Is a prolonged hiring process preventing you from hiring great candidates? In this episode, Pete Newsome and Ricky Baez share tips for speeding up your hiring process. They highlight the delicate balance between practicality and accuracy in hiring. Additionally, they tackle issues like long hiring processes and high hiring costs for companies.
The hosts then discuss how difficult it can be to manage a large number of applications. But thanks to AI, recruiters can sift through resumes more quickly.
Applying to jobs has never been so easy, especially with the one-click apply feature. However, this leads to a lot of applications from unqualified candidates. So, Pete and Ricky propose intriguing questions: Should all applications be considered? Should you raise the entry barrier to ensure only qualified candidates apply?
But hold on, there's more to uncover! Discover their insights into establishing an efficient hiring process and the significance of transparent communication with candidates. Ghosting isn't exclusive to dating—it happens in recruitment too. Newsome and Baez explore methods to circumvent this issue and why managing expectations regarding candidate responses is crucial. Tune in for a captivating discussion encompassing hiring strategies, staffing dilemmas, and recruiting intricacies!
9 Steps forAccelerating Your Hiring Process:
Refine Your Job Descriptions: Craft precise and concise job descriptions to attract the right candidates.
Tech Integration: Leverage technology like ATS for efficient candidate sourcing and tracking.
Internal Process Streamlining: Ensure smooth internal communication and decision-making to expedite hiring.
Economic Adaptability: Recognize the impact of economic trends on hiring speed and adjust strategies accordingly.
Effective Interviewer Training: Train interviewers to assess candidates objectively and effectively.
Employee Referral Program: Implement robust employee referral programs for quality hires and quicker placements.
Transparent Candidate Communication: Communicate the hiring process clearly to reduce candidate ghosting.
Third-Party Recruiter Consideration: Carefully assess third-party recruiters for compatibility and efficiency.
Quality Focus: Prioritize finding the right fit over a rush to fill positions for long-term success.
Is a prolonged hiring process preventing you from hiring great candidates? In this episode, Pete Newsome and Ricky Baez share tips for speeding up your hiring process. They highlight the delicate balance between practicality and accuracy in hiring. Additionally, they tackle issues like long hiring processes and high hiring costs for companies.
The hosts then discuss how difficult it can be to manage a large number of applications. But thanks to AI, recruiters can sift through resumes more quickly.
Applying to jobs has never been so easy, especially with the one-click apply feature. However, this leads to a lot of applications from unqualified candidates. So, Pete and Ricky propose intriguing questions: Should all applications be considered? Should you raise the entry barrier to ensure only qualified candidates apply?
But hold on, there's more to uncover! Discover their insights into establishing an efficient hiring process and the significance of transparent communication with candidates. Ghosting isn't exclusive to dating—it happens in recruitment too. Newsome and Baez explore methods to circumvent this issue and why managing expectations regarding candidate responses is crucial. Tune in for a captivating discussion encompassing hiring strategies, staffing dilemmas, and recruiting intricacies!
9 Steps forAccelerating Your Hiring Process:
Refine Your Job Descriptions: Craft precise and concise job descriptions to attract the right candidates.
Tech Integration: Leverage technology like ATS for efficient candidate sourcing and tracking.
Internal Process Streamlining: Ensure smooth internal communication and decision-making to expedite hiring.
Economic Adaptability: Recognize the impact of economic trends on hiring speed and adjust strategies accordingly.
Effective Interviewer Training: Train interviewers to assess candidates objectively and effectively.
Employee Referral Program: Implement robust employee referral programs for quality hires and quicker placements.
Transparent Candidate Communication: Communicate the hiring process clearly to reduce candidate ghosting.
Third-Party Recruiter Consideration: Carefully assess third-party recruiters for compatibility and efficiency.
Quality Focus: Prioritize finding the right fit over a rush to fill positions for long-term success.
You're listening to the Hire Calling podcast, your source for all things hiring, staffing and recruiting. I'm Pete Newsome, joined by Ricky Baez today. Ricky, how are you? I'm doing good, pete. How about yourself? I'm doing well, ricky. At some point I just have to say it's Pete and Ricky and then just be done with it. The introduction yeah, it's the same thing every time.
Ricky Baez:
I mean, it's not like we didn't ask how we're doing before we started recording, right? We just want everybody else to know that we're cordial with each other.
Pete Newsome:
That's true. If you stop and think about it, there's absolutely no reason for me to ask how you're doing. We've already established that prior to hitting the record button. But nonetheless, here we are back for another recording to talk today about speeding up the hiring process. That's an important thing.
