Hiring a new employee can take a really long time but hiring managers are always looking for ways to cut that down. If you’ve been wondering how to reduce time to hire, there are a few best practices that you can implement into your hiring strategy. Whether you are trying to meet a time to hire benchmark or simply hoping to fill a role quickly because of a vacancy, you can begin tracking and storing your time to hire metrics to make them work for you. 

First steps will likely include implementing some kind of interview intelligence software, such as the program offered by Pillar, to ensure that you are following best hiring practices and adhering to your adopted hiring strategy with every single candidate. Certain steps of the hiring process, such as pre-screening, can save lots of time and effort in the hiring process and make it easier for hiring managers to narrow down the candidate pool. 

Once you gather all of this intel, it can be difficult to know what to do with it. What do you do with time to hire metrics once you’ve gathered them? 

Time to hire metrics are crucial indicators for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of your hiring process. They provide insights into how long it takes to identify, evaluate, and onboard candidates. Here's how you can use time-to-hire metrics to enhance your hiring process:

1. Identify Bottlenecks: By tracking the time it takes for candidates to move through each stage of the hiring process (application submission, interview scheduling, offer acceptance, etc.), you can identify specific stages that might be causing delays. This helps you pinpoint bottlenecks and areas that need improvement.

2. Streamline the Process: Analyzing time to hire metrics can reveal opportunities to streamline your hiring process. For instance, if you notice that candidates are spending a long time in the interview scheduling stage, you might implement tools or practices to simplify interview coordination.

3. Improve Candidate Experience: Lengthy hiring processes can discourage candidates and lead to dropouts. Tracking time to hire can help you assess whether your process is taking longer than necessary and causing candidate frustration. By shortening the process, you enhance the candidate experience and increase the likelihood of attracting and retaining top talent.

4. Compete for Talent: In today's competitive job market, a lengthy hiring process can result in losing candidates to other opportunities. Monitoring time to hire allows you to benchmark your process against industry standards and competitors, helping you make adjustments to stay competitive.

5. Measure Recruitment Team Performance: Time to hire metrics can help evaluate the performance of your recruitment team or external hiring partners. If time to hire is consistently high, it might indicate the need for additional resources, training, or process refinement within the recruitment team.

6. Forecast Workload: By analyzing historical time to hire data, you can predict how long it will take to fill future positions. This helps in resource allocation, budgeting, and workload management.

7. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Time to hire metrics provide objective data to support decision-making. For instance, if you're considering implementing new tools or processes to expedite the hiring process, you can use historical data to measure the impact of those changes.

8. Set Realistic Expectations: Time to hire metrics allow you to set realistic expectations with hiring managers and stakeholders. When you can provide accurate estimates of how long it will take to fill a position, it helps manage expectations and reduces frustration.

9. Continuous Improvement: Regularly reviewing time to hire metrics encourages a culture of continuous improvement within your hiring process. By consistently analyzing and optimizing the process, you can reduce inefficiencies and ensure a more seamless experience for candidates and hiring teams.

Incorporating time-to-hire metrics into your hiring strategy enables you to make data-driven decisions that lead to a more efficient and successful recruitment process. It's a valuable tool for both optimizing your operations and enhancing the overall experience for candidates and hiring teams.

Reduce Time To Hire

Reducing time to hire is essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the job market and securing top talent quickly. Here are several strategies you can implement to improve your hiring process and minimize the time it takes to fill vacant positions:

1. Clear Job Descriptions and Requirements: Start with well-defined job descriptions and clear requirements. Ensuring that job postings accurately reflect the skills and qualifications you're looking for helps attract candidates who are a better fit from the outset.

2. Simplify The Application Process: Make the application process user-friendly and streamlined. Avoid overly complex application forms or requiring extensive information upfront. Use technology to allow candidates to apply easily with their existing profiles, such as LinkedIn.

3. Automated Pre-Screening: Use technology to automate the initial screening process. Implement tools that can evaluate resumes and applications based on predefined criteria, allowing you to quickly identify the most qualified candidates.

