If you've ever been without a job, it can feel like the process of finding a job takes forever.  And you might be right.  Recently, The Wall Street Journal declared time to hire is increasing. Across industries, the time to hire was thankfully under 30 days, although still a high number.  However, in large companies, the time to hire was just under 60 days.  Picture that, 2 months without any contributions at work.  And 2 months for candidates to be sitting at home without a paycheck.  With such dismal figures and predictions that this is only going to increase, what can an employer do?  Try these tips to streamline your hiring process and reduce your time to hire.

Reduce Your Time to Hire Immediately

When it comes to the hiring process, many employers still follow antiquated processes. I can't tell you how many businesses I know who still hire off of an Excel spreadsheet and wait around for hiring managers to finally prioritize getting some additional help. As Billy Mays used to say, "There's got to be a better way!" It turns out there is. Try these tips and reduce your time to hire:

• Reach out to existing talent pools.  Did you know you've already got a large pool of passive talent available to you?  Chances are, your LinkedIn is full of connections who are already successful in similar positions.  Reach out to your LinkedIn connections and advertise the open position and its benefits.  This passive talent pool may be ready for a change and your position could be quite attractive.  This could greatly reduce your time to hire.
• Solicit employee referrals.  Employee referrals have long been classified as the most successful hires.  Why? By reaching out to an employee referral, your recruiting team can reduce time to hire, gain an employee who is already familiar with company culture and team members, and enhance your ability to successfully be able to hit the ground running with your new employee.  According to Glassdoor, these candidates are 40% more successful although they only make up roughly 10% of the candidate pool.
• Reach out to former employees.  Employers have had to get resourceful in the hiring crunch.  Many times, this means reaching out to former employees.  Not all former employees were the horrible caricature you see on tv.  They're not all escorted off the premises by security.  Many leave their job for reasons such as a family move, illness, to care for loved ones, and more.  When they come back into an organization, they've been dubbed "boomerang" employees.  Boomerang employees can reduce your time to hire because you already know the employee and the work they're capable of producing.  There's less of a waiting period for employees to adjust to working within the team and an increased chance that they can hit the ground running and produce results sooner.
• Establish a recruiting strategy.  Many recruiting teams just jump in when a new position is open.  Would you just jump into a football game? The key here is to strategize.  It's important to plan your team's efforts so you don't waste valuable time duplicating efforts or trying to convince a hiring manager with no time to participate. This simple step can establish the tone and message of your recruiting efforts.
• Use an ATS system.  Applicant tracking systems are becoming increasingly popular in the recruiting and HR space.  There's a reason why: they work.  Using an ATS system, employers can track applicants throughout the entire recruiting process and streamline communications with candidates.  This not only enhances the candidate experience, but can reduce time to hire.  Recruiters can pull old candidates out of their bank of resumes and see if they'd be a better fit than the last position they interviewed for.  There's no wasteful manual updates of candidates to enter into an Excel spreadsheet.  Now, the recruiting team and hiring managers can collaborate on candidates in one environment.
• Use video interviews.  Video interviews have become a secret weapon for midsized to large enterprise clients.  What these employers know that others don't is this tool can dramatically reduce time to hire.  Consider that using asynchronous on demand recordable video interviews, a recruiter can screen 10 applicants in the time it takes to perform one phone screen.  This speeds up the recruiting process and frees up more time for recruiters to reach out to new candidates. When employers are ready to move onto the next step, they can automatically schedule free times between hiring managers and candidates to perform a live video interview.  These mobile friendly cloud based interviews allow the team to meet from anywhere in the world.  No longer do hiring managers have to draw out the hiring process to meet a candidate in person.  This invaluable tool can significantly reduce time to hire and offer an employer more nuanced insight into a candidate. 

If time to fill a position has become a concern for your team, try these simple tips to reduce time to hire.  The results obtained can be a game changer for your business.  It's time to roll up your sleeves and get creative!