Ricky Baez:
Why will we want to speed that up, Pete?
Pete Newsome:
Lots of reasons, Lots of reasons. Yeah, one thing I'll tell you is candidates certainly will appreciate it. We know that because, boy, you don't have to spend more than a couple of minutes on LinkedIn to see a whole lot of frustrated candidates out there these days who are trying to find a great job and it just doesn't seem to be happening quickly for them.
Ricky Baez:
Well, I mean, it doesn't right. And then there's a lot of recruiters that have a lot of their mind and a lot of things that they're juggling. That's not an excuse, but you're right, You've got candidates out there who are out there waiting, and while they're waiting, other things can happen, which that's what we're going to dive into today. Right, the importance of speeding up the hiring process. That way you don't lose out on great top candidates.
Pete Newsome:
So let's just start with talking. What are we talking about really? The time to hire. It's the time between when you make a decision that a job needs to be filled, you have an opening that's new, a replacement for someone. You post that job. How quickly can you get someone in the seat? How long does it take? Let's talk about the average, and the average has been going up. What do you think you know what the average is? If you're listening to us right now, stop and think. How long do you think it takes for a company to fill an open position?
Ricky Baez:
We'll wait and then we'll answer. Well, I'm going to go without looking at any stats. I'm going to go with when I was leading a team of recruiters and the KPIs I had for them and what I told them on average 30 days beginning to end from opening to executing a job offer and accepting that job offer. Beginning to end four weeks 30 days.
Pete Newsome:
Now we know there's a difference between how a corporation would measure that with their internal team and how a staffing company, a third party, would measure that.
Ricky Baez:
All very different.
Pete Newsome:
It can be a long time for some jobs. The average, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, is actually 36 days, but studies have shown 44, or maybe even 50 days. Now we think that's changing for a number of reasons. Why do you think it's evolving and going higher?
Ricky Baez:
Well, I think, wow. So 36 days, so five weeks. So I think it's going higher just because the lower the unemployment rate as it keeps trending, lower the less able bodies that are out in the workforce looking for work and the less talent that recruiters have to work with, the higher the time to fill on average would come to be, because the less people that are out there, the more work the recruiter has to do to fill those positions. So I'm thinking it's unemployment you think so.
Pete Newsome:
I think it's more about companies right now being hesitant and very cautious in making any decisions. So, even though the hiring need is there, they're not pulling the trigger as quickly, and that is something that a lot of staffing companies are experiencing right now. We talk, we share information and it's very common Companies are slower to pull the trigger. Now you're smiling big at that. Why so?
Ricky Baez:
I'm smiling big because Pete on this show. For the past couple of years, we've talked about how organizations go on this humongous hiring blitz, only six months later to figure out they've overshot their goals and now they have to lay people off. So I'm smiling because I'm like did organizations learn their lesson? Are they now being more cautious, instead of following somebody's trail that they blazed to hire people left and right? What happened?
Pete Newsome:
I think a lot of it's reactive to your point. We saw that happening a couple of years ago, post-covid, and the hiring craze that was happening, where companies were paying giant salaries, bigger than they needed to Now being in the recruiting space. We saw that very prevalent in our industry, where recruiters with very little experience were getting offered the opportunity to work remotely giant salaries. Amazon, facebook at the time, metta, if we're going to call them that now I guess they were throwing huge salaries out there and it flooded the market with new opportunities in. A lot of people jump ship and now the pendulum has swung back. This happens, the need is no longer as great as it was, and so companies are reacting differently now, and I think the economic uncertainty that we're facing continues to be an issue where companies just continue to sit on the sidelines with a lot of things and watch and wait to see what's going to happen, and hiring is part of that. That's my perspective on it.
Ricky Baez:
So, for the sake of everybody listening, because you and I both know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask anyway, that way they can be a part of the conversation. Why should we care if we fill a position quickly? Shouldn't recruiters and organizations take the time to make sure they got the right candidate?
Pete Newsome:
They should, but they have to balance that against the negatives of waiting. A prolonged hiring process leads to other problems, so let's just talk about those. One is there's a cost associated with a vacancy. We call it cost of vacancy. You have to know what that is. What happens to your organization as long as that position remains unfilled and we have a recent blog post on fourcorneresourcescom about it I encourage everyone to check it out because it actually lists the calculation. I'm not going to try to describe that verbally, it's a math.
Pete Newsome:
Verbal math is no fun, but there is a cost to not filling a position and there's losses that happen. Maybe it's customer service declines, maybe it's a loss of productivity, of sales, not to mention the true burnout that happens from your other employees who have to share the load. So those are the hidden costs, if you will. Even though they're real numbers, companies don't stop and consider those things. Some do, I think most don't. What's your take on?
