It's Time to Fill Your Open Jobs Faster

Speeding Up Your Time-to-Fill

“Time-to-fill” is an important metric to determine the efficiency of job postings and their impact on company hiring practices and budgets. It is measured from the day that the position is formally advertised until the position is filled. Unfortunately, it can take over 30 days to fill a key position, which may be a critically long time when you consider burdens on other employees, losses, and disruptions to the workflow. When a position remains unfilled, there are several practices which may help to decrease your “time-to-fill”. These include focusing on your team strategy and policies, as well as the candidate’s needs.

Streamlining the Application Process

Many of the steps in the application process can be eliminated to shorten your time to fill a position. Ensuring that you are using SEO as well as designing your website for user-friendly online applications should be your first concern. Filtering in the best qualified candidates relies on you as well. Being specific about job duties and responsibilities will attract more qualified candidates. Providing a section on your website where a candidate can leave their job preferences with you will be useful for future or related openings. Lastly, review the time-to-fill for all your positions quarterly to see which stage or stages in the process can be made more efficient.

Communication between employees who are involved in the hiring process can be improved to fill that job faster. Find any weak links in the chain and train to improve them--don’t overburden one person in HR, for example.

Be Competitive

Relocation and salary concerns can lengthen time-to-fill. Salaries may go up or down, depending on the economy, and by the same token, candidates may or may not be looking for work. Being reasonable about competitive salaries and being aware of the economy are important considerations. Relocation costs are also factors that affect a job’s attractiveness. Consider absorbing relocation costs for a candidate or family for a position which, in the long run, will bring more benefits to your company with a higher qualified candidate who will afford increased longevity. Also consider offering job perks like flexible hours or other incentives such as professional development credit if salaries do not meet expectations.

Following Up with Candidates

If an applicant waits more than a week or two to hear back from your company after an initial interview, then they very well may have gone on to take another position or just become disinterested. The candidate who was prompt and courteous in the interview deserves the same respect. Their impression matters if in the future, they may be inclined to refer your company to others in the industry. They may also be suitable for another position in the future. With their application on file, this will decrease your costs on “time-to-fill” since you don’t need to find another qualified candidate.