In the search for top talent, your time-to-hire might give you a competitive edge.
Time-to-hire — the period between a job posting and the contract signed — is not just about efficiency. It’s your key to securing top talent, maintaining competitiveness, and ensuring your organization’s success. It also inadvertently influences your employer's brand.
Here’s why cutting down on time-to-hire is vital in a competitive hiring market and will do wonders for your employer brand.
Reducing Time-to-Hire Secures Top Talent, Reduces Costs and Boosts Productivity
Canadian HR leaders report that hiring can take up to seven weeks from posting to signed offer — with two weeks and a half spent on reviewing CVs.1 Decreasing your time-to-hire has impressive benefits like securing top talent, reducing costs, maintaining and increasing productivity, and strengthening your employer brand. When you take your hiring seriously and quickly, job seekers are more likely to consider you for future roles.
Hire quickly and enhance the candidate experience
A swift time-to-hire rate can be a game-changer in securing top talent. Stellar candidates aren’t always on the job market for too long. If your hiring process drags on, you risk losing them to competitors. In a recent Indeed report, 21% of Canadian respondents said they ghosted an employer because the hiring process was too slow.2 Another 28% say they would have stayed in the hiring process longer if the application process was faster.
A streamlined hiring approach shows that your company is decisive and efficient. Best of all, talented candidates know and refer each other. With a quick hiring process, you might even ensure you have a healthy pipeline of strong candidates.
Regardless of the outcome, candidates who have had a good experience with your recruiters are likely to speak well about your company on their social networks, Glassdoor, and Indeed’s Company Pages. That’s essential to your employer brand since 86% of employees and job seekers research company reviews and ratings to decide where to apply for a job.
Cutting Hiring Costs and Boost Productivity
Decrease your time-to-hire to reduce costs. Previous benchmarked data from SHRM found that the average cost per hire was nearly $4,700, but it could be three to four times the position’s salary.
You’re using recruiters’ time, job boards, and other costs unrelated to the direct cost of hiring. It costs even more money if you are unsuccessful in your search. Lengthy and unsuccessful competition removes the focus on other strategic initiatives that could impact your employer brand and workforce.
Moreover, vacancies can tax existing employees, leading to potential overtime expenses or the need for temporary staffing solutions, both of which can be expensive in non-monetary ways. Vacant positions disrupt team dynamics and might burden existing employees. Employees have to pick up the tasks of those who left alongside their own, ultimately decreasing their productivity.
Companies like yours can ensure that teams remain staffed and efficient by filling positions more quickly. A quick hire might maintain morale and ultimately sustain productivity levels.
Quick Tips to Reduce Time-to-Hire
You can reduce the time to hire without sacrificing talent quality. Consider skills-based hiring and introducing more tech to alleviate the burden on your hiring team while reducing your time to hire.
Embrace Skills-Based Hiring
Canada is currently experiencing a skills mismatch whereby talent is plenty but their experience may not match the role advertised.
To hire quickly, look for candidates' skills rather than their experience and credentials alone. Some roles don’t require four-year degrees; others can be completed by a job applicant with transferable skill sets.
AI technology like Indeed’s Smart Sourcing can help simplify the hiring process for employers. It supports hiring managers in finding qualified talent quickly by prioritizing skills over other qualifications. You can even sort the vast candidate pool and find candidates quickly.
Leveraging Best Practices and Tech
You can use various tools to reduce your time-to-hire. Refined job descriptions, enhanced employer branding, and proactive talent sourcing can attract the right candidates more quickly.
Implementing structured interview processes and providing timely feedback can further expedite decision-making. Basic feedback is enough to reflect well on your employer brand. A whopping 34% of Canadian respondents say employers failed to acknowledge receipt of a job application, and another 36% failed to follow up after an initial interview.3
You can also consider AI-driven recruitment and automation software to streamline your hiring. Automating regular tasks is just one way to hire quickly. When automating tasks, your team has the opportunity to work and perfect the functions that require a human touch.
Indeed has two tools to help: Direct to Interview and Direct to Message. With Direct to Interview, Indeed automatically sets up phone or video calls with quality candidates who meet your criteria to fast-track connections. With Direct to Message, you can automatically start conversations with quality candidates.
Moving Forward
As the job market evolves, reducing time-to-hire will be increasingly important for attracting and retaining top talent. It enhances the candidate experience, cuts costs, boosts team productivity, and keeps your organization competitive.
What’s another bonus about hiring quickly and its impact on your employer brand? We spread the word about the companies that hire quickly. Check out the list of companies that are hiring the fastest this summer.
- Indeed and Angus Reid Forum, n=1,002
- Indeed and Censuswide, n=1,503
- Indeed and Censuswide, n=1,503
