Best Practices for Improving Your Speed-to-Hire

One of the banes of a recruiter’s existence is metrics. There is no head down in the trenches recruiter that cares about, “cost of hire” or “time to fill” they want to get good candidates in the door, interviewed, then working. Although the ideal dream is to let someone else handle this and justify numbers inevitably it is more than likely going to be on you to make this happen. Below will be some tips on how to shine a little brighter to your higher-ups and raise the bar a tad bit to get hires in faster and not just interviews but getting them to work.

Everything starts with a posting, and that usually is when the clock starts ticking. Having a solid job posting is vital here. Make sure the position you are looking for is both clear and objective to the task. First, start with a brief introduction of the company, then what the jobs daily activity would be, then you add the skill set required to be successful. You can talk about the company at the end with accomplishments etc.
Check the ATS every morning and then set up select times during the day to continue to monitor your open positions. Move immediately on qualified candidates and make sure that you both call and email the applicants to set up the initial screen.
Set up a sourcing plan for candidates that may not be actively looking on job boards, but could be open to opportunities and get them into the system if they do show interest. These are not as fast from a screening role though, so a mixture of both inbound and outbound messaging should be included.
Set up pre-interview times with the manager and team, if needed, so that once the screen is done and the manager has shown interest in the candidate(s), you do not have to waste time chasing them down. Now, the world is not black and white all of the time and meetings can and often do get shifted so have plenty of back up times available for both the manager and the candidate.
Once the interview is over, plan to have a meeting scheduled with the manager/team immediately after. Also, spend some time with the candidate afterward to determine if they are interested in the role as well. If multiple candidates passed, then give the team a deadline in choosing within 24 hours of the final interview. Make sure to communicate with the candidate and the team.
Once a decision has been made immediately inform the candidate that they have been chosen. A personal favorite of mine is to call the candidate with the manager to let them know they got the role. Great candidate experience.
Lastly, close the candidates out and put the position as closed but put the role on hold just in case. This will show that the time to fill was met. You don’t need the extra two weeks on top of the decision for the requisition to remain open.

That’s it! These simple steps can help you with faster hires, and better metrics, throughout your career. Just remember to document everything in your ATS for future reference and possible audits.