How to Optimize Your Hiring Process and Skyrocket Your R.O.I

September 1, 2020

Wonder how the IT departments could save money and time when hiring niche IT talent? You can impact the department’s ROI, just by shortening the average time to hire. Aka the IT hiring process.

Your department’s IT hiring process can be viewed as an essential key to affecting ROI. 

As an IT staffing agency, we know that finding an IT candidate for a niche role that checks off all the qualifications on your list can feel like hitting the Lotto.

With the impact of COVID-19, there is a demand to fill the much-needed data science and tech jobs. Even with an increase of candidates on the job market today, the supply of niche IT candidates still falls short.

IT Leaders are realizing now, that working with non-technical recruiters is not always an effective strategy. Especially when it comes to filling a niche role in their tech department. 

Have you come across the same problem when dealing with unqualified resumes?  Or an HR department wasting time going through each application without understanding the impact or potential value of your candidate’s skillsets? 

One of the main questions you should be asking yourself as a leader of an IT department is, “How can I reduce my average time to hire so that it’s below the average amount of time that candidates are on the job market?” 

Any time you bring someone on board during the hiring process, you should be thinking about filling an open role as soon as possible. 

Why is ‘Average Time to Hire’ important? 

If the position is not filled on time and the IT hiring process is lengthy, your IT department could miss out on a great candidate. It can cause your team to struggle with work burnout, task overflow, and other organizational inefficiencies. All these inefficiencies will harm ROI.

During this uncertain time, more IT leaders are looking for a digital transformation to fix their workflow. Also, with this transformation, they look to improve their services and product offerings. To do this, they need highly-qualified tech talent that can add value and drive results. 

As an IT department, your priority should be to avoid prolonging the IT recruitment or hiring process. As it may cause workflow inefficiencies and valuable lost time. 

Did you know that the average day an IT role is open can cost an IT company approximately $500 a day?

Think about all that wasted time due to a long-winded hiring process.

So, what does hiring the perfect candidate mean for your IT division? Are you currently trying to work with an in-house HR or recruitment team to fill your open role with no luck? 

Work with a niche IT recruiter instead of an in-house HR

It can be challenging to prescreen a technical candidate for a non-technical recruiter or HR professional. If you’ve experienced lengthy back and forth conversations with no progress, it’s time to look into a niche IT staffing agency that can better cater to your specific departmental needs.

It is crucial to understand what and who are you searching for

As a professional IT staffing agency, our team of IT recruitment specialists are here to make your life easier by simplifying the stressful IT hiring process and matching you with the right candidate for hard-to-fill roles with the skillset, talent, and results on investment that you’re looking for. 

The truth is, 67% of technical recruiters and hiring managers with IT titles say they’re looking to expand their teams, but 90% are also struggling to find talent, according to the IT staffing agency.

Shorten your IT recruiting and hiring process

The truth is, a lengthy IT hiring process can deter candidates from sticking with your company. 

So, how can you as an IT leader transform your old hiring processes for better efficiency and talent retention? How can you help your department move up the ladder and reduce the average hiring time? 

The IT hiring process is the most important time frame for actively engaging with the prospective candidate. And eventually having the candidate accept the offer. 

Keep in mind that your candidates are bombarded by several recruiters daily.  On average, IT candidates receive 7 Linkedin messages per day. It can be difficult to grab their attention and make your company stand out from the crowd. 

As an IT Staffing Agency focusing on niche technology talent, we see that Gold Candidates are often snapped up at lightning speed. This means that while your department is still prolonging the IT hiring process, candidates are considering job offers or going through interviews with your competitors. 

Remove inefficiencies and traditional hiring methods that no longer work

It’s important to keep in mind the average time it takes to hire and onboard a new hire. Every time that process is stalled or slowed down, your IT company loses out on experiencing the benefits of investing in the right candidate. 

As an IT leader, it’s important to remove inefficiencies and traditional recruiting methods that aren’t working for your company’s growth.

It’s important to use this time wisely. Don’t conduct unnecessary interviews or spend too much time making a hiring decision. This could potentially deter the candidate from joining your company. Time kills deals, we have seen it too many times.

We help you cut the lengthy IT hiring process so you can offer a competitive advantage over other companies. 

A shorter time to hire is your competitive advantage as a company. 

We’ve dealt with a range of companies that have…

a.) lengthy 60-day+ IT hiring processes 

b.) shorter hiring processes that are easier to manage and retain candidates

Companies that stick to a longer IT hiring process are losing talent. All because of the indecisiveness, and red tape associated with the hiring process. 

A longer IT hiring process also doesn’t necessarily equate to better hiring decisions. For instance, sometimes managers or HR teams might assume that if more people are involved in the hiring process, the less likely to make a mistake in the hiring decision. Generalist recruiters might go off of emotional hiring versus understanding if someone can meet the demands of the job.

