The longer it takes to fill a position, the more it costs a company. 

As a recruiter, you must be familiar with the above statement. Whether it is financial resources, reduced productivity, missed opportunities, or long hiring processes, it can impact your business's bottom line. The speed at which you can fill a position can make all the difference.

So, what is considered an optimal time to hire? 

This depends and may differ from industry to industry, and currently, the average time to hire is 44 days. And yet, many jobs go vacant for months.

By tracking and optimizing time to hire metrics, you can overcome hiring challenges and improve hiring processes. In this article, we'll explore the importance of monitoring the time to hire and eleven action-oriented tips to streamline your recruitment process. 

Why track time to hire metrics? 

Time to hire measures the total time it takes to fill a vacant position, from the moment you advertise it until they accept the job offer.  

Just like tracking the time it takes to complete a task helps you identify areas for improvement, monitoring time to hire also offers valuable insights that can transform your hiring strategy. 

Here's how:

• Measuring efficiency: By tracking how long it takes to fill positions, you can assess the effectiveness of your hiring strategies and identify areas for improvement
• Identifying bottlenecks: Helps pinpoint stages in the recruitment process where delays occur. Identifying such bottlenecks allows you to address underlying issues and streamline operations
• Improving candidate experience: When you optimize and reduce the time to hire, you enhance the candidate experience, making it more likely for top talent to accept your offers
• Enhancing workforce planning: Understanding how long it takes to fill positions helps in effective workforce planning. You can forecast hiring needs and analyze historical data to ensure adequate staffing levels
• Benchmarking performance: It also allows you to compare your recruitment process against industry benchmarks and best practices
• Aligning with business goals: Helps in aligning with broader business objectives by ensuring timely acquisition of skilled talent

How to reduce time to hire: 11 effective tips 

By implementing strategic tactics, you can significantly reduce your time to hire and attract top talent faster. Here are 11 practical tips to do so:

1. Implement an efficient Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that automates and streamlines the recruitment process, from job posting to candidate onboarding. 

Benefits of an ATS:

• Saves time by automating manual tasks like resume sorting and candidate screening.
• Improves organization by keeping all candidate information centralized and easily accessible.
• Enhances collaboration by facilitating communication between hiring managers and teams.
• Provides valuable data and insights to track time to hire and identify areas for improvement.

AI-powered recruitment automation platform Kula ATS simplifies hiring with automation at every step. You can get the best features for faster recruitment, all in one place, including:

• Automate repetitive tasks such as resume parsing and candidate communication
• Aids in the creation, management, and tracking of offer processes, including the ability to generate offer letters, customize offer templates, and track the status of approvals
• Filterable, analytic dashboards that include metrics such as sourcing, pipeline, historic pipeline, and hiring plan data for making informed decisions

2. Utilize pre-employment assessments

Pre-employment assessments (also known as pre-hire assessments) are nothing but a set of questions or assignments that need to be completed as a part of the candidate's job application.

They go beyond traditional resumes by objectively evaluating a candidate's skills and knowledge specific to the job role, helping you measure the candidate's suitability. 

Benefits of pre-employment assessments:

• They help you identify candidates who possess the necessary skills and competencies to excel in the role
• Allows you to focus interview time on qualified candidates who have already demonstrated their capabilities
• They offer valuable data to support your hiring decisions and ensure objectivity throughout the selection process

How to use pre-employment assessments:

• Choose assessments that directly align with the required skills and competencies outlined in the job description
• Communicate to candidates the purpose and format of the assessment so they can adequately prepare
• Set a realistic timeframe for completing the assessment to avoid discouraging qualified applicants
• Most importantly, keep the assessment relevant and concise

Kula ATS lets you customize the application process for each job with configurable screening questions and integrated assessment tools to help you make a faster decision. The platform even has an automatic prediction feature for candidate hire dates based on an intelligent assessment of the funnel and past hiring processes.

3. Optimize job descriptions

Your job descriptions often give a potential candidate a first impression of your company. A clear, concise, and informative description is crucial to attracting qualified talent who fit the role well. This allows qualified candidates to tailor their resume templates to your specific requirements, making it easier to weed out generic applications.

Benefits:

• Well-written job descriptions that clearly outline the role's responsibilities and required skills will resonate with qualified individuals
• When your job descriptions accurately reflect the role's requirements, it becomes easier to identify qualified candidates during the initial screening process
• It showcases your company culture and unique selling points that can attract top talent 

How to optimize job descriptions:

• Avoid technical jargon and industry-specific acronyms
• Proofread, format, and style your descriptions for easy readability
• Keep the description relevant and specific to the role

With Kula ATS, you can: 

• Build localized and branded career pages, event pages, candidate portals, email templates, and offer letters without provider support or coding.
• Advertise internal, external, and private jobs effortlessly across multiple job boards.
• Sync internal and external ads directly to your career site or webpage using a customizable widget – no provider support or coding needed.
• Share job opportunities seamlessly on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and leverage Google Jobs Search integration to maximize visibility in search results.

4. Leverage employee referrals

Employee referrals are a valuable source of qualified candidates. Here's why:

• Your employees understand your company culture and the ideal candidate profile. They're more likely to refer individuals who are a good fit for the role and your organization
• Studies show that referred candidates tend to be of higher quality and perform better on the job
• Existing relationships with employee referrals can expedite the interview process and lead to faster hiring decisions

How do you use employee referrals?

