4 Tips to Reduce Time to Hire

Today’s job seekers don’t just apply for one or two positions and then wait to hear back before moving on. Instead, they submit resumes to dozens at a time. Qualified candidates can find targeted job matches more efficiently than ever.

How can you compete with dozens of other employers? The most straightforward answer is to move quickly. When a candidate shows interest in your position, evaluate them promptly, and move forward.

That can be challenging for HR departments that are frequently asked to do more with fewer resources. The good news is that technology is making a significant difference. Here are four things you can do to speed up time-to-hire today.

Know what you’re looking for

This might seem obvious, but in practice, it’s often not clear at all. Today’s companies don’t take the time upfront — before they advertise an opening — to be clear on what type of candidate they want.

What’s most important in your company? What company culture issues come up? What are the common causes of employee turnover?

When you look at the open position, consider what aspects make a candidate a great match. It’s not always skills. Many times personality, career goals, and more have a significant impact on how well someone fits into a team.

When you’re clear what you want, and the hiring manager agrees, you’ll have a much faster hiring process even with traditional methods.

Use a Pre-Interview Questionnaire

Now that you’re clear what type of candidate you need, it’s time to sift through applicants quickly and efficiently. A pre-interview questionnaire can do precisely that. You’ll save time by not interviewing candidates that aren’t a great fit.

You can use a pre-made questionnaire or create one based on your particular needs. You’ll be able to go deeper than the resume and address specific questions that affect the position.

A pre-interview questionnaire is also a great way to ask general interview questions so that the interview itself can go more in-depth.

From motivation to career goals to how they’d react in a specific situation, you can learn about candidates quickly without wasting your time or theirs on unnecessary interviews.

Use Automated Reference Checks

Getting in touch with candidate references is another part of the hiring process that often slows down. You try to call them, but you end up playing phone tag for weeks. Either you give up and move forward with a candidate without confidence, or they lose interest because of the delays.

Why not skip the time-wasting voicemails and implement online reference checks? The process is simple — email the reference questionnaire to the applicant’s references. When they reply, you bring the responses together to create an overall picture of the candidate.

This seamless process allows you to improve your reference response rate, build a passive database of possible future candidates or leads, and get a better understanding of who you’re hiring.

Source Candidates Instead of Posting For Applicants

What if, every time you had an opening, you had a database of qualified candidates you could contact and invite to apply?

If that sounds like a dream come true, that’s because it is! But it’s also a reality. The best candidates are the ones that are similar to your best employees, right? So, when you have another opening, why not reach out to those employees’ previous references?

People usually use previous colleagues with who they related well as references. This is a goldmine of potential future employees.

social media, targeted online ads, and employee referrals can all improve your applicant quality. The better the applicants, the more quickly you can choose someone and fill a position.

Take Advantage of Tools to Improve Time-to-Hire

Today’s technology means that recruitment is nothing like it was for your parents. You can streamline processes more easily than ever.

When you know what you’re looking for, you can post accurate job descriptions and reduce internal back-and-forth about candidates. When you use pre-interview questionnaires and automated reference checks, you can learn more about candidates in less time.

Finally, you can build a qualified candidate database that you can turn to when a new opportunity is available. All of these steps mean that your openings are filled more quickly, resulting in less downtime and better hires.

Ready to get started with these tools? We can help. Sign up today! No credit card needed.

Gary Kirksey – CEO

Hiringcue.com

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