Ricky Baez:
that Most do not. Most do not. And I actually got a quick story on that, pete, because when I was in corporate America and I was working for Searsome Improvement, we were trying to figure out look, we're not offering enough, we are not offering enough to make sure that we fill the positions that we set out to fill. And back then I think I had to fill 500 in one calendar year and that was at a time when unemployment was really really low at that time. So the best way to convince senior leadership is to translate that problem into numbers. So instead of saying hey, we're not filling positions and they're like, well, we're doing the job with the people you have, you have to convert those vacancies into lots of productivity.
Ricky Baez:
So, long story short, we were able to figure out for every empty seat per hour will cost the organization $1,000 per hour, every empty seat. So once they per hour. So once they were able to see that, like whoa, we're losing how much, okay, here's a check, what it? Whatever you need here you go right. So you have to articulate that now as a recruiter, a recruiting manager. After you're done articulating that and they give you those funds, you better perform, you better perform right. You better put your theory to the test. So yeah, it's the best way to get Executive leaderships. Attention is to focus on the lots of productivity and how much that vacancy is costing them perfect.
Pete Newsome:
So Pitfalls of a prolonged hiring process. We know that it adds to the. There's a cost of the vacancy that has to be considered. We know that it puts a strain on your other employees. You're going to lose top candidates. Oh dude that's candidates don't stay available. We know that too. So these are things that have to be considered if you're going to Take it seriously. So what else? So we cover all the bases. I mean, that's enough justification. Any one of those things, in my opinion, is Justification enough.
Ricky Baez:
Well, it is. It is especially what you just said as far as losing top candidates right, the idea that corporate America had 20 years ago that Candidates should bow down at the opportunity to interview for this, for this position that that's no longer relevant now. Top, especially top talent. They have options and you know what. They don't have a lot of patients and they're gonna go somewhere else. You know who doesn't have options and options and all the patients in the world, your D and C level candidates Correct, that's who you're gonna be stuck with if you're, if your process is too long for comfort.
Pete Newsome:
Well, it comes down to supply and demand.
Pete Newsome:
Yeah so if you're willing to settle for subpar candidates, then take as long as you like, but if you want the best available, I don't know government sit on that. And and let me tell you as a third-party recruiter, nothing is more frustrating than when we have the ideal candidate, and you know it when you see it. You just do anyone who's been in recruiting for a long time. When you have that just perfect person, you know they're going to get hired. If they have an opportunity to interview, they're interested in the job, the timing is right means the stars are all aligning. And then you have a Client on the other side who's slow to pull the trigger and has a delayed process. It is a deal killer and nothing is more frustrating because you know that this great candidate is not going to sit on the sidelines very long. They're going to have opportunities come their way. So if if you're listening and you are someone in a hiring position, don't delay. That's right. Act, delay, act.
Ricky Baez:
That's a message now that now that's the strain on. Actually that that's what happens for external candidates. But what happens also is, at some point the job has to be done right, the vacancy is there and whatever, whatever duties needs to be done in that vacancy Somebody else has to do is. So the longer you take and making sure you fill that role, the more strain you put on your current Resources and guess what happens. That creates burnout, and the more burnout employees have, the bigger job a recruit is going to have, because turnover is just going to go up. If the burnout goes up, turnover goes up.
Pete Newsome:
So let's start with the. Let's talk about what you could do about it. Yes, so how can you improve your hiring processors? A number of ways to do it. One is to take advantage of Technology that exists.
Pete Newsome:
Now. I would tell you and I say this often that some of the technology that we use today has made us worse as recruiters collectively, as significantly worse, because it makes it too easy, and what I mean by that is you can post a job and have Thousands of applicants in a very short time frame. Now, that sounds great, but the practicality of that is something altogether different. You don't have the ability to thoroughly look at that many, and I would Say that maybe you don't have the ability to look at them at all. So what does that mean? It means that you're going to. You're going to risk having a lot of unqualified candidates Because it's easy for them to apply. Right easy to get the applicants, easy to apply, very low barrier. People disregard the the job description. So we can talk about job descriptions too, but that only matters if people pay attention to it and what happens, is the the best candidates you know to get buried in that, in that giant stack.
Pete Newsome:
So that's a, that's a challenge. But take advantage of technology but also understand its limitations.
