We’ve all seen the stats around the cost of a bad hire. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average cost of a bad hire is up to 30% of an employee’s first-year earnings. While that may be less for contingent workers, the amount of time and effort that goes into a hire, regardless of how a person is employed, is costly and frustrating
Businesses need to know they are hiring the right person the first time around. This often translates into a lengthy interview process that spans weeks and involves multiple people on the team weighing in on a candidate.
In today’s market, the demand for talent is at an all-time high given the emergence of new technologies, the speed at which digital transformations are happening, and the globalization of the market. Add to that the necessity for companies to attract and retain talent based on its brand, culture, and benefits while actively competing with others in the market can cause companies to overthink the interview process.
Hiring managers must balance efficiency with rigor. Still, many are taking two or three weeks and requiring multiple interviews to select a contingent worker. The contingent workforce is expected to exceed 40 percent of the entire U.S. workforce in the next year and 26% of the entire workforce in APAC. The competition to attract this workforce will only get more heated, and companies must find a better way to engage and employ them.
Maximize internal processes
Whatever internal procedures are standing in the way of an efficient hiring process need to be taken out immediately. If you partner with an MSP or have a VMS technology in place to manage your contingent labor program, work with them to remove any barriers to hire. Look at your current SLAs and tweak them where needed to improve time-to-fill. Ask staffing suppliers how you can engage with their candidates faster. Shaving even a day or two out of the process can be the difference between securing top talent and missing out.
Partner with experts
For far too long, hiring managers have done most of the heavy lifting bringing on contingent labor. They are vetted at a high level through staffing agencies whose recruiters have limited knowledge in the field. To shorten the hiring process, partner with companies that do that work on your behalf and engage subject matter experts to vet and assess that talent on your behalf.
Take candidate engagement seriously
If your company requires a lengthy interview process and doesn’t see itself changing with the times, it’s critical you engage candidates throughout the process to keep them interested in working for your company. Send consistent feedback, provide interview feedback, and communicate specific dates if you require a second and third interview.
The future is remote
SIA’s 2020 Staffing Company Survey found 50% of IT temporary workers are likely to be working remotely for clients even after the pandemic ends. Hiring strategies centered around remote interviewing, group interviews and pre-recorded assessments can offer huge time savings.
Utilize emerging technology
Hiring managers can’t assess every skill set effectively. Emerging digital assessment technologies provide remote, flexible, interactive assessments that ask questions to ensure a candidate can perform a given job. They seamlessly vet technical skills, validate credentials, and provide subject matter expert interviews so the onus isn’t on the hiring manager, which can significantly add to the interview process.
As we look towards the future of work, automation of internal processes, the intake of data, the rise of blockchain, and digital assessment tools will improve how we all work. Tasks that used to take days will take hours. Communication will improve. If companies don’t find a way to incorporate these advances into the interview process, it will continue to cost them their biggest competitive advantage—their talent.
