with a company that had a technical recruiter who knew technology and I was very impressed by them for that.
Also keep in mind, how you run the interview process says volumes about what its like to work in your company. Taking > 2 weeks between responses shows lack of interest. Making a person have to "ask" for a plane ticket to come to the interview is a big turn off too. The interview process is a great time to show that you take care of your people and make it easy for them to do their jobs. Take care of us as candidates and we'll assume you'll take care of us as employees.
These are pet peeves. One other thing... communicate the type of position you're looking at putting the person in before lining up their in-person interviewers. I've had situations where I interviewed with people who did stuff I found interesting and I felt rapport with them. Likewise I had one company thought about putting me in a position completely wrong for my skills and the people I interviewed with had nothing in common. They later offered a position after the interview that was more in the right direction but this would have been good to figure out in a phone interview.
Show some respect during the interview process. Possibly make their point of contact an engineer rather than an HR person.
I absolutely agree here. There's nothing which turns good people off more than feeling unappreciated, and HR people simply don't know what to appreciate.
communicate the type of position you're looking at putting the person in before lining up their in-person interviewers
I'd go a step further than that. If you're interviewing someone really good, don't put them through the standard interview process. Invite them to your office and talk to them about what you do. Show them around; have them talk to people in a variety of areas (if you're a large enough organization for that to make sense).
At the end of the day, ask the candidate where he/she thinks they could help you most, and ask your people where they think the candidate could help you most. If there's consensus between the candidate and your people, that tells you what to do. If there isn't consensus... well, then that person wasn't actually the great candidate you thought he was.
I also feel the need to comment about respect. I'm working now, for a great start-up in Palo Alto. Before starting here, though, I turned down an offer with a company that's actually profitable, because they were not just rude, but incredibly arrogant as well.
Insulting your candidates, and then calling them back begging them to come in for another interview, and then ignoring their availability... this is not a way to encourage people to work for you.
I have to echo your point about the response time. I recently interviewed with a large well-known software company, and I told them about some of my schedule limitations (due date on an existing offer), and the HR person seemed dodgy about it at best. My interviewer loved me, but told me that the company generally was unable to respond in less than 4 weeks.
If you want your potential hires to feel valued, move through the recruitment process at a good pace. There is absolutely no reason there should be a 4-week gap between first and second interviews. I've seen plenty of companies that have gone from first interview to offer in the space of a single week - that includes flying the candidate in.
The worst part is that I emailed the HR contact reminding them that this deadline existed, and to this date (a week and change now...) I have not yet even received an acknowledgment on their part.
Oh well, I'd been warned against that company to begin with.
Possibly make their point of contact an engineer rather than an HR person.
There are definitely benefits to this, as you mention, but taken to the extreme (all recruiting is done by engineers), it's a pretty high cost to the company's productivity.
Think about it from the other perspective: would you, as an engineer, want to work at a company where a significant portion of your job is recruiting? If you were the CEO, would you rather your engineers focus on recruiting or on engineering?
Also keep in mind, how you run the interview process says volumes about what its like to work in your company. Taking > 2 weeks between responses shows lack of interest. Making a person have to "ask" for a plane ticket to come to the interview is a big turn off too. The interview process is a great time to show that you take care of your people and make it easy for them to do their jobs. Take care of us as candidates and we'll assume you'll take care of us as employees.
These are pet peeves. One other thing... communicate the type of position you're looking at putting the person in before lining up their in-person interviewers. I've had situations where I interviewed with people who did stuff I found interesting and I felt rapport with them. Likewise I had one company thought about putting me in a position completely wrong for my skills and the people I interviewed with had nothing in common. They later offered a position after the interview that was more in the right direction but this would have been good to figure out in a phone interview.
Thats my $.02.