Quick Wins for Reducing Time-to-Fill in Your Recruitment Process
Time-to-fill continues to be one of the most scrutinized metrics in talent acquisition. And for good reason—it impacts everything from business continuity and team morale to your recruiting team’s bandwidth. Yet, the pressure to hire quickly often clashes with the need to hire well. If you’re feeling the squeeze, you’re not alone.
The good news? You don’t have to overhaul your entire recruitment strategy to see improvements. There are small but powerful changes that can make a big difference. Here are several quick wins you can implement today to reduce time-to-fill—without sacrificing quality.
1. Audit and streamline your job requisition process
It sounds simple but delays often start before a role even hits the job boards. If your requisition process involves multiple layers of approvals, now is the time to reassess. Ask yourself:
- Can we standardize or automate parts of this process?
- Who truly needs to be involved in approval?
- Are hiring managers trained to submit fully detailed requisitions?
Quick win: Implement a pre-approved job template for recurring roles to fast-track openings.
2. Improve your job descriptions for clarity and appeal
A vague or overly technical job description can deter qualified candidates and flood your pipeline with the wrong ones. Review your job postings to ensure they’re clear, compelling, and aligned with what top candidates want to know.
Quick win: Use plain language, highlight key responsibilities, and include what makes your company a great place to work—especially for in-demand roles.
3. Pre-schedule interview availability
Coordinating interviews is one of the biggest time drains in the hiring process. One solution? Ask hiring managers to proactively block time on their calendars for interviews as soon as a requisition is opened. This simple move can shave days—or even weeks—off your process.
Quick win: Use scheduling tools like Calendly or integrate with your ATS to eliminate back-and-forth emails.
4. Tighten up your candidate screening process
If you’re reviewing resumes in batches or waiting too long to make decisions, top candidates may have already accepted another offer. Tighten your screening process by identifying your top three “must-have” qualifications and focusing your review and interview around them.
Quick win: Create a candidate scorecard for each role and align with the hiring manager on it before screening begins.
5. Keep candidates engaged throughout the process
Even if you speed up your internal steps, you can still lose candidates if communication falls flat. Simple, timely updates make a big difference. If you’re not doing it already, consider creating a candidate communications checklist for your team.
Quick win: Automate status updates at each hiring stage to keep candidates warm and reduce drop-off.
6. Tap into talent pools proactively
Building a pipeline of pre-qualified candidates gives you a head start. This is especially valuable for high-turnover roles or positions you regularly hire for.
Quick win: While this is a long-term strategy, start by developing a plan and timeline to build and maintain talent pipelines that align with your most critical roles.
How to reduce time-to-fill without sacrificing quality
A faster hiring process doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality. By taking a critical look at your process and making a few targeted changes, you can build efficiency and maintain a high bar for talent.
Want to dive deeper into the balance between speed and quality? Check out our related post: Time to Fill vs. Quality of Hire: Do You Have to Choose?