Get It Right the First Time

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), filling positions is taking longer than ever. Today, hiring for a white collar job typically takes 68 business days, 26 days longer than in 2010. Along the same lines, filling a vacancy in health care is taking 49 days, finance positions take 42 days, and jobs in IT take 32 days. But what’s really noteworthy is another statistic: On average, 31 percent of new hires quit within the first six months, and 16 percent quit in the first week. Employers are taking longer to hire people who aren’t going to stay on the job. Almost one in three will be gone in six months. That’s why it’s critical for employers to be constantly evaluating their selection procedures. They need to know if they’re recruiting from the right applicant pool, what part of the screening process—interview, testing, references, etc.—is most effective at identifying good candidates, and even which staff members are best at screening applicants. If it’s going to take longer to hire anyway, employers must make certain they’re doing everything they can to increase the probability that they’re picking the best applicants. And they also need to increase the probability that the new hire will stay on the job.