3 Notorious Time Sinks in Recruiting

Doug Horn on August 15, 2014 11:42:00 AM EDT

 

time_sinkAsk an employer what the one thing they spend the greatest amount of time on and 99 out of 100 times, the answer you’ll get is recruiting. It’s one of the most critical aspects of running a successful business, but it can be a cruel mistress if you let it. Sometimes, it even feels like the time wasted on trying to find quality candidates could be better spent yelling out the window, “Anyone want a job?”

Naturally, you’re not going to do that. You’re not crazy, although the painstaking time you spend trying to recruit could drive even the sanest of men to the madhouse.

The best way to maximize your efficiency is to identify the ways in which you waste time and ameliorate the broken system you’re using. Finding your next purple squirrel should be a thrilling journey to tomorrow, not a harrowing plunge into a darkening abyss of resumes.

Below you’ll find the 3 ways companies waste time trying to sniff out quality candidates. If you find that you’re getting stuck on one or, in the worst-case scenario, all three, don’t fret. There are better options out there.

1. Recruiters Come Back Empty-Handed
It’s okay to admit it - this has happened to you. You’ve contracted a recruiting agency for a contingency search and finally, after weeks of looking, they just could not find the right fit. Well, no problem. It didn’t cost you anything, right? It was only a contingency search. No money left your wallet. It’s all good, as the kids say.

Wrong. All that time spent trying to find your next CTO is now gone, and you can’t get it back. It’s been said in numerous posts, but it bears repeating: time equals money. Now where are you? You’re right back where you started, with no position filled and in the unenviable position of having to either decide on a new recruiting method or finding another recruiter who can deliver the goods.
Next time maybe you'll go to two or three agencies to ensure the right candidate, but that means you'll have to manage multiple relationships.  More precious time out the window.
2. Reading Every Resume the Job Boards Throw at You
Job boards are appealing in that A) they’re relatively cheap in comparison to using recruiters and B) you’ll have such a large pool from which to choose the next member of your team. While that sounds fine and dandy, you shouldn’t kid yourself. The tsunami of resumes you’ll receive and the time spent going through them all may make posting your job in the first place not even worth it.
Unfortunately, 50% of jobseekers do not possess the basic qualifications for the jobs they are pursuing. With that in mind, that means at least 50% of the resumes you’ll receive won’t even be qualified for the job, let alone be a good cultural fit. 50%! If half the people responding to your job board posting are not up to your standards, it could be time to take a long, hard look at the effectiveness of that particular recruiting strategy.
3.Finding Candidates on Social Media
We’ve spoken about the effectiveness of recruiting on social media in the past, and the message still stands: social media is a fantastic tool for recruiting…if you have enough time to wield it correctly.

While LinkedIn has a profile of practically every professional you could ever want, it takes precious time to find these professionals. Often times, you won’t even be sure if the ones you do manage to locate are looking for new opportunities. You could spend weeks searching for candidates on LinkedIn, and while you may find some, you still would not be using your time as efficiently as possible.

Similarly, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter give you great outlets to find potential candidates, but if you don’t take the time to engage with them, you’ll just be treating the sites like job boards. It’s called social media for a reason.

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The three methods discussed above surely have their benefits, but they take time. Recruiting is a snooze-or-lose type of game, and you don’t want to be caught sleeping through your alarm clock. The recruiting world is rapidly changing, however, and with services like RecruitiFi offering faster, more affordable ways of finding vetted, qualified candidates, the industry may have a very different feel in just a few years.