The race goes to the swift, and in today’s competitive environment, every company is wrestling with hiring talent. Savvy managers know they can’t delay when they see promising candidates, or they risk losing them. Shorter hiring processes especially appeal to millennials, who have grown up used to instant gratification and on-demand access. The articles below explore the techniques companies are using to fast-track the talent search — from ditching resumes to expanding recruitment.
Companies Fast Track Hiring – Wall Street Journal. “The latest trend in hiring has a lot in common with speed-dating. Fed up with recruiting that takes weeks or months, employers are experimenting with ways to take on new employees in a matter of days or even hours…Technology and media companies are accelerating the way they woo and acquire talent, from entry-level workers to directors. Managers say that things like delaying or forgoing reference checks and scheduling back-to-back interviews are helping swiftly fill jobs with good employees…The best candidates get snagged quickly, so companies gain little by extending the hiring process, says John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University.”
How We Stopped Reviewing Resumes and Started Making Better Hires – Fast Company. “We decided we needed to take our hiring process one step further, and we built an extension to our internal project-tracking tool that would help us better manage job candidates. It’s now a standalone app that moves applicants through our hiring pipeline as efficiently as possible….When a candidate applies for a job, our hiring app generates a unique URL with a series of sample tasks and space to enter responses. We encourage applicants to take their time, answer the questions completely, and spend as much effort as they would on a real-world problem. Submissions are returned anonymized. Our staff then evaluates completed materials solely on their merit, according to predefined criteria…By addressing five areas, we’re getting closer to hiring more effectively.”
Advertising Week Doubles as Recruitment Drive for Agencies – Digiday. “MEC…used Monday to interview and hire people to entry-level jobs at the agency via a speed-dating-style ‘Live Hire’ event. In a tent in Times Square, agency execs including North America CEO Marla Kaplowitz and global CEO Charles Courtier, were interviewing candidates at high-tops for a couple of hours — then, for the lucky few — sending acceptances by the afternoon. ‘We want to change the face of talent management in the industry,’ said Marie-Claire Barker, global chief talent officer at MEC. That means that this strategy, which MEC has used in the past with events held at its offices can be a new model that makes the agency figure out who is a good fit for their culture and who is not….Barker said she doesn’t have hard numbers, but anecdotally at least, it feels like more people accept offers through these events than through traditional recruitment methods.”
The On-Demand Economy Demands a Better Background Check – Bloomberg. “There’s one old-economy problem that refuses to get out of the way: red tape. ‘There is a huge emphasis for employment businesses to carry out valid background checks in line with regulations – and there are fines and even criminal sanctions if you aren’t doing it in the right way,’ says Kate Shoesmith, head of policy at the U.K.’s Recruitment & Employment Confederation…‘We used one of the big three credit bureaus before and would manually check identity documents if necessary. It’s super time-consuming and expensive,’ says head of strategy Slava Kremerman.”
Does your company hope to improve its hiring speed? I’d love to hear what’s worked — and what hasn’t — in the comments!
Lindsey Pollak is the leading voice on millennials in the workplace, trusted by global companies, universities, and the world’s top media outlets — and, most importantly, by millennials themselves. A New York Times bestselling author, Lindsey began her career as a dorm RA in college and has been mentoring millennials — and explaining them to other generations — ever since. Her keynote speeches have audiences so engaged that, in the words of one attendee, “I didn’t check my phone once!”Contact Lindseyto discuss a speaking engagement for your organization.
