September 29, 2022
September 29, 2022
Photo by Alexandar Todov on Unsplash
With employees moving jobs more often than ever, they come to job searching with new expectations for transparency, speed, and a smooth process. You can turn off the best candidates by dragging your feet, and your competition can scoop them up before you even get a chance.
So what do you do? Speed is a key to recruiting success, but you still need to do things well and hire the right candidates. How do you improve your speed while maintaining quality? You improve your process and put the right tools in place.
We live in a skills economy, and a degree or even what appears to be the right job history might not bring the candidates who have what it takes to perform the job you're looking to fill. Instead of education and experience, focus on skills.
That means not only knowing the skills needed for the position but defining them well and communicating them clearly in job listings. Using the right terms that candidates understand is critical. Many employers (and educators) have turned to Rich Skills Descriptors to ensure they are using universally understood terms.
The end result is a more qualified candidate pool. Instead of looking over resumes and applications that just don’t fit and even interviewing unqualified leads, you spend time deciding between candidates who are equipped to do the job and do it well.
Using the right skills vocabulary is just the foundation.
While skills are the currency of the job market, in many cases degrees are still essential. Relevant experience also matters as it can make the training process easier and increase productivity.
If degrees and experience are something you require, make that clear in your job listings. This makes it easy to filter applications and narrow the candidate field. Wading through a large number of resumes and applications takes time, so clear qualifications help you filter and prioritize them.
Fewer resumes to process and evaluate means a faster process.
How many interviews does it take you to hire a candidate? It should not take more than two in most cases. Several interviews slow the process because everyone must juggle schedules, and if the candidate is currently employed it can be difficult for them to get time off and alert their employer about their job hunt.
But it also gives other companies a chance to hire them out from under you. Streamline your interview process, group interviews together in a single week if possible, and make decisions about a second round of interviews quickly. Only invite back truly viable candidates and keep interviews as brief as possible.
If you waste their time now, a candidate might get the impression that you will waste their time when they are working for you as well. Your interview process is an introduction to your company’s efficiency and culture. Don’t blow your first impression by dragging things out.
Another speed tip? Standardize many of the questions you ask each candidate and analyze them by comparing them side by side. This makes for better, and data-driven decisions especially in the first round of interviews. More personalized questions can come in the second round when you are trying to determine cultural fit and evaluate other factors.
Standardization also makes your recruiting decisions “blind” to any factors other than the candidate's qualifications, ultimately resulting in fairer decisions.
Once you have completed the interview process, make decisions quickly. You may find that delays cause candidates to move on to other positions, lose interest in your offer, or even decide to continue in their current position.
How do you speed up that process?
Set up the same process for every application period for every position and follow it as closely as possible. Candidates who reapply for another opening, staff, and management will all know what to expect.
Also, be sure to let candidates know when they can expect to hear from you and stick to that schedule. They’ll be less likely to look elsewhere before you make your decision.
Finally, let those who did not get the position know as soon as possible. Explain your decision and encourage them to apply for other positions in the future that they might be qualified for. At the same time, ask them for feedback about your interviewing process.
Take that feedback and use it to make decisions about how your process will work going forward. Ask open-ended questions, but also focus on speed and efficiency. Ask them if the process was enjoyable.
An enjoyable interview process typically leads to an enjoyable time of employment, and improving your process is something you can continually do.
Today’s job market is moving fast, and speed is key to hiring success. By defining skills, communicating qualifications clearly, and streamlining your process, you can make speed your friend. And that will have benefits for everyone.