How To Speed Up Your Recruitment Process
HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESS SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT ON TOP TALENT
With the continuation in 2023 of an ever-changing working environment and lack of candidates, have you reassessed your timings for your recruitment drive? Here we talk about ways in which you can speed up your recruitment process and catch the best candidates in the talent pool, rather than leaving it too long and being left with a talent puddle!
When it comes to recruiting, time is absolutely of the essence. With candidates still in short supply and the need for you to fill those employee gaps, the longer it takes you to find someone, the more it costs and the more frustrating the whole process becomes for everyone.
Things to consider:
IS THERE A BOTTLE NECK?
Is there an internal bottle neck in terms of starting the process? What is stopping you from advertising the role and moving forward in your search? Can you overcome these obstacles? Do you receive far too many CVs and just don’t have the capacity to review them all and are perhaps missing out on great people? Booking dates for interviews can be difficult if there is more than one interviewee, have you considered when interviews will take place, and will everyone required to participate in them be available?
Lots of question marks here but if you take time prior to posting the new role to consider if you will be held up by some of the above and any other areas that may delay the process, then it should help make the whole process much smoother.
CREATE AN ENGAGING JOB ADVERT & MAKE IT VISIBLE
Don’t just pull out an old job description and blow the dust off, take your time to really consider what this needs to say about the role and the essential candidate requirements. Not putting in the effort up front here will cost you time and money by not attracting strong candidates from the outset. Make sure it not only speaks to the right candidates, but those candidates can find your job advert, in order to apply.
A good idea is to put yourself in the mindset of a jobseeker and consider how they will search for a role and what will grab their attention. Consider typing your job title into Google and see how many other roles come up with the same title, and perhaps scan through a few of the summaries at the top of the advert to see which ones read well and appeal to you. If you find them appealing then so will potential candidates.
Keep your job titles simple, it makes for a much easier search for candidates, if you are unsure then it’s always good to see what titles your competitors are using. It’s more than OK to make the body of the job description creative and exciting, but the job title is the first thing most candidates will search under and if the title is obscure and unrecognisable then it lessens the chances of an applicant actually finding the job in the first place.
As a recruitment agency ourselves, we always aim to add the location either in the job title or in the initial descriptive paragraph, as a geographical location is often key to a candidates search. This can also help in culling unsuitable candidates who do not meet the location requirements of the role. Also consider key words that will attract candidates to a role, this could help with SEO and attract more appropriate matches, reducing the need to sift through incompatible applicants.
REMEMBER TO ADVERTISE INTERNALLY FIRST
Do you have an internal process to advertise inside the business prior to looking externally?
If you can employ from within it will be less expensive, considering the additional costs of advertising, training etc. There is also a much easier transition, as welcoming a new member of staff can take time and effort, whereas a current team member already has a strong insight into your business and the potential requirements you may need from them in their new position. It is also less risky as you already know the team fit of a current employee and there are no guarantees a new starter will work out in the long term.
It can also reflect badly on a company if a number of parties are invited to interview, only to be told the position has been filled internally. So, think about this first, before advertising externally.
IF YOU DO NEED TO ADVERTISE MAKESURE YOU ARE SEEN?
If you do need to advertise externally take some time to think about where you are going to place your job advert. For instance, do you have a careers page on your corporate website? Is there a recruitment or industry magazine that could work for you? Are you going to use job boards and which ones are the strongest for the industry and job role you are advertising? There are approximately 2,000 UK job boards all with their own unique selling points, so spend some time researching the best ones for your company. Saving you time and money overall.
Have you considered working with a recruitment agency? By building a strong relationship with a professional and industry recognised agency, can not only save you time, but money in the long run. (We have a whole blog dedicated to this subject so take a look - https://www.clockwork-recruitment.co.uk/using-a-recruitment-agency-why-its-good-for-business/ )
Have you got a strong presence on social media? Can you adapt an advert to go on here and see if you can attract candidates on these platforms e.g., LinkedIn / Twitter etc. Again, by researching how successful companies do this will give you a gauge into how best to gain engagement. Remember most social media sites are free (unless you pay an additional cost to promote your advert) – so it makes sense to use them. If you were to employ someone who has contacted you due to a social media listing this will significantly decrease your cost-to-hire also. By adverting on these sites, you can update your advert at any time and keep it fresh, by boosting any additional areas you feel need emphasising should the right candidates not be applying initially.
It’s also a good idea to track your success on any site you select to advertise on, for instance you can see how many people have viewed your ad vs how many people have applied. Giving you time to adjust your ad accordingly should it not be working hard enough for you.
BEING RUTHLESS IS OK
From placing your job advertisement to the time of initial interviews can be a very time-consuming exercise if you receive a large number of applications. It is really important to limit the number of people you agree to meet initially. Consider working with a wider team, or a recruitment agency to sift through the CVs and filter out any unsuitable candidates, think about conducting initial telephone or video interviews to reduce the talent selection further prior to any in office face to face meetings (employment agencies can carry these out on your behalf also).
Using a scoring system for candidates on their experience, capabilities, and skill sets vs the job role is a good way of filtering through applications as well as having an idea in your head of how many you would like to take through to a face-to-face interview. This will help you focus on the strongest candidates and reduce time.
DON’T DELAY THE INTERVIEWS/OFFERS
When you have a number of quality candidates to interview, do not delay organising these dates, in fact it is better to have a date set aside to advise potential candidates when interviews will be held, so all parties have a timescale in mind. Don’t think if you have found the ideal candidate that someone else won’t be looking to interview them before they receive an offer from you!
Leaving any candidate waiting after any interview stage, is a certain way to put them off you as a company, you will come across as inefficient and uncaring, keep those communication channels open at all times. A great candidate won’t only be on your radar, and they won’t wait too long before securing their next career move with or without an offer from you.
If you are totally sure about a candidate and that a potential offer could be on the table, then move quickly. Hesitating could cost you, and you don’t want to be in a position where you need to start the process all over again.
COMMUNICATION IS ALWAYS KEY
If for any reason the recruitment process needs to be extended for unavoidable causes, then keep candidates in the loop. One of the biggest reasons you can lose a great candidate is leaving them in the lurch with no indication of what is happening behind the scenes.
Maintaining candidate engagement throughout the process ensures a positive experience. In a market heavy with jobs, but low in candidates it is vital you try to keep the gap between application, interview, and possible offer as short as possible. If for any reason the circumstances change, but you are still interested in candidates keeping them updated about the reasons for any delays and reiterating your interest in them, will help to keep their interest in the role and ideally not focus on applying for other positions. If someone feels forgotten it will only leave a negative impact.
PUT THE EFFORT INTO FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON – BUT WITHOUT COMPROMISING QUALITY
By taking all the above steps you will have more chance of securing the right person, if you rush and hire the wrong person this will waste a lot of time and money. If necessary consider hiring a temporary candidate in between hiring your ideal applicant.
Competition for talent is fierce, so you need to have a process in place that ensures you do everything you can to find and hold on to quality candidates, keeping them in the hiring process until you can offer.
Time is always crucial in recruitment, but it has become even more so now that the talent is scarce. Keep in mind lengthy recruitment processes could cost you candidates who are more than likely talking to more than one recruiter and/or employer.
By seeking ways to accelerate the recruitment process you will avoid losing top talent to your competitors.
