According to a DHI index report, the time between when a candidate applies for a job and when they accept a job offer has increased from about 16 days in 2002 to 29 days in 2017.
With such a significant amount of time in between hiring phases, several issues can occur as a result. Simply put, longer times to hire equates to disruptions in business flow.
In this all-inclusive guide, we will discuss reducing time to hire and ensuring that your company's hiring team is working as efficiently as possible.
What Effect Does a Prolonged Time to Hire Have on an Organization?
While an in-depth hiring process may be necessary for recruiting qualified individuals to fulfill crucial roles, large gaps in the hiring time can be quite troublesome for many organizations.
For one, the longer the hiring team takes to make a decision, the higher possibility that the best candidates will accept a job elsewhere. After all, the best talents aren't on the market for very long.
Another issue with a lengthy time to hire is that companies either don't have anyone performing the roles they are hiring for, or they are putting the workload on other workers. Not only does this slow down a company's efficiency, but this can result in a higher employee dissatisfaction rate.
How Can Organizations Reduce Their Time to Hire?
Here are 10 proven ways organizations can reduce their time to hire:
Formulate a Winning Strategy
The first order of business is to create an effective recruitment strategy that will bring in prospective hires, entice them, and get them to accept your job offer in a timely manner.
It's also essential to ensure your procedures don't take too long and aren't unnecessarily consuming resources.
A good hiring process will ensure that everything is structured and concisely clear-cut. Both you and job seekers should know exactly what you are looking for and have an understanding of your hiring processes.
Communicate With the Talent Manager and Hiring Team
What's the most critical aspect of any structured chain of operations? Communication.
Ensure you're always in the loop by consistently communicating with your talent manager and hiring team.
One of the best ways of perfecting your strategy is a hands-on approach where you take on the first couple of interviews alongside your talent manager so they know precisely what you're looking for. Additionally, this will allow you to optimize any imperfections in the process and make adjustments as needed.
Make sure you're sourcing your hiring team qualified individuals for the job and do routine check-ins to survey how things are going.
Streamline the Application Process
Long-winded application processes are a deterrent to highly-qualified individuals (who aren't on the market for very long) and can drain businesses of their resources over time.
There are a few ways you can easily streamline the screening process and hire faster, such as cutting down interview time. Many organizations that require multiple rounds of interviews take too much time to get back to their applicants and thus miss out on quite a few opportunities.
Another helpful way to streamline processes is to automate scheduling. There's no need for one round of phone interviews to schedule two more in-person interviews when everything can be done online in only a couple of minutes.
Many pieces of software make it easy to make everything automated and allow applicants to schedule an interview with one of your managers with only a few clicks of a button.
Create a Talent Pipeline
One of the best ways to get employees when needed is to create a talent pipeline well in advance.
A business with a steady flow of talent stays on the radar and in touch with potential talents before they even need them. That way, when a role does open up, it doesn't remain empty for long as the company will already have a good idea of who to hire.
Use a Referral System
Referral systems are among the best ways to recruit unique onboard talents.
A referral system may encourage employees to bring in qualified candidates they know in exchange for incentives, which can ultimately be quite cost-efficient.
Furthermore, since it's an employee-driven form of sourcing, there is typically a higher degree of enthusiasm and commitment from those who participate. You're also creating a network of people more likely to get along with each other, thus making things smoother overall.
Develop a Stellar Career Page
You can drastically enhance the candidate experience by developing a stellar career page. That way, they're more likely to come back when the time comes to make a decision.
When they do revisit your career page, it's likely that the experience you gave them will influence their decision once you give them a job offer.
Your career page will be pitted against others, so the best way to reduce the time to hire is by making yours more persuasive and more cohesive.
Utilize a Well-Rated Application Tracking System
Long began are the times of going through applications one at a time, hand by hand. Now, everything can be neatly organized in an applicant tracking system, which serves as a database for all applicants.
Storing this information for easy access is more efficient and time-saving than human-based processes, ultimately saving the time it takes to evaluate candidates.
Maximize Use of Sourcing Channels
Social sourcing channels such as LinkedIn are how many candidates find job openings on the market. As such, you're going to want to use these channels exhaustively to find the right talents when you need them.
