Fast & Furious Hiring — Solution for Never-Closing Vacancies in IT

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Why are some vacancies closed in a week while others are hanging over your head for months? You’re lucky if you haven’t come across the latter, but if you have, we’ll reveal the mystic behind this!

We highly recommend reading this piece to HRs and recruiters who are suffering from such a neverending search. In fact, the cause of this issue lies not in their work or candidates’ attitude to vacancies. The main culprits of these cases are strategic mistakes in recruiting. The ITExpert team, having more than 6 years of background in this area, is glad to share tips on fixing them!

Why Does This Happen?

If your vacancy doesn’t close in a month, it will likely be open for half of the year! There are several reasons for this:

1. Organization and Length of Recruiting Process

Recruiting in IT implies that most of your candidates are “cold leads.” Recruiters attract them with different perks or interesting challenges or projects. Yet, whatever your proposal, candidates will always prefer competitors if you have a long selection process or huge test tasks that take not an hour but a week to complete.

The competition is too high, and you need to make fast decisions. Cut selection stages and simplify test tasks to clearly see whether a candidate can perform their work. After all, you’ll have a probation period to see whether you’ve made the right choice.

2. Ignoring Limits of the Market of Candidates

Managers often suggest that they will receive approximately the same number of resumes every week for any vacancy. This approach would help them to assess as many candidates as possible, compare them and send an offer to someone who fits the requirements and company’s budgets. However, they should consider the share of every specialty and possible limits. For example, there are positions with only 200+- candidates available throughout the entire country. 80% of them are not considering new offers, so you should hire someone from the remaining 20%. Otherwise, your competitors will do that, leaving you without a necessary specialist. 

Our experience shows that during an intensive search for candidates, most resumes are received in the first couple of weeks. After that, their number is significantly reduced. So, don’t hesitate if you see a suitable candidate – invite them for an interview and offer them a test task. The market won’t grow overnight because you need this – it’s a dangerous illusion.

3. Lack of a Portrait of Your Ideal Candidate

Sometimes, managers and business owners don’t have a clear understanding of which candidate they are looking for. The requirements change from search to search, and the vacancy can’t be closed even in several months. If there are no precise portraits of whom you’re going to hire, you’ll have to reduce the requirements, start working on the market once again and consider less suitable specialists.

It’s essential that the recruiter and the hiring manager or technical specialist clearly outline must-haves and possible deviations from the ideal. After that, you can assess the relevance of resumes sent by candidates.

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4. Too Low and Strict Budget for a Position

Not being ready to follow the market in terms of median wages, be ready that your vacancy will last forever or until you reduce the requirements. You can find as many great candidates as possible and refuse all of them due to the lack of budget.

The key to success is to offer flexible options when it comes to salary. When you refuse suitable candidates because of their expectations, calculate which will be more expensive: pay more to a professional or hire a new team member?

More Tips on Closing Vacancies Fast

1. Simplify the application process. Use brief and concise forms without 100-questions lists. Better leave all your clarifications for the interview. Filling out such forms should take 10 minutes maximum!
2. Use tools for improving candidate screening. AI-based technology can replace the hardest manual tasks. Use applicant tracking systems to select the most suitable candidates and not miss anything important!
3. Save time by considering pre-recorded video interviews. It’s much better than if you realized that the candidate won’t fit the position after the first 10 minutes of your interview!
4. Prepare all your questions in advance. Structured interviews are always more productive than free conversations without frames and limits.
5. Provide feedback asap. Don’t make good candidates wait for a week before they get feedback. If you think that this person might be a perfect fit but want to interview a couple of people more, tell your first candidate about their chances. Otherwise, you may lose them when your competitor sends them an offer before your decision.

Conclusions

As you can see, making decisions and giving feedback quickly is critical. The average period of a candidate’s “recruiting cycle” is three weeks. If you do not hire the necessary IT specialist within a month, you won’t be able to compare them with each other. Someone might have accepted an offer from another company, and someone else may be only at the first stages of recruiting. Also, the extended recruiting process doesn’t drive confidence among the candidates and they won’t be motivated to accept your offer. That’s why know whom you are going to hire, set realistic deadlines, dedicate budgets that reflect the situation on the market, and make sure your communication is efficient!