Need for Speed When Hiring - Florida Senior Living Association

Submitted by Julie Rupenski, President & CEO, MedBest

With unemployment at a 30-year low and a job market that is candidate-driven, your Senior Living organization is facing tough competition when hiring new employees. Gone are the days of interviewing and hiring at a snail’s pace. Speed in hiring is now the “magic bullet” for landing the best talent.

Clutch, a B2B analyst and marketing firm, recently conducted a survey of 507 people who began a new job in the last year. Close to 60% of new hires got their job within two months of searching. About 43% of recent hires were offered a position less than two weeks after starting their job search.

What does it all mean? Hiring faster improves your chances of acquiring top talent before they accept a competing offer. It also strengthens your position as an employer of choice, and saves money by not keeping positions vacant for a long period of time.

Here are 8 tips on how to increase your speed in hiring:

Create a Continuous Talent Pipeline. Devote time to continuous recruiting in order to identify talent for key jobs even before they become open. This proactive approach enables you to create a talent pipeline to call an immediate possible replacement(s) should someone leave your organization.
Involve Your Employees. Notify your employees of an urgent job opening that must be filled immediately. Post opening on your Intranet, website career page, or bulletin board. Offer a reward for any employee referrals that get hired.
Reduce the Number of Interviews. When a top candidate shows interest in working at your organization, act quickly. Find a way to immediately interview them and decrease the number of managers involved. Cut out any unnecessary steps. Any delays during the interviewing process can cause candidate frustration and a loss of interest.
Consider Off-Hour Interviews. Consider same-day interviews and off-hour interview slots such as evenings and weekends. Make it convenient for employed candidates or passive candidates to interview. The more convenient, the more likely they will be impressed and show up.
Implement an Automated or Live Interviewing Tool. An automated video tool helps organizations to screen more candidates in an expedient manner using video interviews in order to shortlist them. If you’ve already shortlisted candidates, a live interview tool will allow you to connect in real-time for a face-to-face interaction. You will be able to record your live session and as a result, share it with your management team for their input.
Involve Your Influencer. Who on your team is the best at selling the job and your organization? Involve that person in every first interview. They have the power to affect the decision of your candidate through their position, knowledge, testimonial, and natural ability to engage others.
Check References Sooner. Often, references aren’t checked until an offer is about to be made. But there’s no reason to wait that long. Ask for references from your top candidates much sooner, so you can start calling sooner.
Hire a Reputable Search Firm. Professional Senior Living Search Firms have access to a network of high quality industry talent. They already have an existing pool of talent, understand the skill sets needed, acumen to evaluate CV’s and resumes, and identify the right fit. They work in an expedient manner and in the strictest of confidence.

In today’s job market where competition for talent is stiff, if you don’t reduce your hiring speed to less than 10 days, you will lose top talent. It’s time for your Senior Living organization to recognize the need for speed in your hiring process in order to gain a powerful competitive advantage.

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