6 Tips to Reduce Your Time to Hire

With the peak of the talent crunch fast approaching, time to hire is quickly becoming an important metric to monitor and reduce. Think about it, the longer it takes to move a candidate through the process and onboard them, the more likely they’ll be snatched up by a competitor first.

Now is the time to tidy up your processes and ensure your business is acquiring the best talent. We’ve listed some of the best methods below:

• Streamline Your Processes
• Review Applications Immediately
• Network with Potential Candidates
• Interview Qualified Applicants
• Make an Offer They Cannot Refuse
• Hire the Right Executive Search Firm

Streamline Your Time to Hire Processes

Reviewing your talent acquisition processes can identify and eliminate which parts take more time than necessary. Streamlining each step in the process will help to drastically decrease time to hire and, as a result, cost-per-hire.

One way you could speed up interviews is by having them online instead of in-person. This also allows you to access global talent, instead of just being limited to the immediate area. Conducting interviews virtually will remove any travel delays or scheduling issues.

We also recommend you use scheduling software (such as Calendly or Book Like A Boss) to cut out one time-consuming touchpoint while improving the candidate experience.

Once the interview is booked, refine the list of questions you are planning to ask, ensuring you get the answers to any role-critical questions and the candidate’s job acceptance factors. These will ultimately answer everything you need to know ahead of making a decision.

Review Applications Immediately

Some businesses get into a habit of collecting 40 or 50 applications before beginning the reviewing process. This can waste weeks at the front end, when you could review as they filter through and start offering interviews almost instantly.

Offering interviews from the offset also makes sure you interact with candidates as soon as possible. Typically, an applicant will apply to multiple jobs at once, rather than just yours. By interacting with them as soon as possible, you limit the chance of a competitor getting to them before you.

Network with Potential Candidates

Networking and interacting with potential candidates before a role has even been advertised is a great way to reduce the time to hire. Handily, it will also provide you with a ready-made list of targets you have already engaged or interacted with.

Because you’ve previously interacted with and selected these candidates, they should move through the process much faster than a typical candidate. If they don’t, then you may need to examine any bottlenecks.

Interview Qualified Applicants

While interviewing every applicant can sometimes unearth hidden gems, it also dramatically increases time to hire. If you’ve already found that your time to hire process is quite long, it’s time to make some decisions about who you interview and what type of interview they have.

For example, an exploratory phone call interview is great for deciding if a prospective employee needs a full interview or not.

Refine the list of candidates who genuinely have the potential to fulfil the role required. Match the skills on applications to those within the job description and invite any matches to interview promptly.

Make an Offer They Cannot Refuse

Making a lowball offer in the hope your candidate accepts is poor practice. Even if they accept, they’re in danger of feeling unvalued and leaving within a short time frame.

In response, your goal should be to retain employees long-term, as this almost completely eliminates larger re-hiring costs. With that in mind, make a good offer from the offset. You’ll immediately make your new employee feel valued and appreciated, especially if their current role is underpaying them.

Here are three steps to improving your offer acceptance rate:

1. Create an offer based on previous conversations
2. Respond to any queries quickly
3. Provide insights into their new role and responsibilities

Hire the Right Executive Search Firm

When you have a particular role you need to fill, it can sometimes take longer than necessary. You may not even be able to find the right candidate without significant effort.

Hiring an executive search firm can help you find the right talent for the right position at the right time. Ultimately, taking pressure off your internal talent acquisition function, and reducing time to hire.

Sometimes spending a little can help you save a lot — especially when it comes to competitive, high-level roles.

Hiring in the Life Sciences?

Fraser Dove International is a talent consultancy operating exclusively across the life sciences industry. While our roots lie in executive search, we provide more than the traditional recruitment services. Uniquely placed within the market, we have been providing cutting-edge talent solutions and insight to organisations at all stages of their journey – from start-ups to established leaders – since 2013.