Imagine this scenario, a company posts a job and then doesn’t start to get back to those applicants until three weeks in, how do you think candidates feel at that point? It’s likely they are annoyed or may have moved on to another job especially in the current job market where applies are at a premium.

If you’re going to post a job online today, you need to get back to candidates in a speedy manner. Somebody applies, then four hours later they get a call (or email) from you. How does that feel versus waiting three weeks? 

In today’s recruiting environment speed is your friend! Including these aspects of the recruiting process;

• Acknowledgement: let candidates know you got their resume and give them an idea of what is to come next. If the candidate is a good one, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone immediately and at least leave them a message. 
• Scheduling: don’t waste your recruiter time or the candidates with a drawn out scheduling process. Use automation to speed up how your applicants get scheduled for interviews. The faster that happens the faster your time to hire will decrease.
• Feedback: don’t string candidates along with no word of their candidacy. Tell them immediately as soon as you have decided to move on. They deserve a speedy rejection. 

On a recent episode of Recruiting Flex, co-host Serge Boudreau (who is also a Talent acquisition leader) said too many hiring organizations still have the wrong mentality when it comes to increasing the speed of recruiting. 

If you wait to interview candidates he has a warning;

“The market is pretty hot. So they’re probably going to get a call from someone else fairly quickly. I just think it’s a really stupid idea to wait any amount of time. If you see a candidate come in, that fits the profile that you’re looking for, jump on them right away. They should get a call 10 minutes after they apply.”

If they are a really great candidate an immediate call will show them how engaged you are as an employer. It’s a better candidate experience.

Beaudreau adds “I’m dealing in situations in which candidates are getting six, seven interviews in a week. And if I’m not moving quickly, even after that first interview of scheduling the interview, the next day, they’re gone quickly. And this is not only tech. I know I come from a background with tech, but I’m seeing this in basically every industry I’m seeing that with payroll professionals, I’m seeing that with engineers, I’m seeing that with creative types. And so in reality, you get an application that fits a profile. You should be calling them right away.”

Do you feel the same, like in reality or what are you seeing? Cause I know you’re recruiting and working in different sectors that have different life cycles than I do, but it seems ridiculous to me to wait. 

But can recruiting teams keep up with a speedy pace? Many teams are already stretched to their limit doing more with less because of the pandemic. But this is where technology can help shoulder the burden.

Take the ATS for example. Boudreau is thankful for the ability to mass reject candidates.

“Thank God for ATS functions that I can reject them in two days, just having to set the calendar to reject them. So it doesn’t look like I did it right away, the minute they applied. So it goes to your, what you’re saying here, as far as never hearing back, I try not to do for that to happen, but I’ll admit it still happens. And a lot of times that candidate applies, sometimes the volume is just overwhelming and the demand from the business is overwhelming. So if you can automate some of this rejection as much as possible.”

Recruiting teams should be constantly checking the ATS as candidates come in and do a quick evaluation of them. Tag the interesting ones and move on. Require that every recruiter is responsible for rejecting or approving candidates to go forward. Leave no resume behind.