Hiring quality candidates is a naturally time-consuming process. However, companies are now chasing metrics like time to hire and cost per hire, and so it becomes understandably important to keep the hiring process as short as possible. Here is the other side of the coin: irrelevant and wrong hires are going to be just as costly, if not costlier. In this blog post, we’ll explore why it’s important to find the balance between speed you hire at and the quality of those hires. 

It’s not all black and white 

Not every job title can justify a two-month hiring process. There are a lot of costs involved, and operating with a short supply of resources can burden the rest of the team. Operating for longer periods of time under stress can affect the company’s culture.

At the same time, a wrong, hasty hire can disrupt work too. In fact, the cost involved in training and educating resources are all but money thrown down the drain if the person hired is not the right fit. The recruiters are bound to repeat the whole process all over again sooner or later.

It’s safe to say that the ideal time to hire differs from company to company, role to role. Taking a week extra to make the right decision, or closing it a couple of days earlier to not lose a valuable candidate, are all part of the balancing act that the recruiters are required to perform. 

Requisite one: Measure the shoes 

In today’s world, generic job titles and vague job descriptions will only attract more applications that do not even marginally suit the profile. Keep the job title and description as specific to the role as possible. List the hard and soft skills they’ll be using on a daily basis, and mandate proof of knowledge for those skills. Knowing what to look for is the first step of the process.

Requisite two: Use concise yet effective filters 

A three-hour written exam could help you filter out all unfit candidates. Let’s face it though, it’ll also repel a lot of good talent. No matter how good an employer brand it is, today’s candidates detest having to prove a skill they wouldn’t exactly use on the job. Right from the first point of contact, focus on asking just the right questions. Take advantage of trends like video interviews and easy-to-fill forms for the initial assessments. Weed out waves of unsuitable candidates right away.

Requisite three: Engage, educate, expedite 

Candidates that are actively looking for jobs nowadays are not interviewing for just one job at one company. They hunt for multiple roles at once, and the only way to get them on-board is to keep them occupied, and to not leave them hanging for days without any intimation. So, try breaking down the selection process into smaller, task-based chunks. Educate them about the value propositions of the company right away, so you don’t miss out on talent. Most importantly, keep the process free of redundancy. Avoid making the candidate go through similar rounds of selections again and again.

Requisite four: Generate feedback circles and functional interviews 

Get functional as soon as possible. Ask candidates for work samples from the start, get the relevant departments involved, and design apt tasks. Encourage assessing on the go and do not save the best for the last. Collect interview feedback from promising candidates and keep optimizing the structure of the selection processes constantly.

Requisite five: Keep your teams close and potential candidates closer 

Decisions about openings and scaling do not happen overnight. As more companies open up the decision-making meetings to HR departments, capitalize and start covertly hunting for candidates. Make use of social spaces, career page registrant data, and other avenues to build up a candidate database that you can rely on.

Hire fast, hire right. Use Zoho Recruit  

While all these requisites are situational, here’s something that’s absolute and can help every organization out there: technology. Zoho Recruit helps you improve the quality of your hires and reduces the time to fill significantly. Its ATS, recruitment CRM, and countless other features are designed to give candidates a smooth interview experience, and it provides AI-powered recruitment assistance to recruiters. Check it out!

Closing thoughts – Don’t settle for a trade off  

To summarize, here are a few requisites to fill an opening faster:

• Understand the position to fill.

• Create the right initial assessments.

• Devise a consistently-engaging recruitment process.

• Get functional with assessments.

• Get a head start by networking and building your database.

In today’s world, striking the right balance between filling openings faster and finding quality candidates can sound challenging. With companies focusing on quality of hires over quantity after the wave of the Great Resignation, the industry will come to terms with the fact that there’s no rushing the art of recruitment and let the scale tip a little to the quality side.