10 Proven Strategies to Reduce Time-to-Hire by 50%
In the employment market today, quickness is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. Companies in India that work in IT, BFSI, manufacturing, startups, and GCCs are experiencing trouble with long hiring cycles that make candidates leave out, projects get delayed, and hiring costs go up.
According to industry standards, the best companies fill jobs roughly 50% faster than their competitors. Not by working harder, but by working smarter.
So, how can businesses speed up the hiring process without sacrificing quality?
We at Mount Talent Consulting have helped organizations in India and around the world to swiftly improve their hiring procedures better. Based on real-life hiring experiences, here are ten tried-and-true techniques to decrease your time-to-hire by up to 50%.
What does “time-to-hire” mean, and why is it important?
Time-to-hire is the number of days it takes for an applicant to apply for a job (or be found) and then accept the offer.
A longer hiring cycle means:
More people quit their jobs
HR workers have more work to accomplish.
Losing key talent to other companies
The cost of hiring is going up.
In India’s talent-driven economy, hiring individuals faster is excellent for the employer brand, the candidate experience, and the company’s ability to adapt.
1. Prepare a robust talent pipeline ahead of time.
One of the main reasons it takes so long to hire someone is that you have to wait for a job to open up.
What works:
Keep a database of candidates who have already been screened up to date.
Use LinkedIn or newsletters to get in touch with people who aren’t looking for work.
Look at the people who have already won silver medals again.
For instance, a number of IT organizations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad were able to decrease the time it takes to hire by 30–40% by creating pools of people with specific skills who are ready to work.
2. Make sure your job descriptions are clear and focused on the results.
When job descriptions are overly ambiguous or too full of information, they get applications that aren’t relevant, which slows down the screening process.
The best ways to do things are:
Don’t write down everything you want; just think about the skills you need.
Be clear about the goals of the role and how to report them.
If you can, please provide the location, type of work, and income range.
Clear job descriptions cut down on applications from those who aren’t qualified and make it easier to make a shortlist.
3. Be smart about how you use AI to screen resumes
Recruiters spend hours looking through resumes by hand. AI tools can help you save a lot of time.
Use AI to:
Look over resumes and see if they meet the most crucial skill needs.
Arrange the candidates in order of how relevant they are.
Stop having to sort things by hand over and over again.
AI should help humans make judgments, not replace human judgment, especially in leadership and other specialized fields.
4. Make sure everyone goes through the same interview process.
Unstructured interviews can slow things down and lead to hiring decisions that aren’t always the same.
What to make normal:
Times and stages for the interview
Criteria for scoring and assessment
The ability to choose
Tip: It’s usually better to have 2–3 prepared interview rounds than 5–6 random ones.
5. Reduce interview round tiredness
Indian candidates usually quit because there are too many interviews or the time between them is too long.
Suggestions for making things better:
Set up rounds for both technical and management skills.
For jobs at the mid-level to senior level, use panel interviews.
Set clear SLAs for each step of the interview.
Companies that cut down on the number of interview rounds reported a large jump in the number of people who received employment offers.
6. Speed up the process of getting internal approvals
Delays happen not because of the candidates, but because of problems at the company.
To correct this, do the following:
Giving the green light for money and job duties
Giving people a time limit to give input
Giving one person the ability to make choices
Hiring happens more smoothly when HR and business leaders work together.
7. Hire recruitment consultants who know a lot about your field.
General hiring methods might not be good for leadership or specialized jobs.
Mount Talent Consulting and other experts in this field can help by:
Giving them access to well chosen talent networks
Doing a full pre-screening
Making shortlists faster and more useful
This strategy is ideal for secret searches, top management, and essential tech jobs.
8. Use employee referrals carefully
Referrals from workers always help you hire people faster and better.
To make the most of referrals:
Promote jobs inside the company with clear rewards
Make it easier to send in referrals.
Let employees know what happened to their referrals.
Hiring through referrals can take 40–50% less time than other techniques.
9. Every time a candidate talks to you, make sure they have a good time.
When communication is slow or unclear, candidates lose interest rapidly.
Here are some simple improvements:
Setting up interviews quickly
Clear information regarding what will happen next
Even if it’s a no, feedback on time
Candidates that have a good experience will talk about it and the employer’s reputation will grow.
10. Keep an eye on, measure, and improve hiring metrics.
You can’t get better at anything if you don’t keep track of it.
Things to keep an eye on:
Time to hire
Time to fill
How often people accept offers
The number of candidates who leave out
Regular analysis helps you uncover problems and hire people faster.
The Advantages of Mount Talent Consulting
We are experts in precision hiring at Mount Talent Consulting. This means that we use market research, technology, and human skills to make the hiring process faster and better.
Our technique of giving advice makes sure:
Hiring takes less time
Aligning top-notch talent with recruitment solutions that help Indian and global organizations flourish
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is a good time-to-hire norm in India?
It takes an average of 30 to 45 days to hire someone in India, depending on how challenging the job is. Most firms desire to fill most of their open positions in 20 to 25 days.
2. Does hiring someone faster affect the quality of the hires?
Not if you do it right. You can speed up the hiring process without decreasing the quality of the hires by using formal reviews, making processes more efficient, and improving sourcing methods.
3. How might employing consultants make the process go faster?
Employers may fill positions considerably faster with the help of specialized recruitment consultants. They give employers immediate access to top candidates, help them narrow down their choices faster, provide market insights, and make the hiring process more efficient.
Last Words
Getting rid of waste means cutting down on the time it takes to hire someone. It doesn’t mean making decisions faster.
Companies can establish flexible hiring models that bring in top people faster, improve the application experience, and help the business grow in the long run by employing these tried-and-true strategies.
Mount Talent Consulting is ready to help you improve your hiring process.
In the employment market today, quickness is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. Companies in India that work…