Ricky Baez:
Correct. So it's especially with AI these days where I I know a lot of recruiters are using AI to assist them in the sourcing process. Now here's the thing Notice I said assist, not take over, right, ai it's still in its infancy stages and you still need a human being to really go in and make sure that you're checking for the right Things and you have to make sure that you don't fall into any legal pitfalls, right, that AI just doesn't take a look at. So you have to use technology as a tool to help you source and recruit, not not as the tool to source in recruit. There's a big difference there.
Pete Newsome:
But let me put you on the spot as an HR professional. Talk to me what, how much of an obligation do you believe that recruiters have to address every resume that comes in?
Ricky Baez:
Address every resume that without any kind of of AI help just in general.
Pete Newsome:
So, they've put a job posting out. Can it supply? What obligation do you believe that that recruiter has to acknowledge and then address those candidates who've applied?
Ricky Baez:
I think 100%, and here's why. Here's why, before a recruiter can say this resume doesn't fit the bill, that's not what I'm looking for, they have to look at it. They cannot say this is not going to work without taking a look at it. Now, how long they spend on it is something different. Right, on average, what 6 to 9 seconds A recruiter takes a look at a resume before they put it in the lab again.
Ricky Baez:
It's Friday, it's payday, right, we got to do math, right? No? But I mean, here's the thing. I think, 100%, 100%. There's no other way a recruiter can make a determination whether this resume goes to the next step or not without taking a look at it for at least the minimum amount of time, or maximum amount of time, which is 9 seconds, to impress that recruiter. What?
Pete Newsome:
do you think? I think it's unrealistic, because if you run that math out by the number of applications that comes in, that's all they'll spend their time doing is looking at resumes. So what we need and we're not going to fix this during this recording, someone needs to fix this soon is a bigger barrier to apply. I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day I don't support this, by the way. I don't think it's practical in any form or fashion but they said can it have to pay to apply to a job? Now, that's silly, but what I do find interesting is if there was a way to it has so off topic, and I probably just got to cut this. It wasn't me, I promise, it was you, pete.
Pete Newsome:
So we know that there's bot traffic everywhere if you're on Twitter, any social media account, and there's a guy named Michael Saylor. Do you know who Michael Saylor is? I don't. He's a CEO of MicroStrategy, a very successful company, and he's a big fan of Bitcoin, and we know that Bitcoin can be as divisible by 100 million. So basically, you can take the smallest of increments, a fraction of a penny, and have a Bitcoin transaction with it in theory, and his suggestion was you have to have these microtransactions to prove that you're a human. And so what if someone? It was almost like a merit-based system where someone had to do more than just have one click to apply, where it wasn't that simple. That's what I would like to see not to charge anyone, but to have a way that you have to stop and pause and decide whether you really want to apply.
Pete Newsome:
Now LinkedIn has an interesting system for in-mails, which you're familiar with, where they give you credits and you get the credit back. You have a certain number of credits a month. You get the credit back if the person you send the in-mail to replies. Now that to me denotes relevance. If you send out a lot of spam messages, no one will apply, but if you're contacting people for a relevant purpose, then they will reply at a high rate.
Pete Newsome:
Same goes for job applicants, if you only are applying to jobs where you have a realistic chance at getting it. I'm not saying your experience and background has to match word for word the job description, but it has to be reasonable. That doesn't exist today on LinkedIn and there's no penalty for saying, yes, I have a degree. When you don't. Yes, I'm qualified for this job. When you're not, I have X number of years of experience. You're just going to answer with no penalty today, and my contention is that that messes up the system for everyone else and, by the way, I'm not alone in thinking that but there's no barrier. I think we need a barrier, don't you?
Ricky Baez:
I just think it's funny that I know it's a meme and I know you don't subscribe to it, but just the rationale of the meme that people should pay to apply and I think that's hilarious. If I'm applying for a job, it's because I don't have money.
Pete Newsome:
Absolutely. I don't have money, I agree 100%, but we have to go up with something. It's not going to be to pay for or apply. That's silly. But it used to take effort. It used to take writing a letter, sending a resume in the mail, even faxing it. I would argue that even emailing takes effort. One click apply takes no effort at all. That's cool.
Pete Newsome:
That's the part of the system that's broken, so let's move on from that, because that's not speeding up anything, let alone the hiring process. It's actually along the podcast yeah, we just dragged it out. So take advantage of technology, but also understand its limitations. That's my message there. Have a job description that is concise and spells out exactly what you need to the minimum you'll consider. Now we've just spent five unnecessary minutes talking about how people ignore the job description anyway, but I still think it's something you should strive to do by bees as clear as possible, and I like sharing the bad news too. Right, say, the worst part of the job. If you know you're going to get flooded with candidates, try to eliminate that as much as possible. I don't know how much it helps in the current market, but you need to spell out the details on the job description to increase your chances of accuracy.
