Our Country Manager for Ireland and Recruitment Consultant, Richard Nolan, discusses the importance of having a speedy hiring process to ensure no time is wasted if you’re looking for a new member of your team.
When it comes to recruiting in the current market, a speedy hiring process can be the main differentiator that secures the top talent you need.
As recruiters, we see it day in, day out. The longer it takes our clients to hire, the greater the chance of candidates being secured by rivals through other processes. And the more it costs the business, the more frustrating the whole process becomes for everybody involved.
A slow process can end in clients missing out on top talent, an outcome that can ultimately cost the business more than wasted time.
So how can you speed up a little without sacrificing the best candidate for your role?
Before you engage candidates, assess your needs and decide exactly what you want
The number one way to avoid wasted time later in the hiring process is to be clear from the start and determine what your current hiring needs are. This means identifying what you are looking for in a recruit and the number of positions you want to fill.
There are several ways to do this – gap analysis, workforce consultations and the development of business and expansion plans. You’ll also want to set a budget for your hiring activities and identify a date when you will want your new recruit(s) to start, so that you can create a realistic timeline.
Use a recruitment agency and communicate quickly between involved parties
Many hiring managers and talent teams are reluctant to engage a recruitment agency, mainly because of cost concerns. However, in general, any costs are more than offset by the increase in quality candidates presented and decreased hiring times.
Devonshire works to always have a pool of qualified candidates available and is constantly looking for the best-in-class talent. As we work so closely with our clients, we understand the specifics of a role, can relate it to up-to-date market conditions and can accurately portray that to qualified candidates.
It is key to establish how you want to work with a recruitment agency, agree a timeline in advance and keep communication open and prompt. This is pertinent on both sides, to reduce time spent between the first step detailed and hiring the right candidate for your business.
Cut out unnecessary steps
Take a close look at your recruiting process. Find out if there are bottlenecks or tasks that take a long time. When you find these areas, make a plan for improving the recruitment process to clean them up.
One of the most important elements of this step is to ensure that there is sign off in place from both a headcount and budget point of view. Following this, having already established the profile of the ideal recruit and the recruitment timeline, decide who you need to engage from across the business and at what stage.
Work with your recruiter to agree interview timelines so you can have time blocked in your calendar in advance. Finally, all steps specific to your company’s recruitment process, such as personality assessments, questionnaires or enhanced reference checks, should be detailed and ready to be implemented at this point.
Use technology to your advantage
With the use of technology, you can accelerate certain parts of the recruitment process.
The past two years have taught us that instead of waiting for a candidate to interview in person, you can conduct video interviews – many clients are now interviewing by video for the first round as standard.
This allows you to complete the screening process much quicker. And if the candidate remains on the list after that interview, you can decide if you need to meet the candidate in person or continue the process using technology.
You can also use your recruitment partner’s tools to speed up the process. For example, we at Devonshire use a tool called Hinterview. This tool allows us to conduct and record first stage interviews for our clients which can reduce time to hire by up to 70%.
Check references sooner
In most cases, you can significantly reduce the time to hire by checking candidates’ have the right paperwork to start background screening as soon as an offer is accepted.
From the time it takes candidates to gather the required information and return it to you, to the significant time it takes to follow up on said information, it makes sense to start this process much earlier. I’m not suggesting that you need to check references for every candidate in your pipeline, which could slow down the hiring process even more, but instead you might choose a certain stage in the process where you start checking references.
As above with Hinterview, you can also work with your recruitment partner on this step. Devonshire offer a screening platform to carry out background checks, please get in touch with our team to find out more on [email protected].
To learn more about how we can assist you with you next hire, contact us here.
