Snagging qualified candidates quickly is one of today’s biggest recruitment challenges. Not only is competing for (and hanging onto) great talent an ongoing problem, hiring costs increase the longer a company’s search for the right candidate continues.
Research suggests it costs employers an average of $4,129 and 42 days to fill an open position. Since reducing the time to hire is especially important for small businesses with limited resources, here are 7 pointers you can use to speed up your hiring process.
1. Make sure your job posting is clear
Clarifying your job requirements and pay in advance will go a long way to finding the best-fit candidate, faster. Think about what your new hire will be responsible for and the outcomes you’ll want to see. Then include a salary reflecting the value those results hold for your business.
By not disclosing salary on job postings, you risk:
- Attracting too many candidates with too wide a range of pay expectations
- Wasting time wading through a pile of unsuitable applications
- Losing desirable candidates to unsuccessful salary negotiations further down your hiring pipeline
2. Be prepared to process the applications you receive right away
It’s best to delay posting your job until you’re in a position to prioritize the hiring process. In addition to making yourself available to review applications within 24 hours of receiving them, you should have interview criteria, questions, and time slots lined up and ready to go.
3. Lean into your professional networks
Posting on job boards, career pages, and recruitment sites is a great idea. To optimize your recruitment efforts, however—and help attract the best talent—be sure to scour your company and industry networks as well.
Relying on professional networking can:
- Bring in better-quality candidates
- Assist with pre-screening of applicants in terms of their character, skills, and experience
- Reduce your hiring time, since professional referrals often require less scrutiny and follow-up
4. Ask for employment references upfront
If references are important to the position you’re hiring for, make them an application requirement. It can take time to hear back from employment contacts. By reaching out as early as possible, you can minimize delays in the interview process and avoid meeting with applicants who aren’t likely to prove a good fit.
5. Take advantage of pre-employment screening
Pre-employment questionnaires help determine personal strengths and work preferences. By leveraging these tools, you could make it easier to narrow down the applicants most likely to succeed in a particular role.
Common screening questionnaires include:
- Personality tests
- Motivation assessments
- Tests for cognitive abilities (like problem-solving, for example)
6. Use an automated onboarding solution
Onboarding software saves valuable time by automating hiring workflows. Not only do these solutions centralize the processes required to get your new hire up and running, many can send onboarding tasks directly to new recruits, manage employee records, and even connect with payroll software or services.
7. Consider outsourcing the recruitment process
The less hiring experience you have, the more cautious you’re likely to be—and the longer it can take to snag the best-fit employee for your business.
Outside recruiters don’t just specialize in hiring. They’re typically paid based on their ability to find the right candidate as quickly as possible. In fact, recruitment process outsourcing can reduce cost-per-hire by more than 20% and cut time-to-hire by up to 55%.
No matter how you choose to handle recruitment, remember that speeding up your hiring process is a great way to improve the candidate experience. Not only can this help you benefit from higher quality hires, it can boost your employee retention.