• Offer rewards for successful referrals, such as bonuses or recognition programs
• Utilize Kula's applicant tracking system to streamline the referral process. Kula allows employees to easily submit referrals directly, where you can track them directly through the platform

5. Conduct structured interviews

Structured interviews ensure consistency and objectivity throughout the hiring process.

Benefits include:

• Minimizes bias and ensures all candidates are evaluated based on the same criteria
• Standardized interview formats allow for efficient evaluation and comparison of candidates
• Provide a clear understanding of the interview process and expectations for candidates

How to conduct them:

• Create a set of pre-determined questions aligned with the job description and required skills. Ask all candidates for the same position the same questions.

Kula ATS lets you create structured candidate evaluations via customized interview scorecards that can become template scorecards

• Establish a rating scale to objectively evaluate candidate responses during the interview. 

6. Utilize technology for remote hiring

We already talked about the use of ATS for an easier hiring experience, but there are plenty of other technologies that can be used (in addition to using an ATS) to make remote hiring a breeze.

But why remote hiring?

• Remote hiring allows you to tap into a broader pool of qualified candidates, regardless of location
• Eliminate travel and accommodation expenses associated with traditional in-person interviews
• Video conferencing tools like those deployable from within Kula's platform UI with 1-click facilitate flexible scheduling for both candidates and interviewers

Tools you can use for remote hiring

• Video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet
• Online assessment platforms such as HackerRank, Codility, Criteria
• Virtual whiteboarding tools such as Miro, MURAL
• Collaboration software such as Trello, Asana, and Basecamp
• Background check services including Checkr, HireRight
• Remote onboarding platforms - Sapling, Click Boarding, or Enboarder

7. Offer competitive compensation packages

An attractive and competitive compensation package is crucial for attracting (and retaining) top talent. A combination of a great salary, benefits, and incentives ensures qualified candidates are motivated to apply and join the organization, reducing the time to hire.

Benefits:

• Competitive salaries and benefits reduce the risk of losing employees to competitors 
• It increases employee satisfaction and loyalty
• A reputation for offering competitive compensation enhances your employer's brand

How do you offer the best benefits and salary packages to employees?

• Conduct market research to determine competitive salary ranges and benefits packages for each position
• Create compensation packages to meet the unique needs and preferences of your target candidates, taking into account factors such as experience, skills, and market trends

8. Build a future-proof talent pipeline

Building a talent pipeline involves proactively sourcing and engaging with potential candidates who may be suitable for future job openings within the organization. 

• It allows organizations to fill vacant positions more quickly by tapping into pre-qualified candidates
• Engaging with candidates in the talent pipeline helps build lasting relationships and keeps them interested in future opportunities 

How to implement:

• Use Kula ATS to track and manage candidates who have expressed interest in working for your organization
• Proactively source and engage with potential candidates through networking events, social media, and other recruitment channels
• Regularly communicate with candidates in the talent pipeline to keep them informed about job opportunities and maintain their interest

9. Implement a collaborative hiring process

A collaborative hiring process involves involving multiple stakeholders, such as hiring managers, team members, and HR professionals, in the decision-making process. A collaborative hiring process will ensure that decisions are well-informed and aligned with the organization's goals and values.

Other benefits include:

• Involving multiple stakeholders in the hiring process brings diverse perspectives and insights
• Makes the decision-making process faster by distributing tasks and responsibilities among team members
• Enables organizations to assess candidates from different angles, resulting in better hiring decisions and higher-quality hires.

Using Kula's collaborative features, such as interview scheduling and candidate feedback tools, you can facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among team members.

10. Provide timely feedback to candidates

A positive candidate experience is the result of timely feedback with candidates. Prompt feedback keeps candidates engaged and informed, helping to speed up the hiring process and secure top talent. It can:

• Demonstrates respect for candidates' time and effort
• Allows candidates to make informed decisions about their next steps
• Enhances your employer's brand and reputation

So, how do you create a positive candidate experience?

• Establish clear timelines for providing feedback at each stage of the recruitment process and communicate them to candidates upfront
• Make the hiring process easy on candidates

Using Kula, you can have candidates apply for jobs or express interest in 1-click and from any device without needing to create a UserID or system password. Additionally, you can send automated interview review notifications reminding stakeholders to submit feedback following interviews.

11. Regularly review and optimize the hiring process

There is no perfect recruitment or hiring process. If you want to reduce the time to hire, then continuous improvement is the way to go.

• Regularly reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of your hiring process allows you to identify areas for improvement and implement changes accordingly.
• It also helps in staying agile and responsive to changing market conditions and business needs
• Also ensures a smooth and positive experience for candidates, increasing their likelihood of accepting job offers

Achieving this would mean implementing all or most of the above strategies we discussed above. Additionally, analyzing certain recruitment metrics allows for the identification of trends and areas for improvement.

Key Takeaway 

Time to hire is one of the most important metrics to measure to improve your hiring process and to get the best possible talent for your company.

Kula ATS's reporting and analytics features can further enhance this process, providing actionable insights to optimize the hiring process and drive long-term success. 

If you're ready to amp up your recruitment strategy and reduce the time to hire, schedule a free demo of Kula today and see how we can transform your hiring process!