Hiring is time-consuming — and time is money. According to 2022 data from SHRM, bringing a new employee onboard and bringing them up to speed can cost between three to four times their salary.
A prolonged time-to-hire adds to this burden, straining your team's resources and potentially impacting productivity. So, how to reduce time to hire?
To reduce time to hire, you can start by creating inclusive job adverts. Along with that, you can build a talent pipeline and keep that engaged while you can also opt for social media campaigns and referrals. Moreover, investing in a good applicant tracking system and using assessment software can improve your time to hire.
Here we have curated a comprehensive 9 strategies to reduce time to hire, helping HR professionals streamline their recruitment process while maintaining high standards of quality and diversity.
Now, let’s head on to the details -
Time to hire is a key recruitment metric that measures the number of days between a candidate applying for a job and accepting a job offer. So, what are the benefits of reducing time to hire?
Reducing time to hire allows you to secure top talent before competitors. Apart from this some other benefits of decreasing time to hire includes improving candidate experience, reducing recruitment costs, and enhancing team productivity. A faster hiring process prevents highly qualified candidates from losing interest or accepting other job offers, while also decreasing the workload on existing staff covering open positions. This efficiency not only boosts your company's reputation but also accelerates the integration of new employees, contributing to overall organizational success.
Till now, we have discussed about the overall concept of time to hire and why reducing that is important. Now, let's jump to the 9 strategies for lowering time to hire-
Your job advert is the first point of contact with potential candidates. To attract a diverse and qualified pool of applicants quickly, ensure your job descriptions are inclusive and free from biased language. This approach not only widens your talent pool but also helps in reducing time to hire by attracting the right candidates from the start.
Tips for Inclusive Job Adverts:
- Use gender-neutral language.
- Highlight your organization's commitment to diversity.
- Clearly state the essential qualifications and avoid unnecessary requirements.
An inclusive employer brand attracts a wider range of applicants, thereby reducing the time needed to fill open positions. Showcase your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through your website, social media, and job postings.
How to Enhance Employer Branding:
- Feature diverse employees in your marketing materials.
- Share stories and testimonials from current employees about your inclusive culture.
- Engage with communities and organizations that support diversity.
Transparency in compensation is becoming increasingly important to candidates. Being upfront about salary ranges and benefits in your job postings can streamline the hiring process by setting clear expectations from the start.
Benefits of Pay Transparency:
- Reduces time spent on candidates who may reject offers due to salary mismatches.
- Builds trust and shows your commitment to equity.
Being transparent on compensation and pay is an excellent way to improve time to hire.
Structured interviews are proven to be more effective and less biased. Training your interviewers to follow a structured process ensures consistency and fairness, which can speed up the decision-making process.
Components of a Structured Interview:
- Pre-defined questions that are asked to all candidates.
- Scoring systems to evaluate responses objectively.
- Training for interviewers to recognize and mitigate biases.
Social media platforms and employee referral programs are powerful tools for reducing time to hire. They allow you to reach a broader audience quickly and leverage your current employees' networks to find suitable candidates.
Strategies for Social Media and Referrals:
- Actively post job openings on LinkedIn, Facebook, and industry-specific platforms.
- Offer incentives for employees who refer successful candidates.
A well-defined hiring process reduces delays and ensures that every candidate moves through the stages efficiently. This includes clear guidelines for each step, from initial application screening to final decision-making.
Key Elements of a Structured Hiring Process:
- Defined roles and responsibilities for hiring team members.
- Timelines for each stage of the recruitment process.
- Automated tools to track progress and ensure adherence to schedules.
Maintaining a talent pipeline allows you to have a pool of potential candidates ready for when a position opens up. This proactive approach significantly reduces time to hire.
Building a Talent Pipeline:
- Engage with potential candidates through networking events and professional platforms.
- Keep a database of past applicants and interested candidates.
- Regularly communicate with potential hires to keep them engaged.
