The secrets to reducing hiring time for your contingent workforce (with a free guide!)
There are a lot of challenges when it comes to hiring suitable candidates for your organisation’s contingent workforce. Hiring is only one of the many challenges that HR managers face in their role. Working with a contingent workforce can be difficult for a variety of reasons, including the constant uncertainty of how much work is coming in compared to the turnover rate. Still, not every organisation has to struggle to hire a contingent workforce.
This blog post will explore the top hiring strategies to help you reduce the time spent hiring your contingent workforce.
The Secrets To Reducing Hiring Time
Talent management is a balancing act. As you hire more contingent workers, you want to ensure you’re attracting the right people, screening them quickly and efficiently, onboarding them, and measuring success. This can be challenging in an environment of rapid growth. Consider these tips for reducing hiring time:
Establish a structured hiring process
When did you last review your contingent workforce hiring process? It's a great time to look at how you recruit and hire contingent workers. Is there any way to streamline the process? Do any parts of the process seem unnecessary or redundant? Eliminating steps that don't add value to your organisation will help speed up your hiring time. You may also want to add actions that allow better communication and efficiency elsewhere.
Build a talent pipeline ahead of time
It takes time to build relationships with potential employees. This can be difficult when you're trying to make decisions quickly and hire temporary employees who will be working only for a few months. You'll save time in the long run by building your talent pipeline several months before you need it. First, decide what kind of workers you need and what skills they should have. Then, start looking for candidates who would be a good fit for those positions and start building relationships with them now—even if they won't be working until later this year. This will allow you to make quick hiring decisions because you'll already know them well enough to trust their competence and work ethic.
Offer applicants a better experience
Consider adding job descriptions, salary information, or an overview of your company culture; these things will help candidates decide if they’re interested in applying. The better and more thorough the information you provide them upfront, the higher quality candidates you’ll receive.
| Aspect | Employee | Independent Contractor |
|---|---|---|
| Control and supervision | Direct control over how, when, and where to work | Freedom to set their own schedules and methods |
| Payment | Regular wages; taxes withheld by employer | Paid per project; responsible for their own taxes |
| Benefits | Health insurance, retirment plans, paid leave | Must arrange their own benefits |
| Termination | Often requires notice and may include severance | Can usually be terminated at any time without benefits |
| Tools and equipment | Provided by the employer | Typically use their own tools |
Use pre-employment assessment software.
An automated hiring system can be a huge time-saver when screening candidates. This type of software offers questionnaires, tests, and other methods to help you assess candidate fit before you bring them in for an interview. Many programs also allow you to share results with multiple hiring managers or interviewers—a great way to streamline your process.
Improve your job listing
An excellent job listing can attract more qualified candidates in less time than a poorly written one. The more detail you include in your job description, the easier it will be to weed out unqualified applicants. When creating a job listing, ensure that you have these elements:
- The title of the position
- An overview of the role and its responsibilities
- A list of required skills and qualifications
- The company's contact information
Make interviewing quick and automate scheduling
When you need a contingent worker to fill a gap in your organisation, every day is potential money lost. Make sure you're taking advantage of technology that can help shorten the length of interviews and make scheduling meetings with applicants easier. For example, you can use an automated scheduling tool like Calendly or Acuity to connect candidates with multiple stakeholders at once—or even schedule conference rooms.
Use an end-to-end digital hiring platform.
Many tools can help streamline your hiring process, but if you're using too many different apps, you'll spend time trying to integrate them instead of moving forward with the process itself. The best way to ensure that doesn't happen is by using a single platform from one vendor that includes most or all of the tools you need.
Increase sourcing efficiency
Your sourcing strategy is a great place to start when you're looking to improve your hiring time. Hiring managers and recruiters are often overwhelmed with the sheer number of applications for their job posts, so it's essential that they only see the most relevant candidates. By using freelance marketplaces, job seekers can be pre-screened and matched to your openings based on skills and qualifications—which means you can start evaluating interested candidates sooner.
Be Smart and Be Patient
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this hiring puzzle in the world of contingent staffing. Instead, it's all about collecting as much information as possible as you attempt to make hiring decisions. The more you know about your industry, and the more you know about the people who work in your industry, the easier it will be for you to decide who your best candidates are and how quickly you should be able to get them on board.
If you liked this piece, check out our article on the 10 benefits of a freelance marketplace.
