5 ways to reduce the time it takes to hire

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When it comes to recruiting a new member of staff, time is very definitely of the essence. Gaps in your team inevitably have an impact on the business – and that, ultimately, will affect your bottom line, even more so when you are endeavouring to recruit for a key position.

So, what can you do to make the recruitment process as speedy as possible? Well, although you can never be sure of when someone will leave until they hand in their resignation letter, there are certain steps you can take to ensure you are fully prepared for whenever that moment happens. Because one thing is certain, the longer you take to recruit, the more it will appear that there is something wrong with the position if potential candidates discover that you’ve been looking for a longer amount of time.

1. Prepare job descriptions
The best way to be poised for fast recruitment is to have a job description prepared for every role in the business – from an admin assistant right up to senior management. That way, when your best performing team member decides to leave, you’ll be able to start a recruitment campaign immediately instead of taking days to compile the job specification.

2. Plan your recruitment process
Making sure you have the resources in place is just as important as being responsive to an impending vacancy. Be clear about who needs to be involved in the recruitment, their roles and the timeframes to which you all need to be working. Block out diaries for interviews and remember that the more senior the members of staff involved, the more likely they are to be busy.

3. Consider short-term contracts
It can be more costly to take on someone on a short-term contract but, if there is any issue over finding an ideal permanent candidate – with the possibility of having no one in the role or feeling pressured to employ someone who you don’t feel is entirely right – bringing in a contract worker can be a good solution for buying more time and avoiding even more costly mistakes. You might even find that the person brought in to fulfil the contract works well and fits effortlessly into the business so they may want to consider the position on a full-time basis themselves.

4. Establish a talent pool
This could be as simple as a database of CVs from previous recruitment drives or speculative approaches from individuals interested in your company. There may well be applicants who have impressed you in the past but weren’t suitable for a specific role at the time.

5. Find a good recruitment consultancy
Working with a recruitment consultancy has to be the best way of streamlining the recruitment process and ensuring it is as fast as possible without compromising the quality or suitability of the candidate you finally hire. Forming a good relationship with a recruitment partner – who will work hard to understand your business and your specific requirements – will mean speed and efficiency, a large network of candidates, and all the help you might need during shortlisting. At On Target, we offer our "Expert Pre-Selection Guaranteed" commitment whereby we’ll identify the strongest candidates, (typically just three but more if a client wants), that would be suitable for the role you need to fill. We take responsibility for all the hard work of sifting through CVs – a time-consuming task that can go on for days when you are trying to carry out your usual duties at the same time – to find those candidates who match the job specification. We do it efficiently, effectively and with deep understanding of your sector, so that you only need to conduct the interviews.

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