How much is your slow hiring process costing you?

In today's highly competitive job market, it’s more important than ever for organizations to have a streamlined, efficient recruitment process. A slow hiring process can mean the difference between filling a position and losing out on top talent while spending more money than you budgeted for. But what are the true costs of slow hiring? Take a closer look at some of the ways a long hiring process can affect your bottom line, and what you can do about it.

How long should your hiring process be?

The average time to hire across different industries is between 27 and 42 days, however, some reports suggest that top candidate profiles are snapped up after about 10 days. Researching your industry's average time to fill can establish a benchmark of what candidates expect and how long they’re willing to wait before being hired.

What happens if you have a slow hiring process?

Candidates will go elsewhere

One of the biggest costs of slow hiring is the loss of top talent. Multiple rounds of interviews and poor communication can be a huge turn-off for in-demand candidates. If they're considering multiple offers, they may decide to go with a competitor simply because your organization takes too long to make a decision.

A hard time finding top professionals might push you towards hiring the wrong person for the job, which is very expensive. This can cost you as much as 30% of your candidate’s first-year salary. To put that into perspective, a bad hire that earns $60,000 a year could cost you a massive $18,000 in lost productivity, legal costs, and training expenses.

It hurts your employer brand

Another side-effect of slow hiring is a negative employer brand. Studies estimate that bad employer branding could cost your company up to 10% more per hire. As word gets around among job seekers about how slow and frustrating your recruitment process is, it can discourage future candidates from even applying for a job at your company. This makes your hiring efforts even more costly and difficult in the future as job applications drop.

Current employees get frustrated

A slow hiring process can be disheartening for your current employees, too. They may be working more to cover a position that hasn't been filled yet, leading to decreased productivity and morale.

Your internal employer brand suffers as a result. If employees see that it takes a long time to fill key vacant positions, they may be negatively affected and become less loyal. If this happens, employees can be unsupportive of the company’s recruitment efforts. This is a recipe for disaster as employee referrals still make up almost half of quality hires.

How to fix a slow hiring process

Streamline your application process as much as possible. Can candidates apply online? Are there too many steps involved? Simplifying your application process will make it easier for candidates to apply, and it will also help you weed out unqualified applicants more quickly.

Adecco is here to help with your hiring efforts and not just with the time-consuming aspects of the hiring process. We have a tested history of helping organizations find talented candidates and fill tough positions. We improve your job postings to generate more applications, do deep-dive research on your current candidate pool, and optimize your whole talent pipeline and onboarding process. We also make sure you have an edge over your competitors by giving you access to the biggest candidate database in the US.

If you’re interested in supercharging your company’s hiring process, get in touch with us today.