58.1 days.
That’s a long time for most of us. In 58 days most of us will have given up
completely on our New Year’s resolutions, forgotten someone new we met this
week and won’t likely be able to recall anything that happened on this day.
Even so, 58 days is the average amount of time between the day a candidate
applies for a job and their first day of work. When I see this statistic, I
can’t help but think that we’re doing it wrong. Collectively, as an industry, we’re
doing something wrong if 58.1 days is the average.
The job market
has shifted a lot over the last several years and is on solid footing at this
point, making our timeliness and strategic hiring more important than ever.
This job market is a significant contributing factor to the fact that 30
percent of employees are leaving their jobs this year for better and higher
paying opportunities. Our companies simply cannot afford to spend nearly two
months per hire, so it’s time to shake things and fix what’s broken in this
process.
It’s too long
This is the most
obvious, but it’s just one of many problems. 58.1 days is longer than most
people’s dating relationships. By dragging this process out for nearly two
months, you are asking candidates to wait around blindly and make a pseudo
commitment without any meaningful conversations taking place and minimal
courting and engagement between prospective employer and employee occurring. Set
the expectation within your company that hiring decisions won’t be rushed, but
they also won’t be dragged out. What can you do in your organization to speed
up the process?
Aptitude and evaluation should happen
first
Aptitude and
skill tests are all too often the last step in the hiring process but we could
all save ourselves a lot of time if it became one of the first things we did.
And when I say “all,” I mean that it’s beneficial for employers and candidates.
In the same way that you are dating many different prospective candidates, your
candidates are probably dating many potential employers, and no one likes to be
strung along. By moving this part of the screening process up, both parties
find out if the situation is a good fit and whether or not the skills match the
position requirements.
Recruiting doesn’t start with an open
position
Employers who
wait to recruit and engage prospective candidates after a job opening comes
available are already losing the race. This is one of the main reasons it takes
so long to complete the hiring process. You have to start building relationships,
qualifying candidates and establishing a connection far before you have an
opening. Otherwise, you are late to your own party.
Beyond honing the hiring process so that we’re able to snag
the best employees, it’s also important that we’re making the most of our time.
I can admire someone who works tirelessly to fill a position, but the people I
want to learn from are those who already have a few candidates in mind when an
opening occurs because they’ve been doing the legwork to connect with these
individuals for months. It can no longer be the case that posting a job opening,
whether on your career site, social media or a job board, is the beginning of
the hiring process. We must shift our mindset to recruit along the way if we
want to transform how we hire.
Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist
specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder
of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.
