Women on crouching on the starting line, ready to race.

A swift recruitment campaign will secure and hire great candidates – just don’t rush it

Published: 8 March 2023
Author: Recruiter On Demand

It takes time to find and hire the best candidates for the right company fits. Not only time, but great care, not least because hiring the wrong person is costly and disruptive.

But recruitment processes can be overly lengthy and packed with inefficiencies. On average, a candidate’s interview process stands at 27.5 days and that task sits with hiring teams who are already facing the pressures of a candidate shortage and turbulent markets.

Why does it take so long?

Great candidates are becoming harder to find. A survey by ManpowerGroup in 2022 found that 75% of companies reported talent shortages and difficulty hiring. Candidates are more unwilling to migrate, European candidates are becoming more difficult to acquire, and across-the-board candidates are far more likely to demand hybrid or remote working.

So yes, wider market factors are contributing to drawn-out recruitment processes. But some of the problems lies in how organisations themselves recruit – with poor planning, inefficient processes and overly-lengthy interviewing.

The fear of making a bad hire

While an urgent recruitment deadline means a shorter time to hire, there’s a real danger of hiring the wrong candidate. Making a bad hire is costly – around 30% of that employee’s salary and alongside financial costs, it can bring down the morale and productivity of the rest of the team.

Rightly, hiring managers are concerned about making incorrect hiring with 64% believing that the impact of a bad hire now is worse than it was pre-pandemic. This fear is heightened when the hiring manager does not fully trust the recruiter’s understanding of the company and what’s required of the role.

Poor planning equals low-quality candidates

A lack of workforce planning and urgent deadlines can also affect the quality of recruits: 43% of companies end up with bad hires because they need to hire a candidate immediately to fill the role. According to 89% of recruiters, these candidates lack soft skills and may be applying for the job without giving it much thought. 

The obvious remedy to this is to flag recruitment needs as soon as possible, with comprehensive and accurate information about the role requirements. Then companies need to hone the application process to ensure it’s simple for candidates and show off the employer brand perfectly.

Optimise recruitment processes to hire the best talent

It’s a candidate-driven market and top candidates will drop out of the process when faced with drawn-out interviews and lengthy decision-making.

In fact, every aspect of the hiring process that prolongs making a job offer contributes to prospects losing interest. Reviewing recruitment processes is time well spent and optimising them shortens the hiring cycle by 60%, giving a greater chance of securing strong candidates.

Get in touch

At Recruiter on Demand, we understand just how important it is to run a swift and smooth hiring process. We work as part of your recruitment team to hire the best candidates for your company and pride ourselves on our expertise and efficiency.