I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed
Tom Cruise said it back in 1986 when he was crazy cool, not just crazy (did anyone else watch the Scientology documentary “Going Clear”? Let’s just say it was “interesting”)… Fast forward to 2016. Hobson Associates just wrapped up their 43rd fiscal year. Like a fine wine, we seem to get better with age. One way we got better this past year was our SPEED.
By speed I mean average “time to fill” a position … This is one of the KPIs we take very seriously, and this year we saw a 10% drop from 60 days to 54 days, or under 8 weeks.
This is a significant drop in one year, so we decided to look at each of our successful recruiting projects and I would like to share what we found. Of course we want to take all the credit: It must be that we sourced, qualified and delivered candidates faster, but that metric actually stayed the same. The credit really goes to our clients, who responded to the challenges of the extremely tight market for top talent. They made recruiting a top priority.
We found that the companies who moved top candidates quickly through their interview process had a much higher rate of landing their first choice candidate.
If you are struggling to fill any open jobs at your organization, here are a few things you should take a hard look at:
1) Are you making hiring a priority? If you or any of your team procrastinates on reviewing resumes you receive, or don’t make interviewing a priority, then qualified candidates will move on and end up somewhere else (a competitor!).
2) Could your processes stand to improve/change? At the heart of most great companies is an incredibly strong emphasis on the hiring process. If you take a serious and formalized approach to hiring, it can actually save you time and a lot of headaches by:
- Helping you clearly see the type of person who will be successful in the position.
- Providing a roadmap of questions to ask during interviews, highlights skills to be tested.
- Delivering input from others that will either corroborate first impressions or highlight disconnects.
The result is better employee hiring, which leads to improved company performance. Well worth the investment!
3) Do you have the right sources for finding candidates? HR: A good human resource manager is an invaluable resource, advising you on your people, management techniques, hiring and developing programs that will help you succeed. Take a look at your department and find out if they’re creating any roadblocks in your hiring process. Recruiters: You can’t build a relationship with, receive a referral from, network with, or hire someone you haven’t found in the first place. Networks are the life blood for recruiters. No matter how big your network is, theirs is bigger. Leverage it.
The need for speed is real when it comes to scooping up talent. Think about the open reqs you have right now that have been open for 6, 9, or even 12 months (DANGER ZONE)
By reevaluating some of your internal processes and making onboarding great candidates a priority, you will see a “crazy” fast increase in growth and revenue.
[If you have an exciting story to “sell” and choose to work with a niche recruiting firm like Hobson Associates, you might see those open reqs filled before the New Year!]
-Meg