How to speed up the recruitment process (without compromising on quality)
WaveTrackR data may have found that applications increased in January but the market continues to be candidate-driven. Competition for talent is fierce, meaning that you need to ensure you do everything you can to hold on to quality candidates and keep them in the hiring process.
Time is always crucial in recruitment but becomes even more so when talent is scarce. Lengthy recruitment processes could cost you candidates who are more than likely talking to more than one recruiter and/or employer.
Accelerating the recruitment process has become essential in order to avoid losing top talent to competitors. We suggest steps to cut the length of the process without compromising on quality.Â
- Create a great job advert
It all starts with a great job advert. A well written, concise job ad that contains relevant keywords and compelling copy will be far more likely to be seen and responded to by the candidates you want to find.
It will also help to ensure that only those suited to the job apply, saving everyoneâs time. Including a salary range will also help to avoid candidates dropping out of the process when they realise that the salary does not meet their expectations. Ditto the flexibility of the role – make it clear whether or not youâre not hiring remotely, using a hybrid model, or offering flexible hours. - Optimise your job adverts for mobile
A steadily increasing amount of traffic arriving at job boards, aggregators and recruitment websites originates from a mobile device. Indeed has found that a huge 75% of traffic to its site comes from mobile.
Itâs therefore imperative to ensure your job adverts are optimised for mobile so that candidates donât abandon an application because of the user experience.
Most job boards will be responsive, meaning they will automatically reorganise the page to fit smaller screens but a clear structure will help your job ad look good and be easily readable.
Ensuring your recruitment website is also responsive is equally crucial for mobile device users browsing your jobs page to easily read the ad and apply on a smaller screen. Â Â - Post to the right job boards at the right time
Ensuring your job board advertising is highly targeted makes good business sense at all times but especially in the current climate.
In order to ensure your ads are being seen by quality, qualified candidates, you need to know that you are posting them to the right boards at the right time.
Data-powered recommendations are invaluable in helping you get your job board strategy right. Thatâs where tech like WaveTrackR really comes into its own. Using constantly updated, live data, it can advise the best platform and time to post your job based on current circumstances. That way you can reduce the number of job boards you use and target the ones that you are most likely to get a good response from. - Utilise social media
Ever heard the phrase âfish where the fish areâ? Candidates of almost every age and demographic are active on social media so it makes sense to take your rods there and fish.
Social recruiting platform Careerarc found that 86% of job seekers use social media in their job search. Even if you donât want to pay for PPC advertising, you can utilise your businessâ social media accounts to post about your jobs to your network.
If theyâre happy to, recruiters can use their own personal accounts to extend the reach. And itâs easy to quickly share your jobs on your social platforms via WaveTrackR. - Build a talent pipeline
Having a ready-made pool of quality candidates is a sure-fire way to speed up the process. An internal CV database is a goldmine, giving you access to candidates from the moment youâre awarded a job. Keep in touch with candidates even if theyâre not suitable for a particular job or if they donât get offered a position – a job will come along that is perfect for them and it will be a win-win all around.Â
And if a longer recruitment process is unavoidable?
Keep candidates in the loop
One of the biggest reasons for candidates dropping out of the recruitment process is that they donât hear from the recruiter. When they have applied for several other jobs at the same time they will simply move on to pursuing the jobs for which they are getting a response.
Maintaining candidate engagement and ensuring the candidate experience is positive is key. A candidate management system can help you to ensure the entire process runs smoothly and not one application is lost track of.
Applicant tracking allows you to monitor the entire recruitment process using notes and status updates and a traffic light system is ideal, allowing you to quickly rank candidates. Customisable email templates make it quick and easy to keep candidates informed.
In a market heavy with jobs but low on candidate availability, itâs vital that the recruitment process isnât too long – a big gap between application and interview or too many interview stages can demoralise a candidate and cause them to focus on other job applications.
If delays are beyond your control, keep communicating with your candidate so that they can stay abreast of the situation and know that they havenât been simply forgotten.
Use tech to help you – time-saving and efficiency is literally what recruitment tech is built for.
Whatever you do, donât cut corners. Putting forward candidates that arenât suitable will be disastrous in the long term, both for your ability to recruit for a particular job and for your reputation as a quality recruiter.
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