An efficient ATS can automate many time-consuming tasks, such as resume screening and interview scheduling. This technology not only reduces time to hire but also improves the overall candidate experience.
Features of a Good ATS:
- User-friendly interface for both recruiters and candidates.
- Automated communication tools to keep candidates informed.
- Analytics to track recruitment metrics and identify bottlenecks.
Pre-employment assessments can quickly identify the most qualified candidates by evaluating their skills, cognitive abilities, and cultural fit. These assessments save time by filtering out unsuitable candidates early in the process.
Advantages of Pre-Employment Assessments:
- Objective evaluation of candidate skills and abilities.
- Reduces the number of interviews needed.
- Provides data-driven insights to support hiring decisions.
Time to hire benchmarks vary by industry and role, but the general goal is to reduce this metric as much as possible to stay competitive. For instance, the average time to hire across industries is around 24 days. However, certain sectors like technology or healthcare may have shorter or longer benchmarks due to the specific demands of those fields.
Only knowing the benchmark isn’t enough for reducing time to hire. To fully achieve your goals, you have to cater to some related key point indicators. Here are some we recommend to track -
So, what do these indicators tell us about the time to hire? In other words, how to use these indicators to adjust our hiring strategy?
Let’s explore each of these -
Remember, reducing time to hire isn't just about speed. It's about finding the right balance between efficiency and quality. By focusing on these key KPIs and implementing targeted strategies, you can streamline your recruitment process without compromising on finding the best talent for your company.
Understanding the difference between time to hire and time to fill is essential for HR professionals aiming to optimize their recruitment process. While both metrics are crucial, they measure different aspects of the hiring timeline.
Time to Hire and Time to Fill are two closely related but distinct metrics in the recruitment process. Time to Hire measures the duration from when a candidate applies for a position to when they accept the job offer, focusing on the candidate's experience and the efficiency of hiring stages like screening, interviewing, and decision-making. In contrast, Time to Fill encompasses a broader timeframe, measuring the total time from when a job opening is posted until the candidate accepts the offer. This metric includes additional steps such as approving the job requisition, posting the job, and attracting candidates.
While Time to Hire primarily reflects the efficiency of the selection process, Time to Fill provides a more comprehensive view of the entire recruitment cycle, including the initial stages of job creation and candidate sourcing.
- Focus: Time to hire centers on the candidate's journey, while time to fill covers the entire recruitment cycle.
- Measurement: Time to hire is a subset of time to fill, providing more specific insights into the efficiency of the selection process.
- Monitoring both metrics helps identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process.
- Improving these metrics can lead to faster hiring, reduced costs, and a better candidate experience.
Implement inclusive job adverts, structured interview processes, and leverage technology like ATS and pre-employment assessments.
Time to fill measures the total time from job requisition to job offer acceptance, while time to hire focuses on the duration from application to acceptance.
Pay transparency can reduce time to hire by ensuring candidates have clear expectations about compensation, reducing the likelihood of salary-related rejections.
A strong, inclusive employer brand attracts a diverse pool of candidates, making it easier and faster to find the right fit for open positions.
Social media broadens your reach to passive candidates, while employee referrals bring in candidates who are often a better cultural fit and quicker to hire.
Reducing time to hire is essential for maintaining an efficient and cost-effective recruitment process. By implementing these nine strategies, HR professionals can streamline their hiring processes, attract diverse talent, and fill positions faster. Start applying these steps today to see a significant improvement in your organization's time to hire.
Reducing your time-to-hire and cost-per-hire doesn’t need to be at odds with your DEI strategy. When done well, a more inclusive hiring process can actually help you source more underrepresented talent, because it naturally opens you up to a more diverse talent pool.
We can help you get this right. Develop Diverse is a research-backed inclusive communication platform that helps global organisations — including Maersk Tankers — source underrepresented talent more quickly and efficiently with inclusive job adverts. Find out more by booking a demo.