4. Effective Sourcing: Use a variety of sourcing methods to reach a broader pool of candidates. Utilize online job boards, social media platforms, employee referrals, and networking events to generate a diverse range of applicants.

5. Concurrent Interviewing: Instead of waiting until one candidate finishes the interview process, consider scheduling interviews for multiple candidates concurrently. This approach can speed up the evaluation phase.

6. Structured Interviews: Implement structured interview processes that involve standardized questions and evaluation criteria. This not only ensures consistency but also speeds up the assessment process.

7. Use Video Interviews: Conduct initial screening interviews via video to save time and resources on arranging in-person meetings for all candidates. Video interviews can help you quickly evaluate candidates' communication skills and cultural fit.

8. Efficient Interview Scheduling: Use scheduling tools that allow candidates to book interviews at their convenience. This eliminates the back-and-forth communication and speeds up the scheduling process.

9. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Foster collaboration between hiring managers, recruiters, and interviewers. Having all stakeholders on the same page and engaged in the process can lead to quicker decision-making.

10. Shorten Decision-Making: Aim to shorten the time between interviews and decision-making. Establish a clear timeline for evaluations and communicate it to candidates to manage expectations.

11. Offer Management Software: Use software to streamline the offer process. Offer letters, negotiations, and approvals can be managed more efficiently with digital tools.

12. Continuous Process Improvement: Regularly review your hiring process metrics to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement. Make adjustments based on data to optimize the process over time.

13. Feedback and Communication: Provide timely feedback to candidates after each stage of the process. This not only enhances candidate experience but also prevents delays caused by waiting for feedback.

14. Predictive Analytics: Utilize historical data to predict how long it might take to fill similar positions in the future. This helps in setting realistic expectations and managing the process more effectively.

15. Training and Development: Continuously train your hiring team on efficient interviewing techniques, bias reduction, and effective evaluation methods to expedite decision-making.

By implementing these strategies, you can create a more efficient and effective hiring process that minimizes time to hire while still ensuring that you're making the best possible hiring decisions for your organization.

Why is this important? The average time to hire in 2023 is a long, drawn-out 44 days. For candidates who are unemployed at the time of application, this puts them out of work for 6 weeks or more. Reducing the time to hire can help both companies and candidates as it fills the role faster and provides a job to the chosen candidate sooner. 

Hiring Turnaround Time

Hiring turnaround time is at an all-time high in 2023, and this is a problem. If hiring takes an average of 44 days to complete, your company will lose access to top talent. Stats currently show that top talent only remains on the market for an average of 10 days. Hiring managers need to implement strategies to reduce time to fill a position, ensuring that they are not losing out on the top talent that are currently circulating in the hiring pool. 

Additionally, shortening the time to hire offers other significant advantages for both employers and candidates. Here are some more compelling reasons why making the time to hire shorter is a good idea:

1. As said before, shortening the time to hire allows employers to attract top talent. 
2. It also provides a better candidate experience which will reflect positively on your company. 
3. A faster hiring process can reduce costs. A long process results in increased workload, greater existing employee dissatisfaction, the cost of temporary or freelance workers, etc. 
4. Filling a position quickly means that new hires can start contributing to the team's goals sooner. This leads to increased productivity and faster accomplishment of projects.
5. A prolonged hiring process can strain the existing team, leading to increased stress and potentially decreasing morale. A swift hiring process ensures that workload distribution remains manageable and team spirits are high.
6. A shorter time to hire allows companies to quickly respond to changing business needs, market demands, or unexpected departures. This agility ensures that the team is appropriately staffed at all times.
7. A drawn-out hiring process can inadvertently discourage underrepresented candidates from continuing through the process. A faster process demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and avoids unintentional bias in decision-making.

Overall, a shorter time to hire benefits both the organization and candidates by fostering better experiences, attracting top talent, and driving overall business success.

It can take a while to implement a new hiring strategy and get those steps into place, but this can be addressed by utilizing the tools at your disposal. Tools such as interview intelligence software like the program offered by Pillar can help you step up your hiring game early and slowly implement new strategies until your hiring process is mastered. If you are not yet using interview intelligence software, contact us today for a demo.