Depending on individual contracts, most employees in the United States give two weeks’ notice before leaving their positions with their employers. Some aren’t even required to give any warning at all.
Regardless of how an employee plans their departure, many business owners find that they aren’t able to replace a leaving employee before they’ve worked out their notice period. As a result, they’re left with a period where productivity dips and processes are impacted.
There might be no way to avoid significant upheaval with a leaving employee, but you might be able to speed up the hiring process and limit productivity loss in some of the following ways.
Enlist the Services of a Recruitment Company
Rather than spending your valuable time creating job advertisements and poring over resumes, consider hiring tech recruiters or recruiters for your specific industry to help. Recruiters can take care of all the hard work so that you can focus on ensuring your business keeps running smoothly.
Typically recruiters and staffing agencies can use their connections to find suitable applicants and even create job advertisements for you. They can also read through resumes and narrow down the best talent with the specific skills and qualifications you’re looking for. You can then choose from a select few prospective employees and potentially hire someone quicker than you thought possible.
Rely On Technology
Whether you’re hiring your first employee or you’ve had experience hiring dozens of employees before, you might be frustrated by how long it takes to read through every resume that comes across your desk. It can be even more frustrating when many applicants lack the skills and qualifications you outlined in your job posting. Speed up the resume-reading process by relying on technology to find the most suitable applicants for your vacant position.
For example, resume parsing software can automate the process of collecting, storing, and categorizing resumes. It can also scan multiple resumes at once, analyze them for the information you require about credentials and qualifications, and put the most relevant applicants at the top of your list for you to consider first. You might still choose to read all resumes, but you can read the most fitting ones first.
Create a Quality Job Posting
If you’ve never had to create a job advertisement before, you might not know how they should look to attract the talent your business needs. Writing a quality job posting can be a multi-step process that requires much thought.
First, you need to analyze the role and consider everything it will entail, including the salary and how it compares to the current market. Don’t be afraid to check out your competition’s job postings for similar roles and see how they stack up.
Think about whether your offerings are competitive enough and what you’re looking for in an ideal candidate, such as their skills, qualifications, and educational background. Of equal importance is the structure of your job posting. Follow this structure below, and you might attract the attention of quality future employees:
- Job title
- Job location, salary, and working hours
- Introduction about the job
- Bullet points for daily responsibilities
- Perks and benefits
- Information about the company
- Necessary qualifications, skills, and credentials
- Information about the steps in the application process
Be Selective With Where You Post the Job Advertisement
You might be desperate to fill your open position as soon as possible but refrain from posting the job advertisement on every platform you can think of. Instead, choose job advertisement websites and noticeboards frequented by people in your industry.
While you might be limiting the interest in your job ad, you might also be reducing the number of ineligible applicants you receive resumes from. As a result, you might spend less time screening resumes and more time interviewing applicants with all the skills and experience you’re looking for.
Be Flexible With Interviews
When you narrow your potential applicants to a select few, it might be time to set up interviews. More often than not, job interviews take place in person, with applicants visiting your business and discussing the role with you.
However, job applicants won’t always be available on the days you set aside for this important task. Be flexible and consider allowing video interviews. This flexibility can be particularly important when you have remote positions in which you’re accepting applications from people living outside your city, state, or even country. Flexibility might also mean you don’t let the most fitting applicant pass you by simply because they couldn’t be at your interview on a select date.
Every employer prefers to experience a fast, stress-free, and smooth hiring process, but that doesn’t always happen. However, you might be able to limit the disruption in your business after an employee leaves by taking these actions above.