Companies are always looking at ways to speed up the recruitment process, which is why time to hire (TTH) is such a key metric. TTH is the time it takes to hire a candidate, starting from their initial application. The shorter your company’s TTH is the better and that’s where an applicant tracking system (ATS) can really make a difference.
Why is TTH so important?
A short TTH is good for both candidates and your company. For your potential new employees, a quick and smooth hiring process will be a better experience and give them a great first impression. If that time between application and being hired takes too long, it can negatively affect your brand. It could even lead to candidates being snapped up by your competitors.
Slow processes, lack of staff training and repetitive manual tasks are typically the cause of a long TTH. With an ATS, you can remove these issues, significantly reduce your TTH and keep candidates engaged throughout the hiring process. You never know – it could be the difference between hiring the right candidate and leaving a role unfilled for weeks on end.
So, how does it work? We’ve put together a list of five ways that using an ATS can streamline and speed up TTH.
1. Identify bottlenecks
How can you improve TTH if you don’t know where the problem lies? An ATS with built-in analytics and reporting features will help you pick up on bottlenecks in the process. From there, you can use that data to make informed decisions and take action that will help reduce that TTH.
When choosing an ATS, support can also be a key factor in reducing your TTH. Customer support isn’t just about solving problems and fixing day-to-day issues. If you get the right ATS in place, you should be able to work with your provider to discuss and tackle your company’s specific bottlenecks.
2. Build a talent pool
An ATS is designed to handle large volumes of applications. Because those candidates are securely stored in the system, they can become your first port of call when new vacancies come up. Your TTH will come right down as you will have an existing talent pool to call on – you are never starting from scratch.
Once you have that talent pool in place, the magic really happens when it comes to finding the right people. An ATS will give you advanced search tools that make it easy to match suitable candidates to vacancies. By being able to quickly filter and find people from an existing database, you can reduce your TTH significantly.
3. Automate communications
When you’re dealing with lots of applicants, communications can be time-consuming. Whether you’re waiting for a candidate to complete and return a form or dealing with a backlog of emails, it all adds to your TTH. A modern ATS will lighten the load by allowing you to automate the process.
With automation, you can set your ATS to send candidates emails at different stages of the hiring journey. That includes telling them where they are in the process and what they need to do next, and even whether they have got through to interview or not. You can even set reminder emails to go out if candidates don’t complete tasks within a specific number of days.
4. Ask killer questions
If you recruit for a big company, chances are you will need to deal with a large volume of candidates. Many of those people applying won’t meet the minimum criteria for the role. Rather than deal with cases one by one, you can create and ask ‘killer questions’ through an ATS.
Killer questions can reduce your TTH by helping you remove unsuitable applicants right from the start. As a result, you don’t have to lose time dealing with applications from people who are likely to fail later in the process. Your ATS should allow you to set lower and upper thresholds to your questions too, which gives you extra flexibility from role to role.
5. Use video interviewing
Arranging and then holding interviews can be a long, frustrating part of the hiring process. If your candidates are not local to your company or even live abroad, it can be even more time-consuming to arrange an appropriate time to interview. But if your ATS comes with built-in video interviewing capability, geography is no longer issue.
Interviewing over video reduces TTH because you can do it at any time and from any location. Not only does it help your company assess potential recruits more quickly, it shows candidates that you are flexible and forward-thinking. Again, it can help you make a fantastic first impression.
Learn more about Tribepad
If you’re on the lookout for an ATS, why not start by finding out what other companies use? You should also take a look at some of the success stories for our own award-winning Tribepad ATS to see if it might be right you. Get in touch for a free demo.
