These four approaches can help reduce time to hire as well as expand the talent pool.
By Adele Lomax
In today’s post-pandemic workplace, retaining skilled talent is crucial for companies that want to set themselves up for success in the short and long term. This complex issue has become even more nuanced as today’s talent seek purpose and meaningful work. Companies are also navigating an ongoing skills shortage that is driving and widening the amount of time it takes for a role to be filled—essentially, the time-to-hire gap. In fact, a recent survey found that it takes 36 to 42 days on average to fill an open position in the U.S.
So how can recruiters close the time-to-hire gap and retain talent at the same time? Tackling this issue is no small feat. It requires a modern approach to recruitment—one that includes considering the many facets that contribute to the entire recruiting and retention process. This allows companies to create new opportunities for growth and learning, combining innovative technology with a human touch. Creating streamlined and personalized candidate experiences and going beyond traditional criteria will give companies an edge when it comes to recruiting.
Re-Recruitment: Retaining, Not Replacing Talent
Today’s recruiters continue to face an uphill battle. The shake-up in traditional working models and the shift to hybrid work environments has resulted in more opportunities for job seekers, but also higher levels of turnover as talent pursue new roles that provide better pay, benefits, and flexibility.
For recruiters, one method to help shrink the time it takes to fill vacancies is “re-recruiting” employees. This approach allows recruiters to look at their existing workforce and match employees to relevant roles within the company before recruiting externally. Employees benefit by receiving additional learning and training opportunities through reskilling and upskilling programs.
By looking internally, companies can save valuable time and money in the hiring process by helping current employees carve a new path in their career. Most importantly, this provides an opportunity for recruiters to help companies retain top talent.
It takes 36 to 42 days on average to fill an open position in the U.S.
Balancing Tech and Touch
When it comes time to look for external talent, recruiters who use technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have a huge advantage compared to those who haven’t yet leveraged this technology. Sifting through internal candidates can be a relatively manageable task, given there’s an exact number of people within an organization who can easily be identified as qualified for a role. However, with external candidates, the volume of applicants and resumes can be unpredictable, and technology can help in expediting the process.
When it comes to creating a meaningful experience for candidates being recruited to a company, AI and ML have emerged as disruptive technologies. They can help recruiters process the administrative elements of onboarding to create a faster, more effective experience, and when done well, it can be engaging and informative for the candidate.
When deploying tools like AI and ML, companies need to balance the automated with the human touch. This means, allowing technology to automate certain repetitive tasks like resume scanning and candidate sorting, freeing up recruiters to focus more on human elements like understanding the candidate and what motivates them.
Finding a balance between the technical side of recruiting and the human side will prove to be beneficial in bringing on new talent and speeding up the process while still getting the human touch needed today.
Personalization is Key
A bad experience can make or break new hire onboarding. Candidates don’t want to feel like their resume was fed through an algorithm and evaluated just on a quantitative level. If a candidate feels they haven’t been treated in a way that’s personal to them, it will only stall the hiring process or extend it by having the candidate lose interest.
While technology can certainly help companies expedite the onboarding process, it must not get in the way of creating a personalized experience. Individualizing each and every recruiting experience allows companies to get ahead of questions by potential candidates and shorten the time-to-hire by giving them the clearest road map possible.
Technology help recruiters process the administrative elements of onboarding to create a faster, more effective experience, and when done well, can be it engaging and informative for candidates.
Expanding the Talent Pool
When addressing talent shortages and skills gaps, companies can’t afford to leave any stone unturned in the recruiting process. According to a pre-COVID report by Opportunity at Work and Accenture, 60% of the U.S. workforce does not have a college degree but has the skills for a high-wage job.
In the face of one of the tightest labor markets ever, companies need to broaden how they evaluate candidates by going beyond degrees and other traditional requirements to attract and assess a more diverse candidate pool. Companies should also invest in skills-based training programs and certifications to retain talent.
Today’s talent pool will not wait for companies that drag their feet in the recruiting process. Recruiters can mitigate risks by continuously assessing their approach toward deploying technology with a customized and personalized approach to supporting candidates, ultimately ensuring a company’s talent pool never runs dry.
Adele Lomax is executive director of global recruiting at BCG.
