Time is money, so it makes sense for HR to develop ways to speed up hiring without impacting performance. Speeding up the recruitment process lowers the cost per hire and allows you to snag high-caliber candidates looking to fill the role quickly. Here are the top tips for a faster recruitment program to get you started.
Develop a Structured Hiring Process
To accelerate hiring process and placement, you must first identify the essential steps needed for an efficient and faster recruitment program. A structured hiring process allows you to develop a quick hiring template that you can constantly refer to so you can stay on track throughout the hiring process.
Typically, the hiring process involves planning, candidate sourcing, screening, and advancing offers. Determine which other crucial steps to add to your recruitment timeline, and make sure you map out the entire hiring process from start to finish.
When you have all the steps outlined, it's time to flesh out each step so the recruitment team knows what to expect. For instance, the planning phase requires you to develop a budget and craft job descriptions.
For the next step, HR can perform candidate sourcing using several methods, such as job postings and employee referrals, and so on and so forth.
Develop A Talent Pipeline and Database
Being proactive helps you speed up hiring. For instance, when you develop a talent pipeline and database ahead of time, you don't have to waste plenty of time sourcing candidates when the time finally comes to fill an open position. A talent database consists of candidates who may not be actively searching for a job but are open to being approached by the right employer.
Similarly, you can build a talent pipeline by pre-researching potential candidates and getting to know them better. So when a particular position becomes vacant, you can quickly determine the right person for the job from your existing talent pool.
Automate Recruitment Processes Where Possible
Recruiting and hiring candidates is time-consuming, especially if you have to fill multiple jobs simultaneously. This is where automation can come to the rescue. Thanks to technology, HR can now automate essential recruitment processes and tasks and speed up hiring. For instance, you can use automation to schedule interviews, process CVs, and send email to speed up process tasks.
When you no longer have a bunch of administrative tasks clogging your schedule, this allows you to implement an efficient hiring process that's easy to scale up. Hence, HR should automate as many processes as possible to save time and hire quality candidates.
Use Tailored Recruitment Software to Screen Applicants
Screening applicants is a crucial step if you want to hire candidates that fit seamlessly with the company. Fortunately, you can ensure a better outcome by using recruitment software to select candidates that best match the job requirements. This software allows you to customize the search criteria and quickly pinpoint the ideal applicant with minimal bias.
Recruitment software is also handy if you want to expand your talent search through online hiring. You can speed up online hiring through video interviewing software and avoid the time-consuming process of in-person interviews.
Make Your Job Listings and Careers Page Attractive
When you have a position to fill, it's up to you to sell the job to interested candidates. It all starts by making sure your job listings and careers page is eye-catching and compelling. Otherwise, if both these things are mediocre, you'll have fewer applicants, and most of these will likely drop off before you can make an offer or reject your offer.
You can avoid this by having a careers page packed with all the information potential applicants and employees need to know before deciding they want to work for you. In addition, your job advertisement must be well-crafted to attract the best potential candidates.
Improve Your Sourcing Strategies
Your sourcing strategies can impact the time to hire, so it's time you look at them to figure out what works and what doesn't. When you implement the right sourcing strategies, you're more likely to have a higher number of good applicants. You can reduce the number of poor candidates by using sourcing methods that allow you to attract suitable candidates quickly.
Generally, the best methods include running paid and targeted ad campaigns, using social media networks to find great candidates, and keeping track of your internal talent pool.
Improve Candidate Engagement
Poor candidate responsiveness can slow down the recruitment process. This often happens when recruiters fail to maintain candidate engagement at crucial points of the hiring process. The candidate then loses interest and possibly accepts another offer, leaving recruiters to go back to square one in the hiring process.
Improving candidate engagement is as simple as prioritizing candidates and making an effort to communicate and keep them informed throughout. Candidates want to be kept in the loop, and they also appreciate a more convenient recruitment journey that's not unnecessarily difficult. So customize communication and add more touchpoints to retain applicants' interest from beginning to end.
Focus On Training Talent
Finding quality talent is increasingly difficult, and talent shortages are one of the main reasons behind lengthy hiring times. The best way around this is to focus on hiring candidates who are a great fit for your culture and then training them to take up their roles efficiently.
Don't overlook your own internal talent if you want to further speed up hiring. Since hiring external talent takes longer, the organization can benefit from giving internal applicants first preference. You then focus on "re-skilling" these internal applicants to avoid reducing quality, which is a win-win for all parties involved.
Keep Tracking Those KPIs
Improving recruitment efficiency doesn't happen overnight. You need to perform continuous data analysis to make informed decisions that help you to speed up hiring. Therefore, you need to track essential metrics and KPIs. For instance, what's your current time to hire? Without knowing this metric, you have no idea which touchpoints to improve to accelerate the hiring process.
You should also figure out the time it takes for candidates to move from one stage to another. For example, if the time between candidate screening and making an offer is too long, it's easier to determine the precise corrective actions you need to take.
Speed Up Hiring and Boost Operational Efficiency
When your organization implements a faster recruitment program, you increase the chances of hiring in-demand candidates who bring their A-game. In addition, you save time and money while increasing operational efficiency, which all translates to better profits.
