Oct 1st 2019

Your hiring process is costing you more than just money

The average length of  the recruitment process in the UK is 27.9 days. There are a range of reasons for this; layers of pre-employment admin such as questionnaires or extensive rounds of interviews which create drawn out hiring processes. An example of this at play are graduate schemes, with 58% of graduates finding the process time-consuming and old-fashioned. Long processes tend to be accompanied with a negative candidate experience; 47% feel confused by the process and would like more insight into assessments and 50% struggle with the lack of communication and feel the process requires them to lie.

Undoubtedly these processes put a strain on internal resources; plenty of man-hours are spent on these assessments and long vacancies result in incurred financial losses with co-workers picking up the slack. With 1 in 4 employers having experienced a loss in revenue due to unfilled vacancies, it’s no wonder 60% of employers are concerned with costs associated with delays in filling open positions.

Losing out on top candidates

What’s more, long hiring processes also result in employers losing out on good quality candidates; 69% lose interest if there’s no update from one-to-two weeks post interview. If they’re in demand, then employers also risk having top quality candidates being snapped up by competitors. In fact, in a survey of 1,000 job seekers in the UK, 58% stated they accepted a ‘second-choice job’ because an employer took too long to make a decision.

Candidates exist in an environment where consumer grade experiences are a given, with customer expectations now at an all time high: 67% of customers say their standards for good experiences are higher than ever. Negative candidate experiences will cause candidates to drop out of the hiring process and 68% of candidates think the way they’re treated during the process reflects the internal culture of an employer and will deter them from accepting job opportunities.  According to McKinsey, superior talent is up to 8 times more productive so losing out on top candidates has concerning implications for businesses.

Employer branding

The detrimental effects of inefficient hiring processes goes even further than losing out on talent  to actually damaging an employer’s overall brand.  In this hyper-connected world, employers must consider that  everything they do and every interaction they have with candidates contributes to their overall brand. Of the candidates that have had a bad  experience, 72% shared these experiences with friends or online. Negative experiences can be magnified and with 69% of candidates stating employer brand as very important when considering job opportunities, your brand should play a key role in your talent attraction strategy.  A damaged employer brand will not only further inhibit the ability to attract top candidates, but can even negatively affect a company’s bottom line, deterring consumers from purchasing their goods and services.

As the dynamic of the working world changes, inefficient recruitment processes will become more of a concern. Job hopping is becoming  the  new norm; nearly half of Millennials and Gen Z plan to leave a job within two years and high turnover rates will inevitably lead to employers hiring more often. Recruitment processes need to be as efficient as possible to reduce the incurring costs from unfilled vacancies, the strain on internal resources and the impact on business. This is even more relevant as employers now operate in a candidate driven job market.

Introducing technology

Hiring processes can be made more efficient in a variety of ways from reducing the amount of interviews through to integrating relevant technology to streamline the process. Unilever shrunk its graduate hiring process by about 75% with a combination of easy applications, automated sorting, gamification and video interviews. By automating mundane tasks such as sorting CVs or stripping out unnecessary administrative tasks, the hiring process can be stripped down. This not only gives employers the best possible chance to tap into top quality talent without straining resources but also to elevate their employer brand.

Takeaways

The role of the hiring process has changed. It must not be considered as simply transactional but instead viewed in a more holistic sense. It must be viewed as an integral component of the wider talent attraction strategy. High-quality candidates are few and far between in this candidate-driven job market. Losing talent due to a slow process is, quite frankly, a self-inflicted pain point creating detrimental knock-on effects to the wider business, including efficiency and overall brand. As Gen Z make their arrival into the working world, re-examining the hiring process is becoming increasingly important. Employers need to ensure they are competing effectively in the war on talent and prepared for the changing demographics of the workforce in order to future proof their business.

Here at Tempo we don’t mess around. Our fastest placement was made in 27 minutes, not 27 days… that’s 1,440 times faster.

Read more about how technology can be integrated into your hiring process here