10 Tips for Hiring Faster

Perhaps you’ve got one of those businesses that boomed during the pandemic. Maybe you were on the other end of the spectrum and had to do layoffs, but are finally finding yourself in a better place and ready to hire again.

Whatever the reason, there’s usually at least one time in every small business’s life when hiring needs to happen — and fast.

If that’s the position you’ve found yourself in (or a position you anticipate being in soon), then you’re in luck. Here are 10 tips and tricks for hiring faster than ever before.

1. Take a look at your hiring process overall

Are there any inefficiencies in your existing hiring process that have held you back from moving quickly before? Has your organization outgrown some of the elements of your old hiring process that you can now do away with to save time? Are there job sites you’ve relied on before that just haven’t produced the results you want?

Whatever it may be that was working for you before but isn’t working for you now — or what was a “nice to have” element before, but can be skipped in the name of speed — go ahead and table it for now. If you’re looking to hire fast, you want the process to be as speedy and efficient as possible.

2. Put more people on the task than just recruiters

While it’s obviously a recruiter’s job to, well, recruit, it doesn’t mean that hiring should be left completely to them — especially if you’re ramping up your usual process. If you’re looking to hire more salespeople, why not ask your current sales all stars what you should be looking for? Ask them what caught their eye when they were applying. The same goes for any other role.

3. Encourage referrals, referrals, referrals!

Speaking of bringing others into the hiring process, referrals are your best friend. Chances are your current employees know someone in their network (or they know someone who knows someone who might know someone) who could be a great fit. Especially if there are referral bonuses involved, the best place to source new talent is through the talent you already have!

4. Be clear (and realistic) about what you’re looking for

A clear and detailed, yet succinct and always realistic job posting is your best friend. If someone reads a job posting and the position or its responsibilities aren’t clear — and they’re on the fence about applying — a confusing job post could be all they need to pass.

It can also be tempting to write a job posting as something of a wish list of all the experience and qualifications that you’d like in an ideal candidate. But when you’re looking to hire fast, asking for the sun, moon, and the stars isn’t going to help you — especially if you’re looking for diverse applicants. Women tend to not apply for jobs unless they feel like they’re 100% qualified, as opposed to men who tend to give it a go if they’ve got somewhere around half of a job’s qualifications checked off.

If someone reads a job posting and the position or its responsibilities aren’t clear — and they’re on the fence about applying — a confusing job post could be all they need to pass.

5. Optimize your website

Just like a confusing job posting, a confusing or unclear website can be a turn off for prospective candidates. Particularly if you’re looking to woo younger talent in the Gen Z age range who are largely looking to work at jobs with missions and values that they share, if it’s hard to discern those on your website you could be losing potential applicants without ever knowing.

6. Gather metrics, track performance, and adjust accordingly

When you’re looking to hire fast you don’t have time to waste. While it can seem like just another thing to do on top of already hectic hiring goals, it pays to track what’s working and what isn’t.

Break down your funnel. Track the number of candidates going through the application, hiring, and onboarding process. Where did the most applicants and new hires ultimately come from? Once you know the avenues that are working for you, you can double down on them.

7. Get creative with where you source talent

Beyond ditching avenues that haven’t worked well before and doubling down on the ones that do, if you’re looking to hire fast this can be a great time to explore less traditional talent funnels.

Are local colleges or universities hosting job fairs? Are there new community groups on Facebook that you could post on? What about Nextdoor? Plus, there’s always social media. If you get creative about where you can source talent from, chances are you’ll end up with more applicants.

8. Streamline your interview process

Much like your hiring process, take a look at your interview process and see where you can streamline things. Could you do group interviews instead of individual interviews? Perhaps you could make the most of the shift to digital work and do interviews over Zoom rather than coordinate in-person interviews. In-person interviews can take more time to not only set up, but carry out as well.

9. Make the most your of your onboarding process

Consider grouping new hires together as much as you can so you can avoid having to carry out the same onboarding process an unnecessary number of times.

Yep, you guessed it — just like your hiring and interview processes, take a look at your onboarding process and see if there are places where you can streamline things. Just because someone is hired doesn’t mean they’re ready to do the job. Your hiring goals aren’t truly complete until you have new people actually doing the work.

Especially if you’re looking to hire quickly, consider grouping new hires together as much as you can so you can avoid having to carry out the same onboarding process an unnecessary number of times.

10. Don’t sacrifice quality for speed

It can be tempting to just get butts in open seats — especially if you have ambitious hiring goals to hit — but if a sizable number of your new hires end up under performing or quitting, it’s all for nothing. You want to find the sweet spot where you’re eliminating things that don’t work and cutting out elements that take too much time, but not to the detriment of the overarching goal: bringing competent and qualified candidates into the organization.