Demand for niche IT roles outweighs the supply

The bottom line is: People can’t just sit on the job market without a job. They need income to pay the mortgage, the bills, and provide for their families. And they’ll move on from your company if you can’t find the time to invest in them. Candidates have plenty of other options to choose from, including several other offers if you’re too slow with your IT hiring process

In 2020, we’re seeing an emergence and growing demand for niche IT roles such as artificial intelligence and data science across every industry, according to the 2020 Emerging Jobs Report by Linkedin. 

The truth is, data science is starting to replace legacy roles, according to Linkedin. The top emerging job is for the role of Artificial Intelligence Specialist, with a projected 74% annual growth followed by the role of Robotics Engineer. 

Adapt to the times and adapt your hiring process

As an IT leader, it’s important not to ignore this critical data. Adapt to the times to ensure that your IT hiring process is also aligned with these trends. 

Some of the additional data science and AI roles that are in demand, but hard to fill include: Cloud roles, AI and data scientists, hybrid roles, IT architects, testers, and security auditors, tech translators, DevOps engineers, according to CIO.com. 

With not enough talent to keep up with the demand to fill roles, your IT department needs to dig deeper. Work with a specialized IT recruiter that can match you with the right niche candidate in less time than the overall traditional IT hiring process

Embrace the change and shift recruiting strategy to attract more talent

At Focus GTS, we keep in touch with all of our candidates and know the robust set of skills they have. What projects they’re coming out of, and what they’re looking for in the next role. That’s why we can match your company’s needs, by reducing the hiring time and impacting ROI positively.

According to Linkedin’s 2020 Emerging Jobs Report for the United States, hiring growth for the role of “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning” has increased 74% annually in the past 4 years and requires a specific set of skills. 

74%? Wow, here is why no qualified applicants knocking on your door after posting the job description. 

As a leader of an IT department or startup, it’s important to keep up with these emerging job data trends. Adapt, modify, and add IT roles and cater to growing demand and new hires that can affect ROI. More companies are having to embrace data science and IT and shift their recruiting strategies to attract more talent.

We talk to CDOs, CTOs, and CIOs all the time. With the growth and demand for more specialists in AI and data science, every company is becoming an IT company

Identifying quality candidates that will generate massive ROI

The truth is, any time you’re bringing someone on board, it’s all a candidate that is hands-on and ready to produce results for your IT company. You could have all the top talent in Data Science and AI, but if they don’t know how the technical side affects the business they can’t generate ROI.

It’s important to find the right candidates and make sure you’re getting results that will provide valuable business impact. At the end of the day, it goes back to getting a good return on investment on your hire.

As an IT recruiting and staffing agency, we’re all about helping you hire diverse talent. The kind that can achieve the best results, contribute to your team’s success, and help move the department forward and be a culture fit. 

Get your average time to hire process down to 10 days

It’s important to start shifting your IT hiring process mindset. And start thinking more about your average time for hire and a candidate’s real ROI potential.

Here’s a formula to determine the average time it takes your IT department to hire:

All The Jobs In Your IT Department / Total Days To Find A Candidate = Average time to hire #

Fun fact: “The average amount of time that an IT candidate is on the market is only 10 days.”

As an IT company, you should try to aim to get your average time to hire down to 10 days. That way you can maximize your chances of getting the best candidates on the market.

Spending less time chasing or hunting for the perfect candidate can result in more productivity. Also, it can offload some of the tasks that may currently affect the workload for your current employees.

Understand the “win-win” reasoning behind your IT hiring process

You need to think about WHY your company is hiring an IT role. It’s to fill the open role and make the team more efficient and productive, which will produce more results.

Every candidate that’s brought on board provides a true ROI to your IT department. Their impact will be seen throughout the team. It’s like a ripple effect that will lead to productivity and less stress for the employees. This will result in a high level of focus to achieve the end goal.

As a leader, you also have to embrace and think about the future of your department. You should be able to address the talent or diversity gaps to fill roles for high demand technologies like data science and AI.

Investing and engaging in the right candidate can pay dividends in the future. Having the right team and people in place can help them hit the deadline mark sooner. And ultimately will result in the IT department saving money because the IT hiring process is shortened.

It’s a win-win situation for the candidate and your department.

Align yourself with an expert

But by lengthening or delaying the IT hiring process, the return on investment for your company will be delayed or eliminated. For instance, this prospective candidate could bring up to 50% of the ROI on the money that you’re spending on this person. But if you don’t invest at the right time, you’ll lose the impact and won’t get the desirable results.

Your IT company needs to track metrics relating to the average time to hire. And see if there are any changes you can make to expedite or retain talent.

Don’t let the value of your prospective hire diminish by prolonging the IT hiring process. Stay on that hustle and nurture IT talent. 

Remember that every candidate that’s brought on board and goes through the hiring process brings on valuable insight and results for your IT department. It’s time to align yourself with the experts at Focus Global Talent Solutions. Let our IT staffing agency shorten your average hiring time and get results from the right candidates that can affect your department’s ROI.