Key Takeaways
- Always start with clarity. Make sure to get everyone on the same page before you launch your search.
- Use ATS to handle the most demanding tasks, for instance, everything from screening to scheduling.
- To get the best candidates right from the start, use hire assessment tools.
- Keep your passive candidate pool warm for quicker outreach.
Having a large number of companies and small startups today in the world, the best candidates’ wait time for landing a job role isn’t much. Every extra day you spend filling open positions, you lose productivity, stress your teams, and increase the risk of losing a star applicant to someone else.
You don’t have to sacrifice candidate quality for the sake of speed. With the right mix of hire assessment tools, thoughtful processes, and a few smart strategies, you can dramatically cut down your time-to-hire.
1. Start With Absolute Clarity
Before you post a job, gather your stakeholders and hash out the must-haves: skills, experience, cultural fit, and what success in this role truly looks like. Write everything down. Build out a candidate “persona” and list out clear KPIs.
Having this foundation will save you weeks of sorting through applications that should never have landed on your desk.
2. Get the Most From Your ATS
Your ATS platform can do so much more than store candidate details. So, put it to the right use, for instance:
- Automate your screening process.
- Integrate your communication and send out personalized updates via email or texts at scale.
- Automate all your workflow, including sending email invites, reminders, status changes, and more.
3. Run Processes in Parallel, Not in Line
Use “parallel screening.” It can be done in various ways, one can be having someone to handle a reference check as your candidates are giving technical interviews. Another way can be getting the background checks started as soon as you see a promising candidate.
Pair this with asynchronous hire assessments or video interviews to save more time.
4. Embrace Asynchronous Testing and Interviews
Bottleneck alert: Scheduling. Hand your candidates a link to a timed skills test or a set of video interview questions. They complete them after hours if needed; your team reviews responses during their next free block.
This keeps everyone moving forward, and it levels the playing field—every applicant answers the same questions on the same platform.
5. Create Interview Templates You Can Actually Reuse
Build question templates and scorecards for common roles. To get it right, have an understanding of:
- What skills and attributes matter most? It helps you pick core competencies.
- Write down the behavioural questions. Including real-life stories can make it much more effective.
- Set rubrics—for instance, having a standard that shows what makes a great answer?
6. Nurture a Passive Candidate Pipeline
Your ATS or candidate CRM can actually help you do this perfectly. Use it to tag previous “almost-hired” applicants for future roles. Send them occasional newsletters with updates and future job openings. That way, if you ever need someone fast, you’ve already got warm leads to reach out to.
7. Collect Feedback Fast and All in One Place
Have every interviewer enter feedback in your ATS right after every meeting. Standardized scorecards can help you compare the candidates with similar skills, instead of just collecting numbers; it can be done with written comments on strengths and concerns.
8. Deploy Hire Assessments Wisely
Early, relevant testing—for instance, skills, cognitive ability, situational judgment can keep you from wasting time on mismatched interviews and focus only on the best fits fast. Platforms like MeritTrac can make this seamless as it comes with simulators for tech, scenario-based tests for sales or service.
9. Make SLAs Your Best Friend
Set “service level agreements” for each step. For example, resumes have to be screened within 24 hours, feedback needs to be given in 12 hours, or offers will be sent out within 2 working days.
When the expectations are visible to every recruiter and hiring manager, it keeps them accountable and your candidates don’t have to wait for extended times.
10. Track the Metrics That Matter
To actually accelerate your hiring process, measure the right bottleneck issues, including:
- Which stage of the hiring process is taking the longest of the time.
- Which job boards, agencies, or referrals are bringing in the best candidates fastest?
- Where are we losing the candidate—in which stage and why?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What’s considered a good time-to-hire?
A good time to hire is having an approximately 30 days goal for most positions.
Does speeding up the process mean my hires will be lower quality?
No. You should always ensure that as you make your hiring processes more efficient, the quality of your hires doesn’t degrade.
How do I motivate hiring managers to give feedback faster?
Use your ATS to send reminders and make feedback easy. Tools like scorecards or dropdowns can prove helpful. Besides that, make sure to set SLAs so everyone knows the clock is ticking.
What’s the real difference between time-to-hire and time-to-fill?
Time-to-hire are the days from candidate application to offer acceptance. Time-to-fill means, the total number of days from job request to offer acceptance.