Ricky Baez:
Well, I like that strategy, Pete, and the reason I like that strategy and you and I have talked about this before is because look, what's going to happen if you don't spill that out. Is the person you're going to go through the trouble of hiring that person, go through the process, only to find that six months later they're not a good fit? You wasted your time, you wasted your money. It's better for you to find out as quickly as possible whether this person is going to be a fit. You've said it on this show plenty of times Bad news early is good news. So you might as well talk them out of the job. That's why I like that rationale. You talk them out of it and the people who are still there, they're going to be there for the right reasons. So I agree with that 100%. Now, is that streamlining, or does that? Because I don't know if that streamlines the recruiting process. I know it helps you hire somebody who's going to stick around you for the long haul.
Pete Newsome:
Well, I hope that. My hope, although unrealistic in many respects, is that candidates will see a job description and acknowledge that there's just not a realistic chance that they'll be considered for that role and will stop applying. So in the not too distant past, just two years ago, when the market it was very much an employee's market you may write a looser job description to try to cast a poll in a lot of candidates. Now I'd say go the opposite Make it as concise as you can. So while you could argue that that doesn't streamline the hiring process if you need to gather a lot of candidates, it does when it comes to matching the quality of candidate with the job that you're hiring for.
Ricky Baez:
No, agreed. So, and coming from an HR consultant there, pete, I see so many times that job descriptions are 10, 15, someone that was 30 years old about two months ago and I'm like this is before email people. We need to be able I think there was something in there about a Daisy printer. If you don't know what that is, look it up, google it. So, yes, you need to have really clear, really concise, straight to the point job description.
Ricky Baez:
Now, here's what that's going to do. It's going to attract the right people and the people who are looking for a job but they may not qualify and they may be, oh, I don't know. They're going to jump ship, right? They're not going to waste your time, they're not going to be in your process, right? They're like oh, that's too much for me, I'm not going to do it. You're going to have those folks that are like the go getters either the fake it till you make it kind of people. You got to watch out for them, right, because you got to make sure that you test them along the way to make sure that they are able to do what they say they're able to do, and that's what you can figure out through the interview process.
Pete Newsome:
So start to touch off, but that you know. So it doesn't matter what they say on paper. That may get them in the door. But then you have to get through that and I think most candidates are pretty accurate in what they have on the resume. You think so.
Ricky Baez:
You don't think there's a little bit of a, a little bit of a a a, a, a a a liberties in expanding on skill set. That happens in a regular resume.
Pete Newsome:
I think it exists. I think it's at a candidate's interest to put themselves in the best possible light, of course, but I think blatant dishonesty on a resume is pretty rare. Only because it's going to come out and it's. You'd have to be a crazy person to want to get an interview, take your time for the interview only to know that if you can't code and they're interviewing you as a coder, it's going to. It's going to not end well.
Pete Newsome:
So for the most part, candidates are savvy enough to realize what their limitations are, but I would encourage everyone, of course, to put yourself in the best possible light. If you're not going to to your own whore, no one else will do it for you, no it's going to do it for you, You're right.
Ricky Baez:
And then, and then speaking about interviews from a recruited perspective, another way that you're able to really streamline that process is to schedule the interviews as frequently as possible. Now, I'm not going to go as far as saying back to back interviews, because then there's that delicate dance, right, Because you have to understand the time that it takes for the hiring authority to interview as well. So if you do back to back to back interviews I mean if you, if you take a hiring authority the entire day on just interviewing, right, it's, you have to understand the time it takes away from those folks as well. So it's got to be a delicate dance. Schedule interviews consistently, not back to back, but in my opinion it should be frequent enough that you have a steady flow of candidates to make a decision in a reasonable amount of time.
Pete Newsome:
So let's let's identify the difference in high volume hiring versus hiring for one position.
Pete Newsome:
And maybe that would help explain when it's appropriate and when it's not so. If you are hiring for one position, I believe the recruiter's job is to only send one candidate at a time. Send the hiring manager, the person they're going to hire. You won't be able to do that with a hundred percent accuracy, certainly not over time, but that's recruiting when it's done right. In my opinion. Now that means there has to be a really solid exchange of information upfront. The recruiter has to fully understand the, the hiring need, what the manager's looking for, the culture, all of the hard and soft skills that go involved in making that hiring decision. But you don't have to have a lot of back to back interviews if it's done right. You shouldn't Now high volume. I would support it fully to say if I need to hire 10 positions, I do want to book that extended period of time for the hiring manager or whoever's going to make the decision, to be able to do it rapidly. That to me, is efficient and speeds up the process.
