New research from Goldman Sachs projects the already record-low unemployment rate – which stands at 3.7% – will continue to decrease and reach 3% by 2020. This means the hiring market is more challenging than ever for employers and it will only get even more competitive.
Given the low unemployment rate, not only is most top talent already gainfully employed, but those who are looking for jobs end up off the market quickly. Hireology data found that 33% of recent hires found new roles within two weeks of starting their job search, and another 26% secured new roles between two weeks and one month after starting the search.
If your hiring process doesn’t move quickly, you’ll likely miss out on top talent who will instead accept job offers from other employers – including your competitors – who have more efficient hiring processes. And as a result, your open roles will lead to lost profitability. Below, we’ve outlined several tips for you to speed up candidate screening steps in the hiring process and secure top talent before it’s too late.
Incorporate Automated Prescreen Surveys
According to Hireology data, the average business takes about 10 days to review and respond to job applicants. If you did the same for customer leads, you likely wouldn’t close any business.
Part of the reason HR and hiring manager often take more than a week to review applicants is that they end up spending too much time manually reviewing applicants who aren’t even a fit for open roles. To avoid doing this and instead only focus time and resources on quality candidates, it’s important to incorporate prescreen surveys into your hiring process. With prescreen surveys, once an application is submitted, the applicant will receive an automated survey that can gauge his or her fit for the role. Prescreen surveys can include knockout questions, so job seekers who don’t meet the basic requirements of the role can be eliminated from the process before your team has to spend time reviewing their applications.
About 40 percent of applicants don’t even bother to complete the prescreen survey – meaning only the most engaged candidates who truly want to work for your business will take the time to fill out the survey. Once complete, the surveys are then automatically scored, so only the strongest applicants get moved to the candidate stage of the hiring process. And Hireology customers who have incorporated prescreen surveys have seen the average time to review decrease from 10 to three business days.
Automate Background and Reference Checks
Even if a candidate aces the prescreen survey and interviews, you’ll want to verify his or her background and work experience before extending an offer. Your business needs responsible and trustworthy employees to offer top-notch customer service and drive revenue, so it’s important to run background and reference checks before making an official offer. Background checks should come back clean and reference checks from former colleagues – especially managers – should instill confidence in your decision to hire.
If any red flags show up on a background check – such as a suspended driver’s license for a candidate applying to a role that requires driving – you can instead move forward with another candidate who has a clean record. An accurate background check report will provide peace of mind that each prospective employee has a history free from negligence or other activities that may put your customers – and business – at risk.
Background checks can be automated with the right hiring process in place. Candidates can submit the required personal information and the rest of the process is taken care of automatically. Hireology’s platform helps you select the required background checks, obtains candidate authorization, verifies results and manages payment. It also emails candidates if they need to take any action, and you’ll be notified as well to cut down on manual task management. This results in accurate and timely turnaround of applicant screening results, eliminates errors and ensures each new hire can be fully vetted before you extend an offer.
Reference checks can also easily be automated. Many businesses make the mistake of skipping this step because it can be frustrating and time consuming – hiring or HR managers often end up playing phone tag with references, which takes time on their end and causing the hiring process to drag on for too long. With automated reference checks, candidates provide their reference contact information and surveys are automatically sent to each contact, saving time that would have otherwise been spent scheduling and completing calls.
Automating candidate screening steps can help your team cut down time to hire significantly and secure top talent before the competition. Ultimately, this will lead to increase productivity and profitability at your business. For additional tips on streamlining your hiring process, read our resource, “The 9 Elements of a Well-Oiled Hiring Process.”
