How to Ace Rapid Hiring Amid the Current Race for Talent

Each open position costs the average company $500 a day. Businesses are trying to quickly fill these positions to avoid losing money, but finding the right people for your company is never easy. The current race for talent in the labor market makes it even more difficult. 

However, rushing a hire can lead to other damaging issues such as having to settle for a bad fit – or worse, dealing with negligent hiring. This will only set your business back even further. 

While tricky, it isn’t impossible to speed up the talent acquisition process without rushing things. Here are a few tips you can add to your effective talent acquisition strategy that will help you get the qualified candidates you need quicker than before.

1) Templatize Your Job Descriptions

Writing any job description from scratch for open positions only accounts for extra time and effort you could have otherwise spent doing other important tasks that demand your immediate attention.

A consistent format for new job postings will help you draft descriptions quickly and make the job description easier to scan.

It is essential to make your postings scannable since the majority of qualified candidates spend just about 14 seconds  on average deciding whether to apply for a job or not. That’s all the time you get to make a strong first impression.

Templatizing job descriptions can help you keep them short, precise, and to the point. You can also highlight text that you think will attract top talent to target a wider talent pool.

If you don’t have a previously formulated job description that has worked for you, try this format:

• Start with an appealing job summary
• Talk about qualification requirements for the ideal candidate next
• Mention company benefits on the description of the job itself
• Write a clear Call To Action (CTA) for how to apply

Avoid talking about company culture in the job description. Only 28% of candidates  want to learn about it initially, and it will only end up making the document unnecessarily lengthy. You can always use the interview to assess if they are a cultural fit.

Another best practice would be to promote your posts on Mondays since many applicants apply for jobs early in the week. This number gradually declines as the week goes on.

2) Cut Out Unnecessary Steps from the Talent Acquisition Process

When it comes to rapid hiring, you need to assess whether every step in your recruiting funnel adds value or contributes to increasing your time-to-hire. If the latter is true, it would be best to eliminate some measures that aren’t important for you.

While the best candidates only stay on the market for a maximum of 10 days , a talent acquisition team can take months to fill open positions. 

For instance, if your past hiring patterns and data tell you that you aren’t landing many qualified candidates through references, eliminate that step and focus your time on another channel that has worked well for you.

This will considerably help mitigate the number of calls you need to make or give you certain clarity on whether you should be waiting for these contacts to respond to your emails. However, that’s dependent on if you decide you need to talk to them at all. 

Another best practice would be to conduct group interviews whenever possible.  Not only will this save you a lot of time, but it can also have other exciting advantages. 

Interviewing multiple candidates mean that you’ll get more than one perspective on any question. Additionally, group interviews keep interviewers from getting too comfortable with a candidate. While there’s no harm in feeling relaxed with a candidate, that newfound comfort level can prevent some recruiters from asking some difficult questions that can gather vital information. 

You can also have a base list of interview questions made ahead of time to make sure you’re asking the right questions. Some of these can include:

• Icebreaker questions to help potential candidates relax and build rapport
• Usual questions to gather general information about the candidate’s experience and skill sets
• Situational questions to be able to comprehend what the candidate’s response would be in different business situations
• Behavioral questions to assess how the candidate handled a past business challenge
• Culture fit questions to gauge whether the candidate will be able to thrive in your company’s environment

Try and identify which recruiting process is crucial for your search. If you find out that some of those aren’t adding any value, get rid of them and use that time for something else.

3) Leverage Technology Solutions to Streamline the Hiring Process

Technology has become one of the most critical drivers of talent acquisition. It is a prerequisite for rapid hiring in the present scenario since top talent isn’t readily available.

A staggering 98% of Fortune 500 businesses  use recruitment software  today.

In fact, many talent acquisition professionals believe that the best way to improve recruiting performance in the next few years is to invest in new technology.

In one recent article titled “Spotify’s Secret Sauce of Recruiting in Hyper-Growth ,” Jonathan Singel, the company’s global head of talent acquisition, explains how technology has helped the audio streaming and media services giant-scale quickly.

“Investing in tech helps us to work more efficiently and effectively. For us, it forms the basis of an infrastructure that gives us time back. With that time, we focus on what only humans can do – creating that world-class experience in an increasingly competitive talent market. We never just throw tech at a challenge and expect it to be solved, but using it to streamline processes and make our pipeline more manageable, has been invaluable to us,” Singel says.

Several technology solutions are available in the market today that can help talent acquisition teams streamline their day-to-day workflows and achieve growth faster. Some of these include:

• Computer-powered recruiting platforms
• Chatbot technology
• Marketing automation
• Video/mobile interviewing channels
• Data analytics
• Predictive analytics

When deciding which tech-enabled solutions will work best for you, one best practice would be to look at your existing tech stack, hiring budget, what your counterparts are doing, and speak with experts in the tech niche. Then choose accordingly.

To know more about the kind of approach, tools, and best practices you can include in your rapid hiring model to attract the best candidates and achieve growth faster, get in touch with us at Recruiter.com .

We will be happy to help you build result-oriented and employee-centric workplaces in the long run.

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