A key performance indicator for recruitment teams is how long it takes to fill roles; hence the time to hire metric is crucial. A fast hiring process reduces the cost involved per hire and, most importantly, the risk of losing high-quality candidates is lessened.
After all, if you don't snap up the talent, somebody else will.
One of the biggest impacts of COVID-19 is remote jobs becoming high in demand. For some, recruiting, hiring and onboarding remotely is an entirely new concept.
In this article, we'll be highlighting how you can hire faster, including fast hiring for remote jobs, expediting the hiring process, and improving your hiring process overall.
Recruitment cycle time
Did you know that the majority of companies can take anywhere between one and four months to make a single hire? That duration only increases the more senior the role, or the more complex the desired skill set is.
Only 30% of companies claim to be able to fill a vacancy within 30 days. So how can we close this time gap without sacrificing the overall quality of the recruitment process and maintain the attraction of top-quality candidates?
Understanding 'time to hire'
To reduce your recruiting time, you need to first be able to understand the areas of your hiring process in which you are losing valuable hours. To measure this, you're going to need to gather some data.
Once you have properly investigated and collated the data, the areas that need to be focussed on to reduce recruitment cycle time will become obvious. Then, look to improve them.
5 ways you can hire faster
1. Collect the right data
You need to reflect on how long it currently takes you to fill a vacancy. Consider aspects of the recruitment cycle such as the time it takes for candidates to move through stages: application, interview, second interview, etc.
Look at how your competition or other businesses in your industry fares. How are they hiring and what are their timings? Look at the actual dates; how many days from the actual selection to offer?
Even considering your ratio of strong candidates versus the candidates that will not be progressing will help you diagnose where you are slowing down. It could be a problem with your sourcing methods.
2. Look for talent even when you're not hiring
Achieving a fast hiring process means always having your finger on the talent pulse. Remote hiring means that for passive candidates – professionals who are not actively seeking a new role but are the type of profession you'd like to see working alongside you – interviewing is much more flexible.
With video interviews being commonplace, passive candidates will be able to speak with you during a lunch break, or even before or after their work day. Talent is much more likely to be happy to have a casual fifteen-minute conversation with you when it does not require any travel or taking time out of their already busy workday.
Ensure that you're constantly networking with professionals in your industry. Actively seek out individuals with the experience and knowledge that could fill the gaps in your own business. Even if you're not hiring right now, you will be on the radar of the relevant people when the time comes.
Build yourself a pipeline of talent. Identify roles you often hire for, determine the skills needed, experience, and culture fit for these roles and find out where the ideal candidates for these roles can be found. Check out industry events or social platforms such as LinkedIn.
Stay in touch with the candidates who you see have potential and be sure to share meaningful, personalised communication with them now and then. This way, when you have an open role you can already skip the first few steps of job advertising, first-stage interviews, etc. All you need to do is reach out to your 'passive' candidates.
3. Introduce automation and AI
Technology is the HR department's best friend. Embrace it! Achieving a fast and efficient recruitment process – particularly when hiring remotely – is reliant on a slick, operationally streamlined experience for both you as the hiring manager and more importantly, your candidate.
Say goodbye to dated clunky spreadsheets and manual emailing. Invest in recruitment software that simplifies the entire process.
You should be receiving resumes automatically from multiple sources, and they should be collated into one easily manageable place. You should be using an automated technology that helps you track your applicants and help spread the tasks of recruiting throughout your team.
Automate interview scheduling, and pipeline building and even look into a way to streamline the compliance checks. Ultimately, the more automated, efficient, and simple recruiting software you have will be the biggest influence on how you can hire a lot faster. It also helps ensure a positive candidate experience.
Again, with remote hiring, building a strong relationship with your candidates is very important. Taking days to respond to applications, not providing feedback, or struggling to confirm an interview will disengage talent.
You cannot rely on face-to-face encounters to improve your professional relationship with these candidates, so the very least you can do is make the hiring process as easy and headache free for them as possible.
4. Use pre-employment assessment software
So, we may be biased here, but introducing pre-employment assessment software such as Test Candidates is a game-changer when it comes to speeding up your recruitment process. In the new age of remote recruitment, having a tool that can provide you with intelligent insight into your candidates' abilities and act as a screening solution, is invaluable.
Not only can assessment software add value in terms of getting the right candidate in, but they also help reduce your hiring time.
An intelligent screening solution such as an assessment can dramatically cut down the time it is taking you to make a hire, without impacting the quality of your hires. Businesses can find the right skills, personality types, and even culture fit by investing in an intelligent piece of technology that will do all of the hard work for them.
Not to mention that your hiring decisions are then based on solid, unbiased data as opposed to just a resume or face-to-face interaction.
5. Invest in your career page and hiring sources
If your careers page is not selling your business and roles to your candidates, they are either going to drop off immediately or end up rejecting your offer as they've been disengaged from the application process since day one.
This only leads to time wasted, with the potential for offer rejections, starting over, or lengthy negotiations.
Keep it up to date. Make sure you are keeping the open positions regularly maintained to avoid wasting candidates' time. Ensure it is easy to navigate, with the vacant positions readily available without the need to explore.
Remember, your careers page is an opportunity to get talent excited about the prospect of being part of your team. Be sure to provide some information on the company's values, mission, and team. Provide some background and highlight the benefits of working with you.
Try to make the application process itself as seamless as possible. A CV upload feature with auto-fill of contact details at the very least.
Remember, active candidates, apply for up to fifteen positions per day. If you are asking them to input their data manually, they're more likely to disengage and give up. Applying for jobs is exhausting.
Finally, when it comes to sources, post your job to as many different job boards as possible. Focus on areas outside just those where your usual targeted candidates are likely to be. Ensure your advert is attractive, informative, and therefore likely to catch the attention of the best talent.
Conclusion
Introducing automation and intelligent technology is essential for hiring faster. Providing a positive candidate experience will ensure that you do not lose talent, particularly when dealing with remote job applications.
You need to go the extra mile to keep your candidates engaged, excited about the prospect of working for you, and ensuring that they understand just how great of an opportunity your vacancy is for them.
Once you have found 'the one' do not let them go! Do not spend days deliberating an offer, or waste time trying to negotiate. You will be very surprised how often the top talent will be lost because another company beat you to it.
