How Long to Hire?
Posted July 1st, 2013
Your company has open positions to fill. And filling these positions is always a balancing act – you want to make sure you take the time needed to find the best person for the job, but at the same time, you don’t want to wait too long, which could mean lost productivity and lost talent as well. So, how long should you take to hire?
There are no definite answers to these questions, and the time periods will vary among different industries. But most would agree that filling positions in a timely manner is important.
However, time is not as important as finding the best person for the job, according to business writers Richard Hadden and Bill Catlette.
In hospitals, for example, patients evaluate their care by its quality. It would be foolhardy for any healthcare organization to prioritize time to fill a position over finding the most qualified person for the job and someone who fits in well with the organization.
But the time it takes to fill a position is important in telling you something about your company: namely, its reputation as a place to work, the writers say. Hospitals, for example, that have a reputation as a great place to work have much less employee turnover and take much less time to fill open positions than other hospitals they compete against.
The time it takes to fill a position is a reflection of how good the leadership of a company is at building the reputation of the place as a nice place to work. If there is a culture of appreciation, recognition and reward for employees, as well as one of high standards, it will make it a lot easier to attract the best people.
Looking at individual cases involving the time to fill a position really can’t tell you much. But looking comparatively at the time it takes to fill a position can be useful. It can be helpful to keep records of the time to fill jobs year over year. And it can be useful to look at the time it takes to fill positions among different departments.
If you notice that it is taking longer to fill a position now than it has in the past, and the time has been continually increasing, that could be a red flag, a sign that you need to look at why this is happening. The same is true among departments. If there is a big difference in the times among various departments, that also could be sign of trouble.
Companies need to keep in mind, Hadden and Catlette say, that it’s not just the job of human resources to recruit, but that all the leaders and managers of the company need to be on the lookout for talent. If everyone gets involved, and the company develops a reputation as a good place to work, the time to fill new openings won’t be a problem.
If you need people to fill temporary or direct-hire opportunities at your northern California firm ASAP, consider calling upon the expertise of the recruiters at Bayside Solutions. We have a great database of talent and reliable professionals who are ready in just a few hours’ notice to take on assignments at your company. Contact us today.
