While it may not seem like time-to-hire and turnover rates go hand-in-hand, they often can. When your hiring process is slow, it can lead to recruitment and retention challenges that negatively impact your company.
Often, the resulting issues can be avoided simply by making hiring decisions faster. If you are wondering how time-to-hire reductions positively impact retention, here’s what you need to know.
Top Talent Aren’t Available for Long
When it comes to retention, the quality of the fit matters. If an employee is a strong match for the role and your company’s culture, they may be more inclined to stay long-term. They will feel like they belong, and that makes a significant difference.
The issue is that leading candidates representing the best fit aren’t typically part of the job market for long. Since their capabilities are highly desirable, they tend to get job offers with relative ease. As a result, a slow hiring process means you’ll miss out, leaving you stuck settling for a less-than-ideal match or relaunching your recruitment initiative to try and find a top talent again.
If you go with the former, turnover issues can arise. A poor fit means that the employee may not excel in the position or align with your culture, both of which can leave them disconnected from your company and frustrated, both of which could lead to a quick exit. Plus, if they aren’t able to perform well in the role, you may have let them go.
Harm to Your Employer Brand
Job seekers typically share their candidate experiences with others. If your hiring process is slow and cumbersome, word of that will likely get out. In time, your employer brand will be diminished, and that comes with long-term ramifications.
Once a company gains a reputation for having a subpar candidate experience, top talent usually begins to steer clear of that employer. They choose not to engage in the hiring process at all, as they don’t want to – or can’t afford to – be bothered with a long time-to-hire.
In turn, your talent pool shrinks, and candidate quality falls. You aren’t attracting the best and brightest from the start, leaving you with job seekers who might not fully meet your needs.
As mentioned above, a bad fit has a strong impact on turnover. Whether it’s through having to terminate a poor performer or becoming frustrated in the position, retention issues arise.
Damage to Your Culture
A long time-to-hire harms your internal operations, mainly because you have an understaffed team for a lengthier period. Being shorthanded increases stress among the impact employees and also harms morale. In time, these mindset shifts damage your company culture, leading to lasting and pervasive negative changes.
As your company culture is harmed, you’ll have a harder time attracting top talent. This, again, leads to lesser quality matches, which then causes rises in turnover.
As demonstrated above, a lengthy hiring process is harmful to your recruitment and retention goals. By shortening your time to hire, you’ll gain more access to top talent and strong matches, increasing the odds that you’ll end up with new employees that will stay long-term.
If you’d like to learn more about effective recruiting techniques, the team at The Advance Group wants to hear from you. Contact us today.
