Time to fill vacant jobs averages approximately 44 days, an increase of 50 percent since 2010. This trend doesn’t bode well for employers who want to win the competitive talent war – especially with unemployment continuing at a low rate and supporting a candidate-driven market.
Slow hiring has a negative ripple effect that hurts your company in myriad ways.
Your bottom line suffers.
Top candidates remain on the market for only about 10 business days. Unless you seal the deal with them quickly, the result is hiring weaker performers. This can lead to either a costly mis-hire or a lengthy period of subpar results, the cost of which could be insurmountable. There may be:
- Direct revenue loss: Lengthy vacancies, especially in revenue-producing roles, will not only cost you immediate profits, but could also cause you to lose customers.
- Lower productivity: Even when a job is vacant for a single day, you lose the opportunity to get necessary work done. Multiple vacancies over long periods of time can result in productivity taking a steady nosedive.
- Loss of talent to your competition: The talent you keep waiting actually won’t wait very long. Instead, they are likely to be hired by your competitors, further threatening your business.
Your employer brand is tarnished.
A long, drawn-out hiring process degrades the candidate experience. It could lead to up to two-thirds of applicants disparaging your company on social media – not to mention word of mouth.
- Sales also suffer when candidates are treated poorly. According to some research, resulting sales losses could add up to as much as 15 percent.
- Your ranking as an employer will fall if negative reviews are posted on Glassdoor and other important lists.
Your hiring team makes poor decisions.
Slow hiring may lead to poor decision-making and other negative impact on your recruitment and interview team. The end result is a significant waste of corporate resources and morale.
- Hiring team members may “settle” just to bring a painfully long process to an end. They’ve been pulled away from their core work for long enough, without the gratification of a successful new recruit. They become frustrated, burned out, and possibly even reluctant to hire again.
- Diversity may be missed. The most qualified, diverse candidates are in especially high demand.
- Other current employees are also forced to work harder when jobs are vacant. The resulting stress and overload may result in more errors, lower-quality output, higher turnover, and potential safety issues – not to mention even further damage your reputation and image.
If slow hiring is keeping you awake at night, it may be time to partner with a staffing firm that knows your industry, your business, and the current job market. For your temporary and full-time hiring needs in administration, customer service, IT, finance, legal and healthcare support, production, and distribution, take a look at our job portal or contact PrideStaff today.