According to a recent post by Dr. John Sullivan, an internationally known HR thought leader:
“The average time to fill an average job in the United States is 25 days;
unfortunately, in many cases top candidates are no longer available after 10 days.”
Where’s the ibuprofen?
Global talent shortages, a strengthening economy and shifting workforce demographics are making competition for talented professionals fiercer than ever. Simply put, candidates are calling the shots – and you don’t have a moment to waste. If you can’t swiftly move promising professionals from application to onboarding, you’re likely to lose them.
Meanwhile, your organization loses money right off its bottom line.
The best solution? Find new ways to speed up your hiring process. Now! Here are four ideas to get started:
1. Streamline activities. Remove stalls, bottlenecks and inefficiencies to expedite every step of your hiring process, without sacrificing quality:
- Scrutinize job openings to make sure they’re clear, complete and accurately represent your employment brand. Taking this step helps you reduce a flood of unqualified candidates (that may bog down screening), while detailing the “WIIFM” top candidates need to know.
- Make sure your initial application is mobile-optimized and takes no more than 20 minutes for job seekers to complete.
- Consider technology investments to expedite screening and interviewing. Applicant tracking systems, online scheduling tools and other cloud-based technologies are invaluable in speeding up large-scale recruiting efforts.
- Plan relevant interview questions that focus specifically on the job, your needs and what the candidate brings to the table. Then ask those questions of every candidate! Increasing consistency helps streamline candidate evaluations by allowing you to easily “compare apples to apples.”
- Consider using panel, group or video interviews to expedite interviewing. Alternately, consider combining first- and second-round interviews into a single event.
- Have solid job offers ready. Pre-write job offers to close deals faster and reduce late-cycle candidate drop off, which can be extremely costly and frustrating.
2. Build a talent pipeline. Charge your entire team with helping you to develop a database of prime candidates – people with the experience, qualities and soft skills your organization needs – so that they’re ready to contact once a hiring need arises. While pipelining requires a substantial upfront investment, it helps you:
- Hire faster. With a ready-made pool of qualified candidates at your fingertips, you’re instantly further ahead in the hiring process.
- Hire more cost effectively. Spend less on advertising, posting and other candidate sourcing methods.
- Hire more accurately. Talent pipelining effectively eliminates reactionary hiring that leads to cut corners, skipped steps and poor quality matches.
3. Always take good care of “runners-up.” We mentioned this point in an earlier post, but it’s so important, it bears repeating! Maintain relationships with your second- and third-choice candidates. Throughout the hiring process, keep in touch to inform them of the job’s status. Then if, despite your best efforts, you lose your first choice, you will have other viable applicants already in process.
4. Partner with a national professional staffing agency. Corps Team can help you hire talented professionals more quickly and efficiently:
- Improve your sourcing – Leverage our specialized expertise, targeted recruiting methods and national resources to attract high performers.
- Simplify your screening – offload the time-consuming and technical aspects of talent acquisition that slow down decision-making.
- Shorten your search – Corps Team maintains momentum throughout the hiring process by accelerating sourcing, interviewing and vetting.
Faster Hiring Starts Today
Don’t wait until you have a critical talent gap in your organization to contact us. Meet with a Corps Team recruiter now to discuss your long-term hiring needs. Together, we can develop a proactive plan to source high performers well in advance of those needs – so that when it’s time to add or replace staff, we have a selection of exceptional candidates ready for your consideration.