Ricky Baez:
So that makes sense, right, because you know, for the time for your exchange of course, I'm talking about the internal leadership for your exchange of time for interview, you're going to yield like 10 candidates, right, that you definitely need, especially like in a calls, in a situation, or even Amazon, right, because Amazon, it's November, it's about to be you, you know what your parents, even your parents, pass away. You're not going to take some time off, right, because we are no joke with that. So, yeah, so there has to be a balance. But there's another one here, pete, that I really want to jump on. That. I think it's crucial.
Ricky Baez:
Folks, recruiters, you have to train your interviewers, make sure your interviewers know exactly what they're looking for. They have to, you have to, you have to. Let me, I'm sorry, oh, technology, I put a thumbs up and a little emoji came up. What a time to be alive. Sorry, squirrel, no.
Ricky Baez:
So you want to make sure that your hiring authorities know exactly who they're looking for. And you got to make sure, especially if you do back to back interviews, you got to make sure that interview number one still has the same attention, the same desire, the same energy as interview number 10, right? So you got to make sure that the interviewers know that. Also, make sure that the interviewers only take notes. That has to do with the person's skills and whether they can or cannot do the job. So appropriate documentation should be in that training. The difference types of, of, not not discrimination is. It's escaping me right now when you relate to somebody of a specific say, if, if, if somebody did answer a question really really really well and then, because the answer that question really really well, the other question, the answer wrong. It's not relevant because you're so high on how well this question I.
Pete Newsome:
I. You're talking about an emotional connection of sorts.
Ricky Baez:
Yeah, it's, it's, it's something and it's escaping me right now. I can't believe it's escaping me right now. Yeah, so you've got to make sure that you train the people who are interviewing to make sure they know exactly what they're looking for and they avoid any legal pitfalls.
Pete Newsome:
So set clear, objective criteria. I think that's that's what we're looking for here.
Ricky Baez:
You don't want to add a lot of subjectivity, yeah just to the hiring process.
Pete Newsome:
You want to be concise and look if you you should. As a company, you should train your interviewers to know what to, how to handle it, what to look for. That's a that's the best route to take. Don't just send people in hoping for the best. That's. That's not a good approach.
Ricky Baez:
And another approach is and I'm going to look both sides, so make sure people hear me clear communication when the candidate Folks, I guarantee I'm almost guarantee recruiters, that you will dramatically reduce the amount of ghosting that you get from a candidate if you communicate exactly what the recruit, the candidate, can expect, from the beginning of the interview all the way to the very end, whether they get the job or not. Right, you lay out the map. Let them know where they are on that map. Let them know where they are on that, on that game board, right, a monopoly. And the more they know that, the more invested they are and the less likely they're going to ghost you. They're going to see it through the end.
Pete Newsome:
Can we talk about ghosting just for a second, because I feel like that word is morphed into something that I don't believe that it is. If you look on LinkedIn now, candidates are complaining that recruiters are ghosting them because they didn't respond to their job application. I don't think that's ghosting.
Ricky Baez:
No, that's not ghosting.
Pete Newsome:
Yeah, for a ghost to exist, they had to be alive at some point. So for ghosting in this scenario to exist, there had to be a relationship or a connection at some point. Sending a one-click application does not establish rapport, that does not establish a relationship, and so to consider that ghosting, I think, is an unrealistic expectation and it really confuses. The good reason that word is used is to discourage people from not following up and not communicating once they've been engaged, because that's really what we're talking about here is giving candidate feedback in a timely matter, but by sending a one-click application, that doesn't make you a candidate, maybe in your mind as a person who sends it, but not in the company's mind. Back to the point we talked about earlier if you're receiving 2,000 applications, you're not building relationships with 2,000 people.
Pete Newsome:
It's just not going to happen and it's an unfortunate aspect of the job search process. It sounds harsh, but it is realistic and it would apply in any scenario in life. So just because you reach out, doesn't obligate the individual to respond.
Ricky Baez:
I agree, and yes, pete, that is not called ghosting. Actually, there's a scientific term for that. When you apply, when you as a candidate apply, and you get no response back, hold on, let me look it up. The scientific term or your credentials suck. That's what Google said. Your credentials suck.
Pete Newsome:
Well, maybe, okay, I know you said that in. Just they're not appropriate for the job. And so look, if, if, yeah, michael Jordan as the best basketball player of all time. Yes, I said that. I.
Ricky Baez:
Agree with me.
