Finding good candidates for your open positions is hard enough, but in today’s job market, locating and hiring the best candidates as quickly as possible is critical. Effectively balancing speed and quality gives your company the best chance to secure top candidates while bolstering your company’s image as a great workplace.
If you have ever been through a protracted hiring process while applying for a job, you know how frustrating it can be. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a long hiring process causes people to drop out and look for other opportunities. In one survey by Robert Half, 39 percent of respondents said a long hiring process caused them to start looking for other opportunities.
When balancing speed and quality, companies should consider two key metrics: time-to-hire and quality-of-hire.
Relatively straightforward, time-to-hire indicates the average time it takes to recruit someone, from when their application is received to when they are hired. This metric indicates the speed of your hiring process, and tracking it helps you see when speed-related improvements need to be made. When working with a temp agency in Wichita to hire temporary workers, this metric might be called time-to-fill instead of time-to-hire.
Quality-of-hire is a bit more difficult to calculate, but it is arguably more important than time to hire because bringing the best candidates into your organization translates into all kinds of business benefits, even when it takes a bit longer to hire those top-notch candidates. According to a report from LinkedIn, most companies use three indicators to gauge quality-of-hire:
- New hire performance. This metric combines metrics that indicate where a new hire might be adding value, such as production levels and customer satisfaction ratings.
- Hiring manager satisfaction ratings. Hiring managers are the front lines of gauging new employee performance, and these scores can be a much stronger indicator of new higher quality because they consider intangibles that hard numbers can’t track.
- Although many companies use turnover as a way to gauge the quality of hire, putting too much emphasis on this metric can be risky because turnover can result from many different factors, not just poor hiring decisions.
Wichita staffing agencies are laser-focused on these two hiring metrics and many others. By tracking these hiring metrics, agencies can ensure they deliver their clients the best possible staffing solutions.
What Challenges are Associated with Balancing Speed and Quality in the Hiring Process?
Although not mutually exclusive in the hiring process, quality is often sacrificed for speed, and vice versa. The key is to get the balance just right so that the best possible candidates are hired without significant delay.
Getting the balance wrong can have serious negative consequences. If a hiring process places too much emphasis on quality, a long time to hire has three major negative consequences:
- Loss of job market competitiveness. If your company is taking too long to hire the candidates, it will likely lose some of those candidates to your competitors with a faster hiring process.
- Decreased ability to meet short-term demands. If you can’t get new employees in the door fast enough, your company loses its ability to meet deadlines and production goals.
- Decreased ability to meet long-term objectives. If a hiring process drags out over the course of months, it decreases your company’s ability to get new employees up to speed so they can contribute to the company’s long-term goals.
Although it is important to expedite your hiring process, it is also critical not to do it at the expense of quality. Decreased quality-of-hire also has three significant negative consequences. These consequences can fly under the radar as long-term impacts:
- Higher turnover. If an accelerated hiring process brings in low-quality candidates, they are more likely to quit or get fired, often within the first six months. Higher turnover means wasted resources, as employees must regularly be replaced.
- Lower productivity. By definition, a subpar hire will perform at a lower level than a strong hire. This translates into lower sales, lower customer satisfaction scores, and more.
- Damage to company culture. If you have ever worked at a company where new employees never seemed to work out, you know that it can devastate morale and overall company culture. This effect is difficult to measure but it is all too real.
Balancing speed and quality is critical to minimizing these negative impacts. Many local organizations strike this balance by retaining the services of a staffing company in Wichita. These companies have the connections and resources to quickly deliver high-quality candidates that can hit the ground running and start contributing To the bottom line.
How Does a Wichita Staffing Agency Provide Tailored Solutions to Local Businesses?
Using custom staffing solutions, a Wichita staffing agency helps local businesses bring in best-fit candidates faster than these companies could do on their own. Consider the following five ways a staffing company in Wichita can help your company expedite its hiring process without sacrificing quality.
1) Leverage Pre-Screened Talent Pools
Staffing companies in Wichita maintain pre-screened pools of candidates that they can quickly tap into to fill open positions. Local companies that partner with a Wichita staffing agency instantly gain access to that agency’s candidate pool, completely eliminating the need to advertise the job opening and wait for applications.
Because a staffing agency pre-screens these candidates, there’s also no need to spend time digging through resumes or performing background checks. Staffing companies also have the advantage of getting to know these candidates, whether it’s through previous assignments and screening exams that meant to gauge various skills
Having access to a talent pool also provides an added bonus. Even if a candidate isn’t selected for a specific open position, hiring managers still get to review these candidates and potentially keep them in mind for future open positions.
2) Utilize Advanced Recruiting Technology
Because sourcing top-quality candidates is their business, staffing companies in Wichita invest in advanced recruiting technologies.
Most staffing agencies use a sophisticated applicant tracking system (ATS) with features for each step of the hiring process. An ATS automatically tracks the progress of each candidate, and automated features allow agency recruiters to efficiently move candidates from one stage to the next. For example, an ATS can automatically screen resumes, schedule interviews, and send notifications to candidates.
These platforms also generate significant data that can be used to refine and improve a hiring process. An ATS can detect increasing time-to-hire and pinpoint areas in the hiring process that could be improved based on past performance and industry benchmarks.
3) Develop a Clear Job Profile and Requirements
Staffing agency recruiters routinely create job profiles for many different companies. This gives them much more experience than an in-house hiring team. When your company partners with a staffing company in Wichita, it gains access to this experience, allowing you to write targeted job descriptions that bring in the right candidates.
Staffing agency recruiters can also help companies use job descriptions to meet particular hiring goals. For example, if your company is looking to attract more female applicants, recruiters can help you write job descriptions that have gender-inclusive language.
Along similar lines, agency recruiters can help your company optimize its career page. Candidates typically check a career page when they first learn about a job opening and when they’re considering a job offer. If the careers page is lackluster or if there are red flags, it will significantly decrease your company’s ability to bring in the best possible candidates.
4) Staffing Agencies in Wichita Establish a Collaborative Process
A structured and collaborative hiring process ensures companies get the most out of their relationship with a Wichita staffing agency. On the front end, agencies and their clients can devise custom staffing solutions that maximize return on investment. For example, if your company is experiencing a surge in business, a temp agency in Wichita can bring in workers to temporarily meet the increase in demand.
On the back end, an effective collaboration produces measurable results that can be used to continually optimize the recruitment process. The result is a highly effective recruitment collaboration that produces superior results.
5) Wichita Staffing Companies Focus on Long-Term Fit Over Immediate Availability
When a company uses its in-house hiring team, that team often feels pressure to fill an open position quickly, often sacrificing quality in the process. Outsourcing the recruitment process puts some distance between the hiring effort and the hiring managers. Agency recruiters can focus on long-term fit better than meeting immediate staffing needs.
Don’t Sacrifice Quality for Speed — Choose Top Notch Staffing for the Best of Both
Whether you are looking to staff full-time positions or you are seeking a temp agency in Wichita, Top Notch can quickly connect your company to best-fit candidates. Our recruiters understand how to address common bottlenecks and develop a talent acquisition process that only connects your company to high-quality candidates. If you are looking to fill temporary or permanent positions, head to our request an employee page to get started.