Chris Addison, Branch Director
This blog is perfect for hiring managers that want to understand how to effectively reduce their time to hire. We’ve taken a look at some of the best ways to recruit more efficiently and solve one of the most common recruitment issues.
We’ve been recruiting for over 50 years and have worked continuously to perfect our processes and optimise our time to hire. The time it takes to fill a role is always one of the first questions our clients ask, as the longer it takes, the more it can cost in reduced productivity and output. This blog will provide you with a number of tools to help you to recruit faster and improve your time to hire.
Plan ahead
There are a number of things that should be decided long before the job advert goes live to ensure a smooth hiring process. Focus initially on who will be involved in the sourcing, the interviewing, and the decision-making processes. When this is done, agree an SLA with the team that outlines interview and feedback timescales. This level of planning will ensure that everybody knows their responsibilities before the process even begins.
The most common delay we come across with engineering businesses is the feedback process. Plan ahead to ensure that feedback on interviews is efficient, as this will not only protect your employer brand but it will avoid keeping your candidates waiting and slowing down your recruitment drive.
Streamline the interview process
Be clear from the offset as to how many interviews you will need to conduct and what you’re looking to achieve in multiple interviews. A number of our clients find themselves trying to work this out after we’ve found a great candidate for interview, which causes delays. Decide how many interviews it will take to make a decision from the beginning, and this will set expectations and ensure a smoother process for both you and the candidate.
Know your budget and USPs
Take your initial salary budget and put an additional 10% aside. You should do your research and ensure you’re aware of the average salaries for the role you’re recruiting for to avoid paying too little, or even too much – (if you’re in The Midlands, our Average Engineering Salary Report will help).
Salary should never be a sticking point – You should be prepared for all outcomes, including a top candidate that’s hoping for slightly more than the advertised salary. Having this additional budget doesn’t need to be advertised but gives you some room for negotiation if that perfect candidate comes along.
Just as important is your USPs (unique selling points) as a business and within the role itself. The engineering marketplace is extremely competitive, and if you’re offering a generous salary, it’s likely your competitors are too. So what elements of the role, or working for your business, will make the engineer choose you over anywhere else? Long gone are the days of just the candidates needing to be the ones selling themselves, it’s now just as important for businesses to do the same. Ensure you have these things outlined beforehand to speed up the recruitment process and increase the chances of the engineer choosing your business.
Engineering recruitment specialists
Doing these three simple things are sure to help you improve your time to hire which will result in minimum disruption to your business during the recruitment process.
Our extensive experience in hiring engineers makes us the perfect recruitment partner for your engineering business. We take care of all the leg work, and you receive a concise shortlist of the best talent on the market to interview. We offer a range of bespoke solutions including permanent and interim recruitment, labour supply and fully managed services, guaranteed to reduce your time to hire. Our time to hire engineers is currently 28 days, half of the average – how much time and money could this save your business?
To find out more about our services and how ATA Recruitment can support your business, contact us below.