When hiring technical talent, time to hire and cost per hire are two of the biggest concerns. We spoke to our expert in-house team to discover some tricks of the trade and pass on their wealth of knowledge.
Be Strategic
Research tells us that the global average time to hire an engineer is around 62 days. It’s a lot, and it really doesn’t make it easy when you’re looking to fill a role ASAP. To reduce your time to hire, you’ve got to be strategic. What roles are you looking to fill and what do you require them? Ask yourself, what does my business need, when are the key sales periods going to be this year and which teams are going to expand? Thinking this way allows you to start thinking about points from our previous guide to sourcing, including building out a talent pipeline well ahead of time to get ahead of the hiring curve. Remember that you can start to build out job specs for every role in the business, just in case.
Make sure that you are on the same page as your hiring manager. After all, the clock is ticking and it’s not going to stop until the position is filled. Work with them to devise a plan, looking at realistic timeframes for all involved. Clear your diaries, as you’ll both want to set aside plenty of time to look at potential candidates.
Supply and Demand
In terms of next steps, we recommend working with your wider team to ensure that you are as accurate as possible when writing your job spec. Work out exactly what is needed from a new hire, including skills, experience and day-to-day tasks. Whilst it may seem useful to look at other available job specs, we wouldn’t recommend copying them. You might use something from a spec that doesn’t engage with candidates and end up wasting your time.
Be data-driven whilst conducting your search. Continue to liaise with your hiring team and find out as many stats as possible such as:
- How long it currently takes to fill roles
- How does your current time to hire compare with industry standards
- How long it takes your company to move between the different hiring stages e.g. from initial application to the final interview stage
When looking for new talent, search for the specific skills that you’re looking for. For example, if you’re looking for a Java developer who is familiar with AWS or Microservices, make sure to look for those nuances in your candidate search. That way you can be sure that you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for, instead of someone who potentially doesn’t quite fit the bill.
Prep for Success
Another way to reduce your time to hire? Get prepped. Finding desirable candidates may seem like a chore, but it’s a must in order to move forward with your hiring strategy. Using the advice above, only choose those who have the skills and strengths that you need for a particular role. If someone’s gone above and beyond, great, but if it doesn’t seem like they have quite what you’re looking for, add them to a ‘maybe’ pile.
Our recommended next step? Call your potential candidates and opt for a phone interview before taking it any further. With many companies opting to use a phone call as part of the first stage interview process, It doesn’t have to be a long conversation but it will help you to see the difference between a good candidate and a great one. For example, it’s a handy situation to clarify any details on their resume, assess whether the candidate is a good communicator and even gauge how interested they are in the position.
Be thorough in your initial calls and go over as much as you can before deciding whether to meet them in person. Remember that phone interviews are as much as an opportunity for candidates as they are for you, and they’ll help you sell your company to the candidate - it’s far more likely that they’ll go through the interview process quicker.
Overall, the interview process is the biggest factor when reducing a company’s time to hire. At hackajob, we give companies the opportunity to reduce their number of stages by showcasing a candidates code up-front, enabling them to fast track candidates through the process. We help you find the best talent on the market, and the average time to hire via our platform is just 17 days.
Want to scale your tech hiring? Get in touch. We’d love to help.
