How Does Turnaround Time Impact Applicant Retention?

How Does Turnaround Time Impact Applicant Retention?

When you are looking to fill a position, the quicker you can bring on the right person, the better. It may seem like common sense, but unfortunately, many organizations do not prioritize speed when it comes to hiring. A study found that the average time taken to fill a position is 36 days (source). 

Many recruiters and companies underestimate the importance of turnaround time. They believe that they can take their time to review resumes and schedule interviews because there are always more candidates to choose from. However, in today’s competitive job market, a timely turnaround is essential to beat out the competition.

A long waiting period for an applicant may discourage them from continuing to participate in the job search process with your organization. The applicant may leave your company if they feel they have to wait too long for a response. The amount of time it takes to review an organization and decide on an applicant’s position can be the difference between keeping or losing a candidate for the job. Here are four turnaround time pitfalls that can affect your talent fulfillment:

  • Lengthy applications disinterest candidates from applying

We all know that a resume is the most important document to have when applying for a job. However, many recruiters are unaware of how long their company’s job application should be or how much information they should include. Long and complicated job applications may disinterest your potential candidates from applying for open positions. 

If your job applications are long and complicated, you may lose out on potential applicants. Potential applicants often exclude themselves from the hiring process in the beginning because they face a frustrating application process.

A simple solution to this is using an applicant tracking system like Webbtree ATS that uses the resume-parsing feature to auto-fill your application. Resume-parsing allows recruiters to automatically read and extract information from resumes, making the process of finding the right candidate much quicker and simpler. 

Therefore, candidates only need to upload their resume instead of uploading their resume and then filling in their complete work experience and education history in the application form. 

  • Losing out on candidates due to mobile-unfriendly platforms

We rely on our phones for just about everything these days. Whether we are checking the weather, looking up a recipe, or communicating with friends and family, our phones are constantly by our side. With the increasing number of job seekers applying via mobile devices, recruiters need to ensure that their application form is optimized for smaller screens. 

If the job application form of your company is not mobile-friendly, you may lose out on potential candidates. A recent study found that over 62% of job seekers use their smartphones to search for jobs (source), and yet many application forms are difficult to complete on a small screen. 

If the application form requires users to zoom in and out or scroll to fill in all the information, they may give up and move on to another opportunity.

Make sure your recruitment process is accessible to everyone by designing a mobile-friendly application form. The forms will render effectively and provide a better user experience for job seekers who may be applying with their phones. 

By making it simple to fill the application form from a phone, you get them on track for being hired with ease – lowering turnaround times while greatly increasing applicant retention. Therefore, the organization does not miss out on any outstanding employees in future rounds of appointments.

  • Slow background checks lead to lost employees

Background checks are an essential part of the hiring process as they help ensure the safety of the company, its employees, customers, and assets, but they can be time-consuming.

They can lead to a lot of wasted time and money on both ends, and even worse, they can cause you to miss out on the perfect candidate for your company. The candidate who spends a week waiting to be approved for a job may get another offer, and it could cost you an excellent new employee.

Background checks take some time because they need to be processed by law enforcement agencies to confirm that the person has not been convicted of any criminal offenses or is not wanted for arrest warrants. This process varies depending on where the individual lives. 

The goal of a background check is to make sure the person working for them is not going to cause any problems at work or be a security risk in some way. 

Most employers prefer to do so within three days. If you are waiting for a response on your candidate’s background check, it can feel like an eternity when they might be the perfect hire. Slow processing times mean more risk for time invested and lost candidates. You can drastically reduce your organization’s time-to-hire by partnering with an accurate background screening provider with a quick turnaround time.

  • Multiple interviews frustrate potential candidates 

Recruiting is a tough profession. It requires hours of patience and understanding. You may think that repetitive interviews are a good way to weed out the not-so-serious candidates, but they can lead to some of your best talents becoming frustrated and disinterested in the job. 

This is because of the high level of stress that multiple interviewers put on a candidate. The process should be seen as an opportunity for both parties, but it should not become demoralizing for either party.

It is important to have only one or two interviews per candidate and then make a decision on whether or not to hire them. This ensures that the candidates are not being overworked and are given ample time for consideration before accepting a position for the company.

To increase the quality of talent you are able to recruit, your recruitment process must be smooth and streamlined for applicants by evaluating each step in this chain from beginning to end to improve applicant experience, or shorten turnaround times on candidates’ applications. This way businesses can greatly improve their chances of securing top employees before their competitors do so.

You need skilled candidates to grow your company and want them on board as soon as possible. That is why Webbtree ATS offers detailed reporting to get insights into your company’s recruitment activities.

One such report is for finding Average Turnaround Time – the average number of days it takes for candidates to go from one stage in the hiring process to another. This insight is particularly useful for managers to know which stage takes up the most time and work towards reducing friction in this area to get better results from their hiring processes.

The time it takes to hire someone can have a significant impact on applicant retention. It is not just about finding the right candidate, but also how quickly they can start working for you once they are found. That is why Webbtree has created an easy-to-use Applicant Tracking System (ATS) recruitment platform that allows you to minimize the amount of time it takes to hire someone.

Webbtree has all the tools and integrations you need for sourcing, screening, interviewing, and making an offer. We are here to help streamline your recruitment process by decreasing turnaround time so that you hire people faster with less effort so you don’t lose potential candidates due to lengthy wait times or other unforeseen delays.

The more quickly you are able to fill positions, the better off both employees and employers will be not only because the turnaround time is reduced, but because there is an increased sense of job satisfaction among those who have been hired quicker than expected. 

Contact us today if this sounds like something you need in your recruitment process. We would love to help you streamline your recruitment process, which many companies find is one of their most challenging tasks – recruiting top talent fast!

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