Today’s hiring professionals are under a huge amount of pressure to find the top talent, fast. As such, more recruiters are exploring ways to improve their quality of and time to hire and measure the efficiency of their hiring process. Our partner, CV-Library, suggests a number of ways to reduce your time to hire and streamline your hiring process
Why is time to hire important?
Our research suggests that more recruiters want to focus on time to hire this year than they did a year ago. In fact, when we asked hiring professionals what’s most important to them when measuring the success of their recruitment process, 44.2% said ‘time to hire’ in our latest study, compared to a smaller 35.7% in 2018.
There are a number of factors that can influence your time to hire. Some of this is in your hands: for example, if your job adverts aren’t clear, if your application process is too difficult to complete, if you have unnecessary rounds of interviews, or if you’re taking too long to make decisions.
At the same time, there will always be some external factors; such as if there simply aren’t any relevant candidates out there, or if the economy is unstable.
In this article, we’ll look at the recruitment cycle from start to finish and discuss how you can reduce your time to hire and streamline your hiring efforts in 2020.
Finalising and advertising your job
Did you know that one in five (20%) candidates won’t apply for a job if it has an unclear job description? What’s more, our data also reveals that 61.8% of candidates admit to having high expectations when looking and applying for jobs; with 51.7% stating that they won’t apply if it doesn’t mention key criteria.
How does this impact your time to hire? Well clearly it will prevent people from applying altogether; plus, if it’s taking you weeks to finalise a job advert that’s ineffective and unappealing to job hunters, you’re only going to make the process longer.
When it comes to advertising your job, make sure you’re investing in the right platforms. According to our survey, 74.7% of hiring professionals say job boards are their main source of candidates and their functionality enables you to advertise your jobs and proactively search for relevant CVs.
But what you’re posting is equally important. Clearly, candidates conduct their search with strict criteria in mind. They know what they want and if your job advert lacks information, doesn’t include salary and perks, or doesn’t explain what they can gain from it, they’ll be more reluctant to apply.
If you’re hoping to reduce your time to hire, you’ll need to make a note of when your role goes live and monitor the relevancy of the applications you receive.
Attracting the right applicants
Unfortunately, a staggering 81.5% of UK hiring professionals struggle with a lack of relevant candidates and one in five (21.5%) say they don’t have the time to be proactive when hiring. So how can you ensure you’re attracting the right applicants to your jobs, without compromising quality?
Of course, the tools you’re using plays a massive part in this. But also how you capture applications. After all, if you’re forcing candidates to jump through several hoops just to show their interest in the job, they may not end up applying altogether. Worse still, 73.4% of candidates admit that they’ll abandon applications if they’re too difficult to complete.
We asked recruiters whether they think long application forms are still relevant and 83.9% said that they weren’t. Instead, 66.7% think that simply asking for a CV and cover letter works best, while 23.4% think it’s easiest for candidates to do a short profile apply. Interestingly, only 10.3% said that application forms were the best way to capture applications.
If in doubt, test the process yourself! If it’s taking too long to complete, or the user journey isn’t straightforward, then you’ll need to make some changes. Make the most of screening questions but keep them short and snappy to help speed up your time to hire.
Assessing your interview process
Unfortunately, interviews can be the most time-consuming parts of the hiring process. This is because there tends to be multiple stages involved and it can be difficult to navigate everyone’s diaries. For this reason, you may want to consider how efficient your pre-interview screening process is; and even investing in interview scheduling tools to take the headache out of this.
Alongside this, consider how many stages are actually necessary. Our research reveals that 49.7% of candidates believe there should be max two stages to the process. Of course, this will vary depending on the seniority of the role you’re hiring for. If it is a more junior role, you may even want to consider organising a group interview.
It’s also a good idea to consider your average interview time. These meetings need to be as efficient as possible; lasting anywhere between 45 and 90 minutes. Again, this might vary if it’s a more senior role.
Finally, have you considered offering the job in the interview? If someone comes in for their final meeting and you know they’re the ideal fit, it can be extremely flattering to go ahead and let them know that you’re keen.
Making your job offer
Once you’re ready to offer someone the job, it’s still important to monitor your time to hire. After all, the decision-making process can take up time and your candidate may receive a counter-offer from their existing employer; or even get snapped up by someone else.
For this reason, you should try and have a rough deadline in mind for when you want to reach your decision by. Make sure you know what their notice period is and keep in communication with them throughout the process. Our research reveals that a staggering 97.1% of job hunters are more likely to accept a job offer if they have a positive hiring experience.
Plus, once the offer is in hand the communication shouldn’t stop there. Some experts argue that the onboarding process starts the minute someone applies for your job. But, at the very least it should start when they accept your job offer.
When it comes to their acceptance, make sure you give them a deadline for formally responding to your written offer. 1-2 days should be more than enough, but as mentioned above, be respectful of the fact that they might receive a counter-offer.
Finally, don’t settle on someone who isn’t quite right, as this will cost you time and money in the long run. In fact, while our research found that 46.1% of hiring professionals have settled on a candidate because there was no-one available, 62.8% said that this wasn’t actually a good decision.
Reduce your time to hire this year
Overall, there are a number of different aspects that can impact your time-to-hire; but the good news is that a lot of these are within your control. By analysing your recruitment process from start to finish, you can quickly see which parts are slowing you down and which areas you’re running effectively.
This starts from the moment you advertise your job, right through to when you make your offer. And remember, while time is of the essence, the candidate experience is just as important.
For more information and insights, download our full whitepaper.
