How to speed up your hiring process

A slow hiring process can hurt your ability to keep great talent once you find them.

One way to combat this challenge is to speed up your hiring to accommodate today’s eager job seekers. Ideally, by making quicker decisions, you’ll land more – and stronger – candidates. Through our 10 steps below, read how to expedite your hiring process, without worrying about compromising its integrity. 

1. Revise job description

To start, make sure every job description detail, including department hierarchy, day-to-day functions, work environment, necessary experience, and required skills, is accurate, so candidates can gauge for themselves whether it’s the right fit. Bring together HR, supervisors, and other employees directly involved with the job to get a wholistic idea of what the perfect job candidate looks like.

2. Post job ad

Plenty of companies promise to make posting an opening as simple as a “single click” and quickly your ad will be live in front of countless job seekers. Oftentimes, employers don’t really see the benefits from these services – or they end up getting way too many underqualified candidates. Meanwhile, a staffing provider has access to similar technology – and the experience to know where your industry candidates look for jobs.

3. Collect resumes

This is where being mindful of where and how long you’re posting job openings matters, because there’s no such thing as too few or too many resumes – when the end result is the right new hire. Depending on the type of role you’re filling, you may need to leave it up for a couple days or a couple weeks. This is why it’s critical to not wait to get started on the next step.

4. Sort resumes

Applicant tracking systems (ATS), AI, and other resume parsing technology have been game changers. Mismatched resumes are filtered out and those that meet your requirements are ready for review in moments. Of course, setting up too strict of parameters can unintentionally filter out great hires, so used incorrectly, these tools can actually increase the length of your search.

5. Contact candidates for interviews

There is plenty of conflicting advice on how long employers should wait to hear back from candidates about scheduling an interview. One common rule of thumb is about two business days, while others hold off for four or five days. Waiting that long for a response can feel like pushing it, but it’s worth not judging before you know if there’s a good reason for the delay.

6. Conduct first interviews

It can be tough to pull off, but if you can coordinate it, interview two, three, or even four candidates in a single day. In addition to expediting the process, stacking interviews helps you to be consistent with your questions and sets you up to better compare candidates.

7. Conduct second interviews

The same strategy for clustering candidates applies here as well, but consider utilizing group interviewing. By including multiple interviewers, especially those who have a say in the final decision, you can cut down on individual interviews and candidates can be vetted quicker. This arrangement also helps the candidate get to know your team and what the role will be like.

8. Screen candidate to confirm decision

Screening a final candidate usually includes a criminal background check and drug testing, if necessary. A number of employers have stopped drug testing, especially considering changing cannabis laws, but for many industries, it’s simply not optional. Regardless, it’s critical to move through this step as quickly as possible, either by working with national background screening vendors or adopting oral drug testing.

9. Make an offer

Once you find the right candidate, don’t make the mistake of waiting too long for a formal job offer. Your perfect new hire is likely someone else’s too. Remember that you’re not just losing on recruiting costs: Having an unfilled position is costing you through productivity losses and by straining your current workforce. 

10. Complete onboarding paperwork

When recruiting and hiring is your business, you know that the process doesn’t end when the offer is accepted. There’s paperwork, training, and other onboarding steps for the hiring manager, the new hire, HR, and IT to navigate. This process should be streamlined, so when your new employee starts, they can focus on learning the job, not struggling with administrative hiccups.

We can keep your hiring process on track

Those are our 10 steps to success. Again, every industry and employer struggles with different regulations and competition, so that’s why it’s important to partner with the right team.

At Adecco, we know the hidden costs employers pay when their hiring process isn’t streamlined. That’s why we work with clients to understand what’s slowing them down, whether it’s in recruitment or in their screening process.

Contact us today to learn how our experience can help you.