The State of Pennsylvania is trying to reduce the time it takes to hire an employee down to 50 days. It’s part way there, having cut from 90 days down to 58.

The Keystone State is not alone. Numerous state governments, local governments, colleges and universities, as well as private-sector companies are all finding that new technologies are helping slash time to hire. 

One reason this is so important: faster hiring processes correlate to better quality of hire.

Here’s some of what these employers are experimenting with to reduce time to hire.

Building and nurturing better pipelines. Colleges that used to send one-size-fits all careers newsletters by email to all prospects are now getting more astute. They’re segmenting their talent communities by job — whether admissions, faculty, foodservices, and so on — and sending tailored communications that are much more targeted. This makes job prospects less likely to unsubscribe and more likely to respond when there’s an open job.

Using Generative AI. Long Beach is trying out the use of Generative AI to help build job descriptions. This makes sense to save time when there are certain jobs that open up over and over. If done well, the AI can also help write compelling job descriptions, and keep those descriptions focused on specific skills — without a lot of vague fluff about “looking for passion” and “hiring rockstars.”

Advanced use of data. The most modern and sophisticated talent technologies are using predictive analytics to help companies decide the best place to post jobs, and then tracking how many hires each source provides, so companies can modify accordingly.

Taking a hard look at requirements. Is that required “five or more years of experience” really necessary? How about that requirement that the person have a college degree? In some cases, an organization has a validated reason for needing requirements like these. If not, they’re removing these requirements and getting a better pool of applicants.

Looking beyond the resume so no talent is missed. Organizations like AMN Healthcare are training managers to stop looking for people who fit in, and start looking for people who can bring their unique talents to a healthcare role. This improves hiring time by “screening in” and not out potentially great employees.

Augmenting applicant tracking systems. A huge number of great candidates don’t finish their job applications. The employer doing the hiring doesn’t know the person was interested in the job, and thinks “we can’t find anyone.” It doesn’t have to be that way; new technologies integrate with the ATS and stop these candidates from getting lost.

We’re working with dozens of employers to reduce hiring time. Let us know if you want to talk about what we’re finding that works and what does not