Hiring can be challenging in a saturated job market. The VP of talent acquisition at Academia.edu, Stuart Liroff, points out that most applicants are no longer applying for one job at a time. Most candidates are having job interviews with companies while already having job offers from others.
Today, even companies with the best packages and benefits can still lose a potential candidate if they don’t act promptly in this job market. A recent survey on hiring challenges by LHH revealed that 40% of hiring decision-makers experienced difficulties finding potential candidates since the pandemic started.
The difficulty in finding candidates in today’s job market has been due to the tighter competition for workers with the right technical skills, which has required organizations to speed up their hiring processes to land top talent before their competitors can.
As an employer, you must remember that your business thrives because of your employees, which is why it is crucial to act quickly on candidates. Even Forbes agrees with that statement in their article, “Five Reasons Employees Are More Important Than Customers.”
Companies like Chick-fil-a understand the importance of having great employees, which is why they focus more on customer service with their employee training than anyone else in the industry. With everyone posting their reviews online, one inadequate employee could ruin your company’s reputation, and reputation is critical for success.
According to Jobvite’s 2019 Recruiting Benchmark Report, the United States’ average hiring process takes around 38 days. This number has only increased since 2020. As an employer, you know time is money, which is why we will go over proven ways to shorten your hiring process.
Promote From Within
Let’s first start by saying, the hiring process is one of the most critical parts of a company’s success. One bad employee can hurt your company’s reputation and cost you around 30% of that employee’s first-year earnings. According to the Undercover Recruiter, bad hires can cost a company up to $240,000 in expenses. This expense includes costs related to hiring, pay, and retention. Because of these expenses, we strongly discourage taking shortcuts.
One way to shorten your hiring process without taking shortcuts is by promoting from within your organization.
Did you know that 50% of all jobs are filled internally before ever being introduced to the public? Promoting internally in your business should be your company’s first option when a position opens up. Companies like Apple, CVS, Google, Facebook, and many more have done this and seen tremendous success.
Before we look into the analytics of hiring internally, remember that hiring internally will boost morale inside the office while not having to worry about an outsider coming into the company and ruining the confidence and culture within the office.
Sometimes the best employees are the ones you already have. Now, let’s look at this infographic:
This infographic shows the average days to hire a candidate based on their position title. On the left are the 25 jobs with the most comprehensive hiring process, and on the right is the lowest. As you can see, I highlighted the management positions in red. 40% of the jobs with the longest hire time are management positions. 0 management positions are filled in under 13 days on average.
It Is Quicker to Hire for Entry-Level Positions
Why bring up management positions? Well, nine times out of ten, someone in your company has management skills and isn’t currently in a management position. For this reason, hiring from within (promoting) is the best option to speed up hiring.
Let’s create a scenario. You are currently the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), and your Marketing Manager just put in their two-week notice. You now have two weeks to set up a job description, post the job, screen candidates, interview, hire, and train a new employee. However, the Marketing Manager’s hiring duration takes, on average, 31.7 days. You will likely be without a manager for a couple of weeks after your Marketing Manager leaves if you choose to hire externally.
However, if you hire internally, this process can speed up immensely.
If you choose to promote your Marketing Representative to Marketing Manager, you will eliminate having to write a job description, post the job online, screen candidates, interview, and train. To replace the Marketing Representative position, it will only take an average of 12.5 days to fill the position, rather than 31.7 for a Marketing Manager.
Promoting the Marketing Assistant will speed up the process to 11.1 days. In this case, internally hiring would increase the hiring process’s speed by at least 60%.
Define the Job Requirements and Description Beforehand
A well-written job description gets you 5x more job applications than one written poorly. Are you clearly explaining the pay rate, requirements, daily tasks, location, etc.? If you do not have bolded titles breaking up each section, then more than likely, a candidate will not apply for the position.
According to the Wall Street Journal, applicants spend 25.9 seconds reading a job description and 23 seconds on the company’s description. That means you have under 1 minute to catch an applicant’s attention. Don’t overcomplicate the process.
According to CareerBuilder, 60 percent of job seekers give up on a job application because of its length or complexity. You could be missing out on 60% of candidates if you are too descriptive in your job description or the process is too long. Unfortunately, we are in the age of instant gratification. Any method that is longer than 5 minutes with an unpredictable outcome goes typically uncompleted.
According to a study from Appcast, recruiters boost conversion rates by up to 365% when they reduce the application process to 5 minutes or less.
The ideal application process should be no longer than 5 minutes, and the job description should be around 170-250 words to improve the conversion rate by 5x, according to SHRM.org. Make sure to remove any jargon, include a job title that reflects the industry standard, incorporate 5-10 key job responsibilities, and have the job’s location!
Additionally, remember the importance of job requirements. 42% of job seekers apply to jobs they do not qualify for. Create a job description that helps human resources or your staffing agency identify the best candidates to send over to you. A well-written job description will prevent you from denying multiple candidates due to not having the right qualifications, saving time and money.
