Why Agencies Need to Fast-Track the Hiring Process

Hiring is one of the great struggles of business. Recruiting, sifting through résumés, and interviewing to find the perfect candidate can take months, and it isn’t cheap. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley estimate that replacing a single professional can cost as much as $7,000. And the hiring cycle seems to never end -- particularly for digital marketing companies.

Agency leaders, to reduce recruitment costs and vet more candidates, consider fast-tracking your hiring.

Speeding Up the Process

Fast-track hiring refers to an expedited recruitment and hiring process, reducing the time spent finding new employees to mere days or hours. This method mixes multiple strategies to speed hiring along, including leveraging mobile technology and group interviews.

Digital marketing is the perfect industry for this method because of its high turnover rate, with digital marketers changing jobs more frequently than those in any other profession. With 57% of marketers believing it’s necessary to hop jobs every three years for career advancement, many agencies are hiring constantly. The search for talent might be unavoidable, but it doesn’t have to take forever. 

A Good -- But Not Perfect -- Solution

With fast-track hiring, interviewers have less time to get to know candidates, which raises the risk of a costly mis-hire. In the same vein, this method offers candidates less time to evaluate the company than traditional hiring. Fast hires sometimes lead to fast exits. 

However, as Chipotle Mexican Grill realized with its one-day, 4,000-person hiring blitz, the pros of fast-track hiring can offset the inherent risks.

• Fast-track hiring reduces costs. Multiple interview rounds with dozens of candidates can be costly. Speeding up the process decreases the company’s cost per hire, one of the best indicators of an HR department’s effectiveness. As Chipotle saw, by dropping the time and financial costs of hiring, fast-track hiring ensures that losing an employee or making a mis-hire doesn’t cost the company dearly.
• Fast-track hiring increases the chances of recruiting top talent. The best candidates for a role at your company are also the first to get offers from other companies. Use fast-track hiring to beat the competition to your top picks.
• Fast-track hiring reduces the burden on your team. When there’s a vacancy, the rest of the team has to pick up the slack. The faster a new employee is found, the faster this extra burden is lifted from your team’s shoulders.

Implementing Fast-Track Hiring

To implement fast-track hiring at your agency, consider these hiring strategies:

1) Create an interviewing panel. 

Interviewers often ask the same candidate similar questions in separate interviews when they could interview the applicant together. Having a panel of interviewers also allows more of the team to meet and assess each candidate, which increases the likelihood of hiring a great employee.

2) Leverage technology.

Use software -- particularly mobile software -- geared toward streamlining the initial screening rounds. Because 64% of U.S. adults use a smartphone, mobile apps like Switch -- which uses a Tinder-like interface where employers and employees can swipe right on one another to indicate interest -- are enabling mobile-mediated recruiting.

Applicant-matching services, such as CareerCo, can pre-screen candidates for your team. Analytics software can direct candidate searches by showing what background factors -- such as educational institutions and previous employers -- tend to produce the desired breed of marketer. Technologies like Gild and TalentBin can show companies whether recruiting strategies are working

3) Use group interviews. 

By interviewing candidates in batches, interviewers can vet more candidates and quickly filter out those who are unfit for the job. Group interviews can give glimpses into how candidates work with others and how they perform under pressure. Interviewers can also see candidates’ personalities and management styles as they make snap judgments in a competitive environment.

4) Sell the agency to the candidate.

Hiring is a two-way street; agencies must also sell their company to potential hires. Marketing professionals are often more motivated by an interesting, challenging job than salary or bonuses, and applicants see a company’s hiring practices as a reflection of how the company operates in other realms. An inefficient recruitment process could turn great candidates away.

Digital marketing agencies need to hire frequently, so don’t let a lengthy hiring process hamstring your efforts to find top talent. With fast-track hiring, your agency can hire better employees more quickly for less money.