When you’re recruiting it’s natural to want to take your time, and find the best possible candidate. However what most recruiters don’t realise is that if you find the right person, it’s in your best interests to move fast - otherwise they might slip away.

This is particularly important in the tech and digital sectors where competition in recruitment is fierce, and the top talent is snapped up at lightning speed.

The Importance of a Rapid Hiring Process

You might be wary of moving too quickly. After all, research shows it can cost up to 33% of an employee’s annual wage to replace them. However, we’d argue that the benefits of having the right talent in your team to drive productivity and innovation, as well as boosting business growth, outweigh these risks.

In the tech sector, having a vacant position for too long can result in costs rapidly mounting up. It’s estimated that the annual cost for having a tech professional vacancy is twice their salary, and the stakes are even higher when the vacancy is for a key role like a developer - in these cases critical work can be brought to a standstill.

Having a key role empty for too long can also have a direct impact on team cohesion and productivity, which in turn will filter down to your customers and clients. There’s a lot at stake.

Don’t Lose to the Competition

The most obvious (and important) reason behind speeding up the hiring process is to avoid talent you’re interested in being poached by your competitors.

Generally, candidates are applying to more than one company at once. And if they're talented, they can expect multiple offers. Act too slowly and another company may get their offer in first - after all, if you’ve taken a week or more to reply to the candidate in question they may well think you’re not interested.

Think of it this way - the longer your recruitment process, the less talented your pool of candidates will become, as the most capable are offered alternative positions. Or another scenario might mean a candidate receiving better offers, and driving up their salary requirements beyond what you’re willing  or able to pay.

As a final consideration, don’t overlook the effect that a slow hiring process leading to a poor candidate opinion can have on your reputation, or your brand as an employer. People share negative opinions much more freely than positive ones, so not picking up the pace with hiring might even discourage other talented individuals in their professional network to apply for a position with you.

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