Is Your Time-to-Hire Lagging?

Businesses, of course, lose productivity and revenue when positions are unfilled. And, as we mentioned in a previous post, “Job Ghosting” Is On The Rise, the longer you take to get an applicant to day one on the job, the more you risk losing him or her to another employer. But also, when an open position sits like an unsold house on the market for weeks, candidates begin to wonder why.

Employers report that hiring qualified workers remains a top challenge. Meanwhile, according to a fourth-quarter 2022 survey by Robert Half, the average time to fill a vacant role has climbed to 11 weeks, up from seven just a year ago. Want a competitive edge in snagging top talent? Accelerate your time to hire.

ProspectBlue can help you source and screen candidates, and alleviate many of the headaches of hiring. In addition, here are five ways you can reduce your time to hire in-house.

1. 1. 1. Strengthen your job listings.
         Cast a wide net and trust the screening process. Instead of publishing a long wish list of an ideal candidate’s entire skillset, post your minimum requirements very specifically.
      2. Shorten your application.
         Yours is not the only application your candidates are filling. Human Resources Online reports that nearly one in five surveyed job seekers named long application processes as one of the biggest challenges to their searches. Revisit your process and even consider running through it yourself.
      3. Improve your interview scheduling process.
         There’s almost always room for easy improvement here, since most companies conduct at least three rounds of interviews. Schedule with little lag time between rounds, and schedule time for sharing feedback. If you’re in growth mode, consider using automated interview scheduling software.
      4. Keep communicating with candidates.
         Don’t let good potential employees feel ghosted. Plus, engaging with them throughout your recruitment process will remind you how long it’s lasting.
      5. Measure the timeframe and success of each step.
         This takes a little time, but you’ll quickly see where the bottlenecks are.

   Increasing the speed of your hiring process doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality, and it can help you win the talent you want and need. With over two decades of experience connecting clients in a range of sectors with competitive job seekers, ProspectBlue can help with the heavy lifting of hiring, so you can maximize your time and resources.