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5 simple techniques to improve time to hire in tech

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Time to hire

Time to hire is a key HR metric that begins counting from the moment a candidate has entered your recruitment pipeline, regardless of whether they applied or were sourced.

According to LinkedIn, only 30% of companies are able to fill a vacant role within 30 days, the other 70% of companies need anywhere between 1 – 4 months to process a new hire.

A drawn-out recruitment process not only increases your hiring costs, but it could also cause you to lose quality developers. Research by Robert Half has found that a whopping 57% of job seekers lose interest in a job if the hiring process is lengthy.

So now we know that a long time to hire can not only cost you more money but also potentially lose you candidates, what can be done to help streamline and improve the process?

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Find a technical screening solution with pre employment assessment software

Common screening processes like cognitive ability assessments or work sample tests can be helpful indicators of a candidate’s fit with your company, but they can also be rather time-consuming. Bringing down your time to hire metrics can be as simple as trying out the latest tech.

Recent client’s from DevSkiller have reported conducting 90% fewer interviews and have since been able to reduce their time to hire by 50%.

After switching to DevSkiller, our hiring process has become more thorough and efficient which has resonated with one of our core values of speed. We are now able to move a candidate through the application process as quickly as they would like to move, which can be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. This process now has the ability to be much faster and involve less manual work from our recruiters.

Hayden Trumbo, Recruiting coordinator at Clevertech

DevSkiller’s RealLifeTesting™ methodology has an immense advantage over whiteboard tests and algorithmic puzzles. It mirrors the real work of programmers, immersing the candidate in challenges similar to the ones they’d face if hired.

DevSkiller tests have given candidates the opportunity to prove their technical ability quickly in the interview process. Before, we used to have to book out back to back days of interviews to ensure we were hiring a quality candidate. However, with this integration, we are now able to hire higher-quality candidates with fewer interviews.”

DevSkiller is the only pre-employment testing software that gives you a full view of your candidate’s technical skills while helping to automate your hiring process and allowing you to hire the right candidate faster.

The platform also integrates with some of the largest applicant tracking systems, communication tools, and automation tools so that you can recruit and place the right candidates quickly and seamlessly.

Find a good applicant tracking system (ATS) you can trust

Following the same theme, one of the best ways to reduce your time to hire is to use modern recruitment software.

According to research, 86% of recruiting professionals say that using an ATS has helped them hire faster.

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Applicant tracking systems help manage multiple hiring pipelines, from posting a job to sourcing candidates. They are designed to shorten the time to execute most tasks involved in the recruitment process. Tasks that include resume parsing, interview scheduling, filtering out of non-qualified applicants and automatic emailing of notifications can now be executed quickly and easily through an ATS.

Some of the most useful features of an ATS are listed below:

  • One click job posting to multiple job boards
  • Centralized storage of applicants’ files (application letters & resumes)
  • Searchable database of applicant profiles and recruiting analytics
  • Automated parsing and screening of resumes
  • Interview scheduling generator and automated email client
  • Team communication and collaboration

Establish a structured hiring process

The hiring process starts when a company identifies the need to fill a position and ends when a candidate accepts a job offer.

Adding structure to the hiring process creates a better experience for everyone involved.

Candidates feel like they’re being treated transparently with honesty and respect. Recruiters are able to oversee the process, keep the team on track and more accurately forecast when the role might be filled. Interviewers know exactly what’s expected of them and how best to perform their role. And hiring managers get candidates who meet their criteria and have a much higher chance of success once they begin working.

Taking a structured approach can help you identify talent for long-term success (not just short-term needs), make evidence-based decisions, mitigate interviewer bias, enable consistent candidate evaluation, and reduce redundancy and total interview time.

The framework of the recruitment and selection process varies depending on the position being filled and the company profile. Typically, hiring teams build their hiring process around these four stages:

  1. Planning – HR managers should get the job opening approved before posting an ad, as well as discussing the recruiting budget for their position, prepare the job description and assemble their hiring team.
  2. Attracting candidates – This can involve any sourcing method hiring teams to take to fill their hiring pipeline with qualified candidates.
  3. Selecting candidates – The most important part of a candidate screening phase is the interview. Screening calls, job application reviews and pre-employment tests help ensure that hiring teams interview the best candidates.
  4. The offer phase – If all goes to plan, the final step involves drafting and sending a job offer email to your desired candidate.

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Facelift your job listings and job postings

One effective change you can make to reduce your time to hire has nothing to do with the recruitment processes. Updating, diversifying and controlling job listings can go a long way towards improving the quality of the candidates who apply for the job. This, in turn, reduces the amount of time you’ll need to spend on screening.

Instead of focusing on getting a high number of applications, you should focus on attracting the right talent. Your job listing will be many candidates’ first impression of your company. While you want to avoid keyword stuffing, you also don’t want to fill your listing with cliches or fluff.

Furthermore, try to be transparent. 61% of candidates prioritize salary in job descriptions so don’t exclude compensation, benefits, and perks.

Once you write your job description, the next step is promoting it the right way. Whether that’s on job boards, social media, or your website, you need to let the job seeking world know that you’re hiring.

LinkedIn recently found that posting on Mondays is your best bet. More than half of all views and applications occur Monday through Wednesday. As the week goes on, people view (and apply for) jobs less and less, with Fridays through Sundays being the worst days to communicate your job opening.

Recruiting is a seriously competitive industry. And first impressions matter. That’s why your job description writing skills are an important weapon of your organizational armory and why writing a good job posting is essential to success.

Maintain quality candidate engagement, online and elsewhere

Engagement can begin and end with your careers page. Your careers page is your personal pitch to candidates. It’s a place to show job seekers why your company is attractive, and make it easy for them to apply to open roles.

If your careers page isn’t appealing, then they have no reason to stick around and be convinced to apply. In the tech world, getting the attention of skilled talent is possibly the hardest part of your job. So when any kind of developer gets to your careers page, you need to make sure that the talent likes what they see. If they do, they will give you their details.

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The most effective job descriptions are engaging and inclusive, while also being clear, concise, and to-the-point. Anyone should be able to understand it. A great job posting prompts the right people to apply and helps you trim down your time to hire. Due to the number of job postings accessible on the web, it’s hard to get noticed.

Another way to engage with candidates is by consulting your current employees. They can be a fun and effective method to source candidates, especially since they have a sense of the company culture and what it takes to succeed there. You can offer employees the opportunity to receive a bonus if they refer a candidate who is eventually hired.

When programs like these are first introduced, participation levels are off the charts. But as time marches on, so does the thrill. So, even if you already have an employee referral program, now’s the time to turn up the volume and get employees excited about it again.

Find the best tech screening solution for your company

When it’s all said and done, you need to identify the best solution for your business. Did you know that the costs of recruiting a software developer can be as high as $60k?

Unless you’ve got a huge recruiting budget, you can’t afford to hire an employee whose skills haven’t been verified and just hope for the best. Give yourself the best chance for a lower time to hire and try TalentScore. It’s your best bet to hire better developers in the shortest amount of time.

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