If job descriptions and requirements are vague, applicants will look elsewhere and find a job opening that matches their skills. Be as specific as possible when coming up with the descriptions, including the years of experience, educational background, and specific skillset you expect from a hire. You can also mention the non-negotiables and the skills you’re flexible on.
However, remember that too many job requirements will turn away candidates. Ensure only to include the necessary requirements and take off any requirements you can train for in-office.
Moreover, highlighting company standards and values on the job listing can easily give applicants an idea about what the company values as an organization. Applicants will not spend time making a tailored-fit resume for a company if they cannot resonate with them.
Choose the Right Job Board
Choosing the right job board is another great way to shorten your hiring process and get higher-quality talent. According to the Jobvite 2019 Recruiting Benchmark Report, almost 50% of all applications come from Job Boards, followed by 35% from Internal Career Sites. Out of all those applications sent for a job, less than 1% get the job. Make sure to pick the right job board to increase this number because it is better to get fewer applications if the applications are from higher-quality candidates. The lack of high-quality candidates is the biggest challenge for 67% of recruiters (Zety), so make sure to post on the right job boards to recruit the right talent.
When was the last time you applied for a job on craigslist? I am sure 90% of you will not in the previous five years. Craigslist has gone from one of the leading job boards to the last option for most companies and job seekers. Yes, companies still post on craigslist, but the jobs posted there will be entry-level that don’t require the best candidates.
Below is a list of the best job board sites for your job openings. Looking for managers? Check out The Ladders. Looking for remote employees? FlexJobs is the best place to post. Feel free to mix and match these job boards for your job postings to best benefit your company!
Some may say, “Can’t I just post on all job boards?” The answer is yes, but you shouldn’t. This is because sometimes posting on job boards can be a waste of time. If you are looking to hire an experienced manager, more than likely, no experienced manager will be looking for jobs on Handshake or Craigslist.
Posting a job opening on multiple job boards will get you more candidates, but depending on the job board you post on, the candidates may be significantly underqualified, costing you time and money sifting through resumes.
Flexible Interviews
According to Fortune, 65% of U.S. workers currently employed are looking for a new job. As an employer, it is essential to understand that most job seekers applying to your company’s job openings are currently employed. Of those currently employed seeking work, most are working the traditional 8-4 or 9-5.
Are your business hours able to accommodate those who are also currently working? More than likely, no. That is why flexible interviews are so important.
Having flexible interviews, such as interviews in the early morning or after 5 pm, will benefit you immensely in the long run.
Streamline Your Interview Process
Although interviews play a crucial role in gauging an applicant’s personality and ensuring they can fulfill work expectations, a lengthy hiring process might dissuade job seekers from continuing their application.
Our previous post on why companies should quickly process candidate resumes talks about how employers must only interview applicants at most twice before making a decision. Conducting more than two interviews is unnecessary and excessive unless, of course, they’re applying for more senior positions. But even so, it has to be a reasonable number of interviews. Otherwise, you’ll risk a candidate losing interest.
Recruit Constantly
Always be on the lookout for top talents. Recruiting constantly goes beyond the matter of just filling job vacancies within periods. Recruiting constantly involves connecting with possible potential candidates and building relationships and networks, which can help companies seamlessly seek out applicants in the future. The Business News Daily discusses how a strong employer brand can improve the hiring process. A strong employer branding can show interested candidates the type of culture and work experience they can have with the company. This is effective in attracting new and top talents without doing a lot of active recruitment strategies, and it also reduces staff turnover by 28%.
Companies must take the necessary steps toward improving their recruitment process to stand out from the crowd. They can make this happen by having a shorter hiring process without sacrificing hiring standards. It will make finding the right people with the right skill sets easier.
Don't Delay Job Offers
Delaying a job interview is one of the most common mistakes employers make that extends the hiring process. Make sure to be the first company to send an offer to candidate if you think they will be the right fit. Waiting over three days to make a job offer will increase the chance they already accepted a job offer from another corporation. Also, be prepared to do your research on competitive wages in the job market. Candidates will usually take the highest offer on the table.
Additionally, don’t delay an interview. When someone applies for your job opening, check the application immediately. The worst thing you can do is wait a week to call them and find out they got a job offer from another company they applied for on the same day as yours.
Act quickly on candidate resumes! Job offers should be extended to a candidate within 24-48 hours of interviewing. Don’t wait, or you may miss out on great talent and have to start the whole process over again.
Use a Staffing Agency
These are the best ways to shorten your hiring process without the expense of quality. There are staffing agencies that are professionals in filling your job openings with top-quality candidates quickly. Finding top talent in this job market can be difficult, but agencies are experts in sourcing candidates for your job openings. If you are having trouble with the hiring process, and need extra outside help, contact us at 401.331.2311. A quick and efficient hiring process will set your company apart from the competition!
