Top Strategies to Speed Your Hiring Process

Tech innovation moves at lighting fast speed, yet the hiring process to snap up coveted IT professionals from iOS developers to big data scientists tends to move at a glacial pace.

For example, while the national average of the time it takes to fill vacant positions in all industries stood at an average of 29.2 working days in May, the hiring of tech workers was only slightly better at 25.6 working days, according to DHI Group Inc.’s DHI-DFH Mean Vacancy Duration measure.

That lengthy hiring process is likely costing hiring managers prime IT candidates, given the industry is facing more demand than supply for tech workers.

“You can call all the top candidates for a job and after 10 days, these candidates are gone. If you want quality people, you have to act quickly. If you just want warm bodies, then you can take your time,” John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University and a speaker and author on strategic talent management, told Software Management Consultants Inc. (SMCI) in an interview for this story. SMCI is an IT recruiting company that also advises clients on best practices for hiring.

Savvy companies are keenly aware they need to make strides in streamlining the hiring process, rather than lose a software security candidate or prospective network administrator to a lengthy hiring process, which sees the job prospect walk before an offer is ever extended. Here are some steps to consider to land the right candidate and faster.

How to Hire in One Day

This lightening-speed strategy has been around since the Internet’s go-go days of 1999, but has increasingly become popular, as the nation has moved away from its recessionary doldrums of 2008, Sullivan said.

There are several variations of the same-day hiring strategy, but regardless of the strategy it tends to leads to higher rates of job offer acceptance, retention and performance, Sullivan noted.

The one-day hiring programs include:

One-day basic hiring:
All interviews and reference checks are conducted in a single day. If the job candidate gets the thumbs up, an offer is extended before the end of that same day.

One-day virtual hiring:
Candidates in demand often are already working and may have a difficult time breaking away for a job interview if it requires them to travel. As a result, use video conferencing, such as Skype or Google Hangouts, to conduct the interviews. Reference checks should also be conducted that same day. And like a basic one-day interview, a successful job candidate will receive an offer by the end of the day.

One-day evening or weekend hiring:
When faced with the challenge of hiring prospective candidates that are already working and unable to get away for a job interview during business hours, consider holding interviews in the evening or during the weekend as an “open house.” Reference checks for those who are invited to an evening or weekend open house can be done before the event. Those who attend the open house will receive a presentation regarding the company, its mission and the cool technologies they are using. Candidates who show interest, aptitude and cultural fit go through an informal interview process at the open house, with the finalists moving on to a private area of the facility for a formal interview with the hiring team. Candidates that gain approval from the team are given an offer before they leave and encouraged to sign aboard.

One-day hiring with a bonus kicker
The basic one-day hiring strategy, or the evening-weekend one-day process, can add the extra layer of using a cash bonus incentive for those candidates who sign an employment contract before leaving the interview.

“Don’t let them leave without accepting an offer. If they go home, their spouse may talk them out of the job,” Sullivan said.

One-Day Hiring Prep Work

While some companies may find it difficult to imagine going from a 25-day hiring process down to a one-day strategy, there are actually several steps that can be taken to pre-qualify a prospective candidate before the job interview begins.

One is to scan a prospective job candidate’s LinkedIn profile, which often is more current than his or her resume, Sullivan observed. That can potentially provide information on whether the IT professional has the minimum skills requirement. And if in-house employees happen to know the targeted candidate, or folks who have worked with this individual, some informal reference checks can be done before approaching the job prospect.

Salary issues can also be addressed upfront, before hiring teams converge. For example, a member from the human resources department can provide the candidate with a salary range and benefits in the pre-interview stage, or if there is a rock star candidate who is coming in for an interview, a C-suite executive may be flagged ahead of time to pre-approve a salary that may exceed the top range, if needed to seal a deal.
Nonetheless, some companies may find the one-day hiring methodology is too difficult to adapt to from a 25-day process. As a result, companies may want to consider a slightly longer version of the one-day hiring process.

How to Hire in One Week

“The No. 1 delay in the hiring process is scheduling an interview when everyone can meet,” Sullivan said.

One-day interviews and more:
All the interviews with team members and hiring managers will be conducted on a single day, but the rest of the hiring process from contacting reference checks to negotiating salary can be completed during the rest of the week.

Same-week hiring
All aspects of the hiring process are conducted and completed within the week, which could include a combination of virtual and in-person interviews to reference checks before or after interviews.

A hiring process that lingers beyond a week may result in job candidates wondering what type of employer they may get saddled with.

“If these people can’t make up their damn mind to hire a candidate and take too long to make a decision, the candidate will wonder what it will be like to work for them and if they’ll take too long to make decisions on any projects they may be working on,” Sullivan noted. “You don’t want this process to drag out over a month.”