Pete Newsome:
I agree with it. If he applies to be a neurosurgeon, his credentials aren't good to be a neurosurgeon. It doesn't take away from his greatness as a basketball player, but I'm not gonna let him operate on me. So that's what we're talking about here and so can't. It's need to know that when you are eager to find a job and, and, and you're on the clock, you're gonna be, a lot of people will just take that shot and then try to apply. And there's a lot of career coaches out there who are encouraging people to apply to any and every job just to increase their odds. And I'll tell you Definitively, it just lowers the odds collectively for everyone of their resume getting pulled out of the pile. So that's a different soapbox. I'll get off that now actually can.
Ricky Baez:
It's, it's. I really think that candidates need to hear this piece. They really do. I know this is higher calling, but this is a piece that candidates need to hear.
Ricky Baez:
At the beginning of my career, I used to subscribe to the notion that apply to every job, even if you don't qualify, just so you can get to meet the hiring authority, right. I used to subscribe to that right and then shake some hands, make friends with them and then later on I'll get something else. When it came my turn to interview and I found out that's what people were doing, it got a. It made me mad. I'm like you're wasting my time so I no longer subscribe to that notion. So, yes, it's. It don't apply to every single job that's out there and I get it if you're out there.
Ricky Baez:
On unemployment Part of you know it depending what state you're in, if you're gonna get unemployment, you have to show that you applied and I get, since that's what people do, but it try to have an intentional application. Try to have a Reason why you're applying, because you have to remember other people are, are, are setting their time from the business schedule aside To make sure they meet with you. So yeah, I changed tune on that about five years into my career.
Pete Newsome:
Okay, fair enough fair enough so, but communicate with your candidates. Let them, let them know what's going on. That that's an important aspect of this right. So here's a couple other things. Let's touch on having an employee referral program. That's a great way to speed up your hiring process.
Pete Newsome:
No one knows your culture better than your internal employees. Take advantage of them. Give them a reason to refer candidates to you. There's every reason to do it. None that I'm aware of not to. I can't think of a downside to it. So that is something that will not only speed up your process but Increase your retention rates as well, because your employer employees Know who's going to be a good fit. If, especially if it's a personal referral, someone they've worked with in the past, they know that person's work habits. Those things are really hard to pick out during an interview process. You can ask questions, you can check references, but I've always said you don't really know what someone's like until you live with them. So Go with the person who's lived with that person in the in the past. Take advantage of of what they know that you won't be able to Accurately determine in the interview process.
Ricky Baez:
I wasn't, so I agree with that a hundred percent. I agree that that employee Referrals if you put a good process in place you know it's again. Who knows better about the intricacies of the job and the good, the bad and the ugly than the people who work there? But I had that backfire, I mean one time one time.
Ricky Baez:
Every organization, every business has that one employee that they're like I just wish they'll just leave or go somewhere else. And then that one employee it might in. About three jobs ago, yeah, I gave a referral. I'm like, ah, do we want another one of this person? That kind of backfired? Yeah, the person didn't even bother interviewing. But, yeah, it's you. You have, you have walking, living, breathing marketing campaigns in your organization leverage that leverage.
Ricky Baez:
That, trust me folks, you will get much better candidates From people who were referred from other people who know the ins and outs of that job. So that is a great way to make sure you got the right talent for the for the job. There's an HR piece, but that's a whole nother show to to be careful with. But I don't want to do real us right.
Pete Newsome:
So that we do that enough, as I'm definitely gonna cut out the Bitcoin part earlier.
Ricky Baez:
Oh, come on.
Pete Newsome:
That was. That was five minutes of unnecessary conversation. But we of course have to bring up the value of hiring a third party, hire a recruiting firm to speed up your hiring process. Why? Because that's all we do. We have blinders on. We are not a corporate talent acquisition Department that inevitably gets pulled into other things a staffing company, a recruiting firm, a headhunter use whatever words you like. Third parties are on a mission because they don't get paid, they don't eat unless they deliver. Now what better motivation for a fast and efficient hiring process is to leverage someone who only gets rewarded when they produce results. And we're measured on a different timeline internally. When you, when we talk about the average of 30, 40, maybe even 50 days For a hiring process, my eyes glaze over that sounds. That sounds unrealistic to me, because I'll go out of business if it takes that long to find a great candidate. So we're incited and highly motivated to produce not just a candidate or candidates, but the right candidate as fast as possible.
Ricky Baez:
So for every recruiter out there listening, especially recruiters in corporate America, police understand, yes, it's a great idea to go with a third party recruiter Agency. That way they because they're the experts, but they work fast. They work really really fast. So they're there be careful.
