How to Avoid Breadcrumbing by Improving Time to Hire

Dating and Recruiting

What do dating and recruiting have in common? A lot! Last year we found that dating trends were often reflected in the recruiting world. From ghosting to paperclipping to dial toning, they all have a corresponding recruiting application. And now we can add breadcrumbing to the list.

In dating, breadcrumbing is when you string someone along with just enough to keep them interested but with no actual relationship. In recruiting, it is when you string a candidate along through a long hiring process.

How long is too long?

As discussed in this Staffing Industry Analysts article, 62% of survey respondents lose interest in a job opportunity in two weeks, and 77% within three weeks without contact.

This can have negative business impacts. Candidates who feel they have been breadcrumbed not only drop out of the process, but they may blacklist the company, share their experience on social media, or leave comments about the process on review sites. And none of these things are a good look for a company looking to hire top talent.

Time to Hire

If you are experiencing candidate attrition, you may be guilty of breadcrumbing. The first thing to examine is your Time to Hire. Not to be confused with Time to Fill, Time to Hire is the number of days from when you first engage a candidate to when they are hired. While the average Time to Hire seems to hover between 20 and 30 days, we have already seen that many candidates lose interest after just 14 days! You can learn more about Time to Hire and how to improve this metric here.

Outsourced recruiting can help you combat breadcrumbing and reduce Time to Hire by identifying bottlenecks in your hiring process. In fact, companies that utilize recruitment process outsourcing reduce average hiring cycle time by 15 days. Those 15 days can make a big difference in hiring the best candidate.

Forget breadcrumbing; start recruiting

Breadcrumbing can cost you valuable talent. Don’t let a disjointed hiring process give candidates the wrong impression. Contact an Orion Talent RPO expert to learn how to eliminate candidate attrition, increase productivity, and hire the best talent in a streamlined, efficient way.

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