Constantly Hiring? 4 Ways To Streamline The New Hire Process Fast

Do you need to streamline the new hire process? Are you a hiring manager with a mess on your hands?

In this Reddit forum, a hiring manager describes why her job is a nightmare.

• No recruiting software
• High turnover
• Constant onboarding
  • Daily new hires to be processed
• Always in panic mode
• Bosses make unrealistic demands
• Too many priorities to get anything done

Does this sound like your job?

Crisis Intervention For New Hire Chaos

1. Evaluate current process (or lack thereof)
2. Identify and prioritize problems
3. Create plan to streamline workflows
4. Use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Assess Current Hiring Practices

If your processes are manual, measuring outcomes is difficult. Where do you start? Right here:

Get feedback from:

• Recruiters
• Team leads

Calculate time-to-hire:

• Measure time from job posting to acceptance
• Break down total duration by each step
• Identify bottlenecks

Calculate staff turnover rate

The turnover rate is defined as the number of employees you must replace in a specified time frame. Depending on the size of your staff, calculate by month, quarter, or year.

Compare your rate to the average for your industry and geographic area on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website. Hard numbers give you insight. If your industry has an especially high turnover rate, you can take comfort that others are fighting the same battle. If you are an outlier, it means your processes are making a bad situation worse.

If you have an ATS, look at your analytics. Run reports for everything. Even those that don’t seem directly related. You may learn something new.

Gather your information and figure out what’s going right or wrong. Create a plan for fixing the problems. These steps will help:

Improve Job Descriptions

If you aren’t getting qualified applicants, fix your job descriptions.

Start with the jobs that attract the most unqualified applicants. These job descriptions need to be better defined. Consult with the hiring team members listed in step one.

All job descriptions should have:

1. Starting date range
2. Salary range
3. Benefits and perks
4. Required skills and experience
5. Ideal skills and experience
6. Hiring manager contact information (a real person)
7. What does the position require on a daily/weekly basis?
8. Timeline for the hiring process

Many companies don’t include the last two. Add these to your descriptions and differentiate your company. The posting will start performing better.

Check References Before Scheduling Interviews

If you check references after interviewing, you are wasting time. Reference checks are an important filter. If checking references takes too long, make it easier for references to contact you. Give them several avenues: email, phone call, snail mail a letter of reference.

Filter Candidates Faster

You need technology to speed this up. Especially if your workload is ridiculous. Use an ATS to filter applications quickly. You won’t need to read any resumes until the applicant pool is narrowed down.

How you speed up filtering with an ATS:

• Create a database of all applicants
• Track where each applicant is in the process
• Create tasks with reminders
• Auto emails
  • Email templates
• Store and manage job postings
• Application filtering
  • Create questionnaires with knockout questions
• Integrate with background check company (if you outsource background checks)
• Structured interviewing questions
  • Video interviews

Onboarding

Applicant tracking systems with onboarding bring the same efficiency once the candidate accepts the job offer. Managing it with an ATS is called structured onboarding.

• When hired—simply change status—no need to enter everything again
• New hires fill out initial paperwork online
  • They can access it from a mobile device
  • They can do it before their first day (you have to pay them for their time)

How To Convince Your Boss That An ATS Is An Absolute Necessity

ApplicantStack recruiting solutions were designed to clean up the new hire mess. With ApplicantStack Recruit and Onboard, you can tame the chaos at your company. Plus, your new hires will stay with your company longer.

Help your boss understand how ApplicantStack Recruit works and how it will pay for itself:

ApplicantStack Recruit Product Walkthrough

Can My Company Afford an Applicant Tracking System?