Since everyone uses them nowadays, you must uphold an engaging online presence. Writing a diverting job title and description are the first necessary steps to waning attention towards your offer.
Next, let candidates know the skills and experience you are looking for, and then provide a description of what they will gain by working for you.
Use Data-Driven Methods
Data drives everything. Make assessments about your organization as well as research statistics from similar businesses. Take the average amount of time to hire your company uses and then compare it to everyone else.
Use these insights to make projections about how long your processes take, and then adjust them to fit your strategic goals better. This could mean automating poorly executed scheduling processes or reducing interview time.
It's all contingent on how efficient your company is and where improvements need to be made.
Pre-Employment Assessment Software Can Bring Down Screening Time
Pre-employee assessments are proven to cull out unqualified individuals while providing your hiring manager with high-scoring candidates. The best part of assessments is that they can be fully automated through software, and new findings are constantly optimizing them.
Pre-employment assessments are data solutions for companies with a high volume of applicants and can reduce strain on hiring teams by reducing the screening process.
What Are Some Common Causes of Prolonged Time to Hire?
Some of the most common causes of prolonged time to hire are:
- Having a poorly structured hiring process
- Lack of communication between the company and the hiring manager
- Multiple rounds of lengthy interviews
- Unoptimized processes (lack of automation where functions can be automated)
- Poor online presence
- Being unprepared to hire
What Effect Does a Prolonged Time to Hire Have on an Organization?
Unfortunately, a prolonged time to hire can have detrimental effects on an organization.
If a company is unprepared to hire and needs to fill a new position/a position that has recently opened up, then it's likely that role will go unfulfilled for quite some time. This may be especially problematic if this is a job crucial to the business's basic functions.
This work will then have to be distributed to other employees, thus slowing the organization down.
Another issue may arise when the organization isn't getting a steady stream of good employees. It's one thing for a company to miss a few qualified applicants during a short application window, but it's another problem entirely when it consistently fails to onboard top-tier talents.
A business is only as good as its workers, and without excellently performing individuals, it will inevitably plummet in efficiency.
How Can Organizations Improve Their Attraction and Selection Processes to Reduce Time to Hire?
We've mentioned this before, but we'll repeat it because it's so crucial. Having a well put together online presence is imperative to attracting prospective employees. That means perfecting your careers page and utilizing social sourcing outlets.
Organizations can further reduce the time to hire by cutting down hiring operations and automating selection processes. Certain systems such as applicant databases, scheduling, and assessments can all be automated through software available online.
As for how to cut down hiring operations, a good employer is always attentive. The hiring process should never be stagnant; it should constantly be changing and acclimating to become better than it was the day before.
Use data to determine which processes are the most time-consuming and prioritize cutting down those times. Divert efforts where necessary, and streamline the screening process to increase the chances of scouting exceptional talent.
What Are Some Common Pitfalls That Organizations Make When Trying to Reduce Their Time to Hire
We've gone over all the ways to reduce the time to hire. Now it's time to examine some common pitfalls many organizations make when trying to reduce the time to hire.
One mistake is that some businesses simplify their application process too much, which has a negative effect on the hiring process. An overload of applications will make it harder to find the best talents as there will be an oversaturation of candidates.
Not only will this potentially drown out top-tier talents, but it may also exponentially increase screen time with an overload of interviews.
Another issue is that some businesses hire too quickly. While it's important to make sure your business is working fast, you should also be working efficiently.
Trying to fill an important role with an unqualified candidate can be much more detrimental in the long term than simply letting that position go unfulfilled for a while.
The final pitfall organizations commonly fall into is the failure to get to know candidates. You can lose out on a lot of potential this way. Sometimes, it's better to take the time to allow applicants to demonstrate their skills and show how they can benefit the company.
Final Thoughts
The hiring process can be intimate, considering how much an organization depends on its employees.
Wanting to take the time and find the best talents sounds good on paper, but in reality, you've got to work quickly to attain them. That means streamlining processes and cutting out unnecessary fluff to reduce time to hire.
It may not seem like a significant point, but as this article has demonstrated, reducing time to hire is one of the most beneficial optimizations you could make for your organization.
