How to Reduce Time to Hire When Recruiting

In today’s competitive hiring market, time to hire is one of the most important metrics for attracting top talent. According to Bamboo HR, “time-to-hire refers to the number of days between when a candidate applies to a job posting (or is sourced by a recruiter) and when they officially accept the employment offer … the metric itself can represent the overall efficiency (or lack thereof) of an HR recruiting team.” As such, figuring out how to reduce time to hire is an essential skill for effective recruitment. 

Not only does efficient hiring give you a competitive advantage in the market, but it also improves the candidate experience and your overall employer brand. Especially when it comes to executive search, you need every possible factor on your side to find the right person.

At M&F Talent, we’ve seen time and again how cumbersome and drawn-out hiring processes sour relationships – resulting in lost opportunities for both clients and candidates. If you need help figuring out how to reduce time to hire, we put together this article to help you on your way. 

How Does Time to Hire Impact the Candidate Experience?

Especially when you are extremely busy, it’s easy to lose focus on how your hiring strategies might impact candidates in your pipeline. Many people don’t realize it, but a lack of organization, communication, and follow-through while recruiting and interviewing can have detrimental impacts on your employer brand. 

According to Recruiting.com: “The candidate experience is the series of interactions that a job seeker has with your company throughout the recruiting process. These interactions include any communication that a candidate receives from your brand messaging, software systems and/or employees.” What is important to note here is that the hiring process is a two-way street: when your organization consistently provides a lackluster candidate experience, it will be harder to hire top talent in the future. This notion is only exemplified if applicants leave bad reviews on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. 

When candidates talk about having good interview experiences with your company, it creates a positive ripple effect with other professionals in your industry. In turn, a positive reputation creates a situation where you can hire more quality candidates in a shorter time. 

How Long Should The Hiring Process Take?

While timelines vary across industries and roles, weighing your time-to-hire versus industry averages provides valuable insights. According to the Business Insider website, “It takes companies an average of 44 days to hire for an open role after posting the job.” While professional services take about 47 days to make a hire, tech and media are much shorter at just 20 days. In any case, it’s evident that making a quality hire requires more than simply posting a job and having the perfect candidate come walking through the door. Rather, it takes both skill and organizational foresight to recruit, interview, and hire quality candidates in a reasonable time frame. 

The Benefits of Fast Hiring

While the notion of the candidate experience applies to just about every facet of recruiting and interviewing, there are more specific benefits to a fast hiring process. 

Competitive Advantage

Whether it be outside sales or engineering, the most in-demand candidates often have many job opportunities. In turn, an efficient hiring pipeline secures top talent swiftly – so you hire the best candidates before your competitors. There is no better way to lose a good candidate than to drag the interview process out for weeks and months, especially if you fail to follow up with them along the way. 

Demonstrated Commitment

A fast time to hire also reinforces your employer brand to top candidates. When you move quickly and efficiently, it makes applicants feel appreciated – creating a positive dynamic between all parties involved from day one. Especially for executive search, you should never give off the impression you’re wasting someone’s time. 

Organizational Efficiency

Since many people consider a lack of organization to be a red flag, you might face difficulties in maintaining a consistent flow of potential candidates in your talent pipeline. Conversely, a streamlined interview process showcases operational efficiency and professionalism, instilling candidate confidence in your company’s capabilities.

Strategies on How to Reduce Time to Hire

If you are trying to figure out how to reduce time to hire at your business, there are some relatively simple steps you can take.

Define Clear Hiring Criteria

Before you begin recruiting, you should be crystal clear with important hiring criteria. Focusing on both technical proficiencies and soft skills, you should collaborate with team members and stakeholders to get everything in a job description. In turn, once you head out into the field and start advertising your job and sourcing candidates, everyone will be on the same page so there is no confusion on qualifications once interviews have begun. 

Be Selective with Candidate Outreach

While you want to cast a wide net when recruiting, too broad of search criteria can really slow down the hiring process. Even with a quality applicant tracking system (ATS) on your side, pouring over hundreds or thousands of resumes is extremely time-consuming. Including more stringent qualifications like college degrees or specific professional experience can be a real-time saver for your HR department. 

Streamlined Interview Protocols

Developing standardized interview protocols is a great way to move candidates quickly through your pipeline, while still getting the critical information needed to make smart hiring decisions. For example, well-structured interview questions also offer objective candidate evaluations and convey organizational efficiency. Similarly, standardizing reference checks and background screenings expedites candidate assessments and overall decision-making. 

Be Proactive with Communication

Once a candidate is in your hiring pipeline, you must communicate regularly with updates and check-ins. Again, there is no better way to lose a candidate than to have several interviews with them – only not to follow up or update them on the job. However, giving them regular updates about the interview process will ensure things move forward smoothly and stay on track the entire time. 

Wondering How to Reduce Time to Hire? Work with M&F Talent!

Whether it be executive search or sales jobs, working with a recruiting agency is one of the most effective ways to reduce your time to hire. At Mac & Fulton, we specialize in expediting the interview and hiring process, empowering organizations to secure top talent swiftly and efficiently. When you work with M&F Talent, you can ensure timely: 

• Candidate Sourcing: since our recruiters have a large talent pool of passive candidates on hand, we greatly speed up the sourcing process. 
• Pre-Screening: by focusing on specific hiring criteria, we will cut down the time it takes to pre-screen candidates in your pipeline. 
• Scheduling and Coordination: M&F Talent facilitates scheduling and coordination throughout the hiring process, alleviating administrative burdens for your organization. 
• Offer Negotiation: our recruiters will advise both parties during the offer negotiation phase so everyone feels satisfied and things move quickly. 

Contact us today to start hiring top talent!