Hiring a new employee is an investment, and companies want to ensure they evaluate the applicant's skills thoroughly before giving them an offer. Therefore, firms tend to hold multiple rounds of interviews to gather maximum information about a candidate. In return, the candidates get to learn more about the culture through multiple rounds of conversation.
While this may seem like a win-win situation: finding a new employee who will excel at their role and saving the firm from quick turnovers, a taxing recruitment model can cost your company top talent.
The recent Great Resignation has led to a record high in job openings- there were 11.5 million open positions in the US in March 2022. Companies are also facing a global shortage of individuals skilled in tech. In light of the job market being skewed in favor of employees, firms must work harder to attract strong candidates and remodel their recruitment process to create a better candidate experience. Among the top recruiting priorities for 2021, improving time to hire (28%) and updating recruiting technology (21%) both come in the top five.
Agility is the crucial ingredient needed for successful recruiting, and organizations are adapting to enlist more talent quickly. This article will explain how long hiring typically takes, the drawbacks of a drawn-out recruitment process, and how you can use FloCareer to improve your hiring process.
How long does hiring take?
According to Joseph Quan, Founder and CEO at Knoetic, a good recruitment process shouldn’t take more than three weeks- that “should be enough time to gather all the information you need and make an informed decision. Any longer and you run the risk of losing the best candidates out to your competitors who are moving faster.”
To get data on this subject, LinkedIn analyzed 400,000 hires made on its platform. It found that recruitment for engineering positions took 49 days, research roles took 48 days, and administrative jobs took the shortest time to be filled (33 days).
Apart from the career field, the time it takes to hire also depends on the organization's size, the seniority of the position, the number of applicants, and other miscellaneous steps like drug testing and background checks.
The disparity comes in when potential employees expect this process to go much faster than it does: a Monster.com survey of college grads found more than a quarter (28%) of respondents expected it to take less than one month to find a job.
So how many interviews are needed? Jenny Ho from International Workplace Consulting says, “Preferably, it’s three to four rounds, maximum. For positions below director level, it’s a maximum of three; preferably two.”
However, simply determining the correct number of interviews is not enough, as it doesn’t take into account the time taken to schedule an interview and the follow-up time between each round. Using a digital interviewing platform can decrease the time taken in the screening process, help you be more data-driven, and provides tools to conduct virtual assessments.
Understanding the average time your competitors take to hire an employee can help you gauge your recruitment capabilities. However, with advancements in technology, there is always scope for improvement. A taxing hiring process comes with many disadvantages, some of which are discussed below.
What are the drawbacks of a lengthy recruitment model?
As companies continue to struggle to find candidates because of the Great Resignation, it’s crucial for you and your team to move fast. A slow and long-drawn out hiring process will lead to candidates seeking employment elsewhere. Apart from leading to the best candidates in the market already being snapped up, a slow hiring process affects your firm in a few more ways:
First, it costs your company money, utilizing resources that could be put towards productive goals. Second, it creates a risk of suitable candidates dropping out of the application process due to frustration or fatigue: 62% of professionals stated they lose interest in a job if they don't hear back from the company within two weeks (ten business days) of the interview.
The number increases to 77% if there is no update from the employer within 21 days. Third, a lengthy hiring process can also hurt your reputation: 26% of applicants who felt strung along by the company would write an anonymous negative review online. Fourth, taking extended time to select a candidate increases the risk of them getting more offers from competing firms that are quicker at hiring, reducing your negotiation power while discussing salary and benefits.
Another negative impact of taking long to hire is that candidates may feel that job isn’t a good fit for them. Theresa Adams, senior knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), says, “They [the candidate] may perceive that employer to not be considerate or employee-centric by making them wait so long, so they may choose not to work with them.”
To increase your chances of hiring the best candidate for the position, protect your reputation, and conserve resources, you must make your hiring process as efficient and fast as possible. The companies moving fastest have the highest odds of hiring the best talent in the industry.
How can you streamline your hiring efforts?
Hiring employees involves many time-consuming steps: putting out a job posting, screening and sorting resumes and applications, scheduling interviews, and following up with applicants. Luckily for you, FloCareer offers an array of next-generation products and services that can help you streamline your efforts and make the hiring process quicker.
Screening resumes is a tedious process with a lot of scope for delays. FloCareer’s JD to CV match uses technology to match CVs with job descriptions, reducing manual errors and increasing efficiency.
FloCareer provides a reliable and convenient digital interviewing platform for your first round of interviews. Our Interview as a Service platform allows us to reduce delays in the interview process by scheduling interviews within a few hours of receiving an application, giving the candidate the additional benefit of joining from anywhere and any device.
Our advanced video recruiting software offers format diversity, peer reviews, and custom branding, giving your potential employees a world-class interviewing experience. Moreover, at FloCareer, we provide unbiased structured interviews, efficient feedback submission, and tools to prevent fraudulent activities like lip-syncing.
We help you create a structured interview guide, ensuring that hiring managers across your firm are rating candidates against the same pre-set measures. This reduces the odds of hiring biases and makes the interview more objective and focused.
We have 3,000+ qualified freelance interviewers who have access to 1.5 million+ questions to help you create an interview structure and hire the best candidates.
Our interview panel consists of experts in the required field who have the required technical and interviewing skills, ensuring that candidates are assessed comprehensively. Our FloCareer experts recommend candidates who will be a good match for the position. The shortlisted individuals can be fast-tracked down the pipeline leading to selection and a quick hire.
We’ve carried out over 300,000 interviews for 150 clients, making us a trusted and experienced platform for your hiring needs. Sign up for a free live demo today to streamline your recruitment efforts!
