Business leaders see time-to-hire stats that promise It takes 30 to 40 days to find your next employee and think, “I can manage that.” They pass on working with a talent acquisition manager and start the hiring process internally.
Unfortunately, this statistic is misleading (more on this later) and does not illustrate every aspect of the hiring process. There is more to consider than a generic timeline about how long it takes to source talent.
To help you gauge if you are truly prepared to hire on your own, we designed this short quiz.
Quiz: Should You Hire on Your Own?
Tally how many times you answer yes, and how many times you answer no, as you go through the questions. You’ll use the tallies at the end to determine if you can hire on your own.
1. Can you continue searching for months until you find your ideal candidate?
You expect to hire within 40 days, based on the hiring stats you see online. Those data points cause overly optimistic timelines because the source does not share the:
- Positions under consideration
- Experience level of the candidates
- Time of year the searches occurred
- Strategies used to fill the position (recruiter vs internal, promoting from within vs hiring externally)
- Industries and businesses looking to hire
You may be able to hire within this window, but only if the process goes smoothly and you’re truly considering time to hire and not time to fill.
2. Is everything from the job description to the compensation package developed and approved?
The often-cited 40 days stat is time to hire, meaning it does not include time for writing job descriptions, getting approval to hire and formalizing the compensation or benefits package – basically every task you must complete before you post the job. Those activities fall under time to fill and are a necessary part of hiring but are rarely captured in the statistics. These omissions contribute to the idea that hiring is something any organization can quickly manage.
Time to hire vs time to fill
- Time to hire: the period between when a candidate first applies to when they accept your offer
- Time to fill: starts when you realize you have a position to fill and lasts until you onboard your new employee
3. Does the position call for readily available skills?
People with niche skillsets have the upper hand in job searches. They are likely fielding opportunities from multiple employers. The negotiations can draw out the hiring process or force you to increase the position’s salary or enhance the compensation package in an attempt to win over the candidate.
4. Is there a strong pool of available talent?
Even without considering specialized skillsets, a certain position may not have a strong pool of available talent. Along with the problems mentioned above, you may struggle to get qualified applicants for your position.
5. Are you replacing a current staff member, or staffing a position in an existing department?
Hiring to replace a staff member, or to fill a position you’ve previously had on staff is easier because you likely have a job description readily available. It might need a few light updates, but nothing major.
A new position requires writing a job description, establishing success criteria, benchmarks, and goals and creating a competitive compensation package. Again, none of this is part of the time to hire statistics and can cause your time to fill to take longer than you anticipate.
6. Do you or the hiring manager have expertise in the skills required?
Direct experience in the position you’re hiring for speeds up the process because you do not need to conduct extensive research to craft questions that thoroughly assess your candidates. You already know what to ask and listen for during the interview to evaluate the applicant’s skill, potential, mindset and ability to meet the job’s success criteria.
7. Do you have a positive company brand and reputation?
Companies with strong brands effortlessly pull in top-performing professionals.
You may not be well known, and that’s okay – you don’t need to be as instantly recognizable as Apple to become a talent magnet. Be active in your community and online. Carefully monitor your online reputation and regularly seek positive reviews from satisfied clients and happy employees.
That way, when potential applicants search your company, they form positive associations with your brand and view your company as a place they want to work.
8. Do you have a broad talent acquisition strategy beyond posting the job online?
Online job boards create noise because they grab the attention of unqualified applicants who apply, increasing your workload.
If you choose to hire on your own, seek ways around this problem by using other tactics to find talent like:
- Asking employees for referrals
- Tapping into your peer network
- Forming partnerships with universities
- Finding potential employees or referral sources at networking events
- Participating in job fairs
- Posting the position on social media
Did you know: social media plays a role in the job search process for 85% of applicants?
9. Can you easily source and successfully engage passive candidates?
Reaching out to passive candidates is the ideal way to hire because it grants your company access to a pool of professionals who are established and have proven they know how to succeed in a role like the one you want to fill. Hiring one of these individuals brings stability, expertise and a valuable skillset to your team.
10. Do you have an established, efficient process for qualifying talent?
Investing time now in a thorough, documented, comprehensive screening process fast-tracks hiring when you have candidates to evaluate because:
- Minimum requirements quickly weed out unqualified candidates
- Internally, everyone knows their role and fulfills it
- Interviews use a set series of questions
- Each applicant is evaluated based on the same criteria, crucial for making the right selection when you’ve narrowed the pool down to your top choices.
Without the structure provided by an established process, it will take you longer to hire and you could end up hiring the wrong person.
11. Are all onboarding procedures up to date?
A quick onboarding process:
- Decreases your time to fill
- Turns your new employee into an active team contributor faster
- Improves employee retention
Remember, around 20% of new employees choose to leave an organization within their first 45 days.
Scoring guide
Mostly yes’s
You are a hiring pro! Before you post the job, check that your compensation package aligns with current market expectations. Doing so guarantees elite talent will find your position attractive and decrease the likelihood you have to engage in negotiations over salary.
Sign up for your free compensation analysis here.
Mostly even split between yes and no
You may be able to hire on your own, but it could take longer than expected. We recommend you have a quick conversation with one of our talent experts to clarify what it would take for you to manage the hiring process or if you should partner with a talent acquisition company.
Let us answer your hiring questions.
Mostly no’s
You are not ready to hire on your own. It is likely you do not have the time to devote to the process or lack the internal resources – like a pre-existing job description or team ready to qualify candidates – that are required to find and hire high-achieving candidates.
Contact us today to discuss your hiring needs.
When It’s Time to Hire Work with the Trusted Talent Acquisition Managers at ProActivate
ProActivate’s talent acquisition managers are experts at finding, engaging and qualifying passive talent. When you partner with us, we deliver top-tier candidates until you hire. It’s a flat fee service, trusted by organizations around the world.
We had a great experience with ProActivate. Their team and customer service is top notch. They have a mature regimented process and that is a key for success in recruitment. We will hire them again when needed and highly recommend them to any company who has recruitment needs.
– Google Review from Anil Konkimalla