Recently we ran a study on how long it takes to hire an employee. This was internally for the business and compared this to how long it does take to hire for clients. An interesting concept, since hiring is what we do as a business. We hired over 15 employees in the last 6 months, so we broke down the areas of the hiring process. This showed how long each process took on average and came up with this pie chart as the heading image.
The numbers were remarkably similar to the same study we completed in 2019. Either this was because we are still doing things the same way, or because our motto ‘Never cut corners on recruiting’.
What was interesting about the study was that it takes almost half the time in hiring is the beginning part. Creating the job spec, advertising, sourcing, and responding takes almost 50%. This is before you have even spoken or shortlisted any candidates. This may be because we have learnt some hard lessons on not working hard enough at the right job spec and sourcing in the right haystacks.
We also took all the placements we had completed for clients to see which month we place the fastest. Strangely October, June and April came out the forerunners. The only commonality we can see is that companies want to place faster in these months before holidays (festive season, July holidays and Easter).
Speed in background checks occured due to us implementing Crystal Clear, an effortless way to do employment checks. Have a look if you are interested www.jobcrystal.co.za/#crystal-clear/
So why didn’t you hire fast enough?
- Not much effort into your Job Specification – (we see this time and time again if the spec is too generic you get an average hire)
- Sourced from the wrong haystacks – (there are a range of places to find candidates, IT candidates often are not on LinkedIn or Job Portals)
- Need to be prepared for interviews – do not wing it (the candidate is making an effort ensure you have questions, and know why you are asking those)
Should you need some assistance with Job Specifications, information on which haystack to search and how to best prepare for interviews we can highly suggest joining us in a free 45 minute webinar (in 7 days times) – https://my.demio.com/ref/cUmj0T2ZUqWNTIHD. Here I will share how to find the right needle in the right haystack for you.
*Blog written by Sasha Knott, MD of Job Crystal, an all-in-one recruitment company working with SME’s to bridge the gap in unemployment. Sasha comes from a wealth of experience in running start-ups, in a range of industries from IT, Insurance, Financial Services and Recruitment. Business Women of the Year finalist in 2019, female speaker and leading Entrepreneur.
