Close the Talent Gap By Shortening Your Hiring Process

The following is an edited excerpt from our Compensation & Workforce Trends Report for which we polled over 1,400 hiring decision makers nationwide on how they are adjusting their hiring, workforce size, and compensation plans for 2022.

In addition to disrupting the ways in which we work, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted employers to change their entire hiring processes. However, even prior to the pandemic, the pressure to recruit and secure the best talent in a highly competitive environment was forcing hiring managers to take a good, hard look at their time-to-hire metrics and find places to streamline their methods.

So, what’s the hurry? Well, in our Compensation & Workforce Trends Survey, our respondents told us that IT/technology workers are most essential to the health of an organization (19%), followed by customer service (17%) and marketing (17%). Additionally, the function most hiring decision makers expect to expand in the coming year is the IT/technology department (53%), followed by marketing (39%) and customer service (38%).

The problem is that our respondents also said that IT/technology roles are the most difficult to recruit for (39%). In addition, 40% of respondents said that technical skills have been increasingly difficult to find in potential candidates since the pandemic began. As the competition for workers with these skill sets heats up, organizations need to speed up their hiring processes to land top talent before anyone else.

Additionally, with remote working arrangements become more widely accepted, the candidate pool has significantly expanded—and companies are competing for hard-to-find talent everywhere. In our survey, we found that, even with this expanded pool of candidates, employers are committed to shortening their hiring processes. In fact, while 50% of our survey takers said the rigor of the hiring process has not changed, 59% also said their organization has shortened its post-pandemic interview and offer process to meet the current demand and competition for skilled workers. How are they doing this? According to 56% of respondents, they’re making greater use of virtual screenings and interviews. 

In our current hiring landscape, successful employers must pull off an incredible balancing act by expanding their candidate pools and the diversity of their applicants, streamlining their processes, and improving the candidate experience. Using technology to shorten your time to hire is critical, but so is ensuring frequent, personal communications throughout the candidate journey. Striking the right mix of virtual and personal makes for a highly effective recruiting strategy in a highly competitive hiring environment.

Want more insights on how today’s leading employers are turning obstacles into opportunities? Our Compensation & Workforce Trends Report explores how organizations are making significant adjustments to embrace new ways of attracting, retaining and managing a more resilient, well-rounded workforce. Download it today