Almost half of employers have had to shorten the time it takes to recruit someone because they want to hire new staff more quickly, according to research released today.
Forty-six percent of employers have reduced the length of their hiring process as the market for good candidates becomes tighter, research found. A further 28% have reduced the process because the time it took to hire was putting candidates off.
Recruitment resources
Good practice guide: Candidate attraction
Totaljobs’ survey of more than 3,000 jobseekers and 100 employers revealed that 92% of employers now make an offer within a week of the interview process, while 59% take less than two weeks from the role first being advertised to the first round of interviews.
The Office for National Statistics recently announced that unemployment had hit an 11-year low, making it difficult for many employers to source the right candidates.
In an effort to streamline the process, 10% of employers now conduct interviews over Skype. A quarter use psychometric testing as part of the hiring process, helping them to determine the cultural fit of candidates for the role more quickly.
In terms of finding roles, 70% of jobseekers now use a mobile phone to look for a role, according to Totaljobs. However, only 47% of the employers polled said their company websites and application processes were optimised for mobile.
And while most employers (84%) felt their key channel for advertising roles would be their corporate website, just 15% of jobseekers would look there first.
Furthermore, while 53% of hiring managers would use professional networking sites such as LinkedIn to attract candidates, Totaljobs said that, according to its data, this approach was only used by 24% of those looking for work.
More than half (57%) of jobseekers use generalist job boards to search for roles, compared with 59% of employers using them to advertise.
Totaljobs survey also found that 18% of candidates use industry-specific recruitment websites, and 17% use social media in their job search.
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John Salt, a director at Totaljobs said: “With employers cutting the length of their attraction and recruitment process to draw in the best talent, the role that technology plays in delivering a more agile experience will continue to grow in significance.
“Helping candidates find the jobs they love and employers hire the talent they need – fast – is essential, especially as the candidate market continues to tighten.”