Pete Newsome:
What you wish for. Is that what you're saying?
Ricky Baez:
Well, no, because what happens is, you know, some organizations are not used to how quick these organizations work. And then they bring all these great candidates and they take their time in selecting, but the top, the the clock is ticking for that candidate, right? If they're a top tier candidate, I guarantee that's five of the office on the table, five of the offers, and if you drag your feet and making a Selection, your competitor is gonna take them. So bring in a third-party staffing firm, but also understand that they work really fast and whatever they put in front of you, go ahead, take the time, make make the effort to make sure you do what you need to do, to make sure you don't lose that candidate at the time so if I'm, if I'm Describing oppositins of the spectrum as when you should and shouldn't use a third party for hiring, you don't need one.
Pete Newsome:
If time is not important Now, time always should be a factor. If it's not an immediate opening, don't use a third party for that. Don't waste the staffing company's time. Or if you're flooded with so many great candidates you don't need to use a third party, then, of course, don't do it. I like to say that no one uses us unless they need us. But if you do need a third party, if Urgency is a factor, if it is a role that needs to be filled as quickly as possible, then they're your best friend. Yeah, a third-party staffing company is your best friend because we are inherently going to be much faster and More efficient than a corporate entity, and that's just the way it is, and I would argue that anytime anywhere.
Ricky Baez:
I agree. No, I agree with you. I agree with you because, remember, are recruited for a corporate entity. They're just somebody that works for a business that has a different core business, a staffing agency. That's their core, that's what they do for a living right.
Pete Newsome:
It's a great way to look at it. It's not about the quality of the individual, it's not about the capabilities of the individual recruiter. It has to do with what the core business actually is, and everything in that business, if you're a third party, is Focused on recruiting and staffing. Everything that's it. Sales is focused on recruiting Right. Operations is focused on recruiting every aspect of it. But if you're any other type of business, the core of what you do is not recruiting. So that's a great thing to bring up and I've never actually thought of it that way before, but it makes so much sense.
Ricky Baez:
Well, yeah, because you know it's. It's if you're in the business of making toilet paper and it's time to cut, you know, to cut a Staff, you're not gonna cut the people who make the toilet paper. That's what you need to to to actually succeed. They're gonna cut out people who don't make a direct impact, right, well, sometimes it's HR, training, recruiting, whereas in the, in a staffing agency, when we have to let people go because you know things are tough, yeah, you're gonna keep your, your, your top players. You may let go of some of some people who don't make a direct impact. So, yeah, it really depends on that issue. That's why it's a good idea, if you don't have the time To actually do it yourself, get a staffing agency. Who's who's an expert in that field and man, let me tell you, they work quick.
Pete Newsome:
Well, it's a difference between a thing you do and the thing you do right, that's it right. Okay, so To wrap up, you, we want to simplify the onboarding process. Of course, in this, that that goes without saying. But if you've listened this far, we what we've covered are the ways that you can speed up your Hiring process. There's lots of reasons to do it. No reason not to that. Ricky, did we catch? Do we cover everything? Did we did we do it? I Don't say it.
Ricky Baez:
No, no, wait now. I'm sorry cuz I know you're wrapping up, but I have to say this because I'm big on onboarding Pete, I am huge on onboarding. Yes, streamlining, yes, make it as efficient as possible, but do not let the impact diminish. Do not let the impact diminish at all, because I know somebody who just started a job two weeks ago and that person was in an office all day long watching a video for new employee orientation. It was, you know, a fishing is all can get. But let me tell you, by the third hour in that eight hour day, looking into that camera, this person's eyes were glazed over. So, yes, streamlining as much as you can, but don't let the human connection Be be affected by this dreamline process, because that's still is key.
Pete Newsome:
I so, in conclusion, how to speed up your hiring process clear job descriptions. Take advantage of technology. Employee referral programs great way to do it. Set clear expectations internally. Teach your interviewers how to manage the process and when you need to Hire a third-party recruiting firm. They'll be your best friend if speed and efficiency you're at the top of your priority list. Anything else, pete, look at how far we've come.
Ricky Baez:
We're now summarizing the end of the podcast. I know we're really good, I'm proud of ourselves, and well that's.
Pete Newsome:
There's. There's no one. There's no one left listening this long, so why not?
Ricky Baez:
mom love you. She's listening. I know she is. Yes, she's so proud of me.
Pete Newsome:
I'm proud of you too. So, ricky, thank you, thanks for listening. If you, if you are with us, our two moms, wonderful. We appreciate you and have a great weekend. Have a good one guys.