Improving Time-to-Hire: Practical Tips for Accelerating the Hiring Process in Your Small Business

Hiring the right people is essential to your company’s success. As a small business owner, one of the most crucial decisions you will make is hiring employees who will contribute to your growth.

However, the hiring process can take a significant amount of time and resources, which can slow down your regular business operations. This can be especially difficult for small businesses, with employees already wearing several hats, including standing in for the role you’re trying to fill.

If you’re looking to fast-track the hiring process in your growing business, you have to focus on strategies that will speed hiring and ensure you get the best candidates before other companies. However, for small business owners, this process can feel overwhelming. Here, we discuss four ways you can streamline recruiting to find stronger candidates and deliver exceptional results.

#1. Establish Realistic Hiring Goals

With the unsteadiness of the recruitment market, many small businesses have had to adjust their hiring practices continuously. But before you improve time-to-hire, you need to analyze past performance and hiring analytics. This includes measuring:

• Speed of recruitment: First things first. How quickly does it take to hire and onboard a recruit? Do you have any areas that bottleneck your recruitment processes?
• Candidate reach: Take a look at where you find candidates and determine the success of those channels and platforms. Is there an avenue that shows potential in which you could devote more resources? On top of this, analyze your applicant completion and quality of hire rates.
• Cost of recruitment: In addition to cost per hire, examine the cost of each sourcing channel against its effectiveness.
• Employee and candidate satisfaction: You can determine the overall satisfaction trends across your current and new hires using key metrics, such as employee survey results and offer acceptance rates.

Time to hire may be a priority, but other recruitment metrics sometimes highlight a larger problem. Consider what simple changes you could make to your hiring process that will make an impact right away.

#2. Focus on Soft Skills

At the top of the list for growing companies is finding talent that helps move the business forward. But this is often easier said than done. The Employ Recruiter Nation Report found that 32.7% of HR decision-makers in SMBs indicated their biggest challenge is finding enough qualified talent to fill open positions, which naturally slows your time to fill.

If someone’s qualifications and experience don’t align perfectly, remember it can be more impactful to find candidates with the right knowledge, skills, and abilities.

This isn’t to say that hard skills are not important, but candidates with soft skills typically make more reliable employees who stay for the long term. Make sure your job descriptions list relevant soft skills and identify how you can assess them during the interview process. For example, consider:

• Asking your candidates directly: Be specific. During interviews, ask them what soft skills they possess and identify examples of how they have used those skills previously.
• Testing them online: Another mechanism for identifying candidate’s soft skills is requesting them to take an online assessment. The JazzHR Marketplace offers a variety of assessment providers that specialize in candidate assessments.
• Seeking a second opinion: Get in touch with a candidate’s references and ask them to describe their soft skills. This can validate or flag anything your candidate says within the interview stage.

#3. Invest in Passive Candidates

According to LinkedIn, 70 percent of the world’s workforce are passive candidates, while only 30 percent actively seek out new opportunities. This makes passive recruitment a gold mine of an opportunity. However, it requires a different approach.

In passive recruitment, the desired candidate is the person with the control. Unlike active recruitment, where you wait for candidates to apply for your open job roles, you reach out to
your desired candidates. You have to persuade them to join you.

Passive recruitment demands excellent research skills to find the right candidates and outstanding relationship building. Your outreach should be personable without being overbearing. Once you find potential passive candidates to reach out to, ensure you maintain a talent pool of those passive job seekers. By having a pool of pre-screened and qualified candidates, your company can save time by quickly finding qualified talent to fill roles quickly.

Additionally, having a robust talent pool can lead to higher-quality hires. Applicants who have previously shown interest in your company or have been recommended by current employees will better understand your work culture and values.

#4. Leverage Affordable Hiring Software for Small Businesses

Many small business owners have recognized the value of investing in recruitment software that makes their hiring process smoother and faster. But it has to be affordable and effective.

Automating your recruitment process is one of the most effective ways to reduce repetitive hiring tasks and streamline hiring costs in your company. It also empowers your hiring managers to focus on high-quality, strategic hires by spending more time nurturing candidates.

However, it’s important to choose the right recruitment tools that make sense for the volume and complexity of your hiring process. It’s also important to make sure you strike a balance between automating tasks that don’t add value and focusing on areas that still require a human touch, like nurturing candidates.

JazzHR offers small business recruiting software that empowers your growing company to find and hire talent fast, at a cost you can afford. Automate repetitive, manual tasks, centralize candidate information and data and better compete for top candidates — all from a recruiting solution built specifically for SMBs.

Hit the Ground Running

The practical strategies highlighted in this guide allow growing companies to focus on improving their hiring process and practices. By automating tasks, developing a strong employer brand, and adapting to the changing hiring environment, you can improve hiring outcomes despite your small business’s challenges.

The tips offered here can take your business to the next level and ensure you improve the speed of your recruiting process, find stronger candidates, and deliver incredible results.

If you’re a small business owner or hiring manager looking to streamline your hiring process, JazzHR can make a big difference. Contact JazzHR today for a free demo today.