Stop Letting Clients Slow Your Candidate Placements Down
It should be no surprise that more than half of sourcing and hiring pros want to shorten their time to hire, according to “2018 Growth Hiring Trends in the United States,” a report from the team at Spark Hire. Even those pros who say their average hiring time is less than a week would like to further expedite the process!
But as badly as we’d all like to speed up our placements, we know it’s not entirely up to us. If we want faster hiring times, we’ll need our clients to get on board. Unfortunately, some clients are slower than others, and few ever feel the same sense of urgency their recruiters do. No matter how quickly you move, your placements will grind to a halt if your clients aren’t moving with you.
That said, there are a few things you can do to speed up the process, even with your slowest of clients:
1. Build Mission-Driven Pipelines
According to the Spark Hire report, the majority of fast-growing companies see finding new talent pools as their highest priority for 2018. This offers an opportunity for natural synergy between your recruiting operation and your clients: Creating mission-driven pipelines.
A “mission-driven pipeline” is a talent pool designed with a specific client’s mission in mind. The pipeline is filled with candidates who share the client’s values, culture, mission, etc. For example, if a company boasts about its volunteering and charitable giving program, you would fill its mission-driven pipeline with candidates who have similar commitments to social responsibility.
When you build a mission-driven pipeline, you have a pool of culturally aligned candidates ready to go at any time. Whenever a client has a new opening, you already have options.
2. Don’t Let History Repeat Itself
Every client has its own unique pet peeves — those employee qualities and traits the hiring manager never wants to see in their workplace again. If those details aren’t hashed out during your initial meeting, you may end up sending candidates who were bound to fail.
To avoid this scenario, put together a questionnaire that asks hiring managers to outline former employees’ deal-breaking flaws. The questionnaire should include information on qualities that disrupt culture fit, absolutely necessary skills, and the traits or qualities that led to previous employees’ departures. Then, give candidates personality and skills assessments to pinpoint any objectionable qualities they may have.
3. Take Scheduling Conflicts Off the Table
Even if the sourcing process runs smoothly, scheduling conflicts can all too easily derail the interview process. When that happens, candidates can grow frustrated and disengaged. Worst-case scenario, the candidate may simply decide they no longer want to work for your client.
Use video interviews to keep the process moving. Have each candidate go through a short video interview, and then send recordings of the top candidates to the client. This gets the best candidates in front of clients sooner and eliminates the need for a lengthy round of screening calls.
Josh Tolan is the CEO of video interview solution Spark Hire. Connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.