As 2015 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on the past 12 months to learn which of your initiatives worked and which ones fell flat. You started the year with ambitious hiring goals, but things don’t always go as planned. It’s important to assess the progress you’ve made, so you can fine tune your strategy for 2016.
Dust off the goals you set around this time last year to see how your team measures up. Hopefully you’re right where you wanted to be, but don’t beat yourself up if you still have a ways to go. Figure out where you need to improve and use this to make next year your best yet.
4 Hiring Goals to Strive for in 2016
Achieve success in the new year by achieving these four hiring objectives:
Reduce Time-to-Hire
In business, time is money. The longer a position is vacant, the more money it costs your organization. It takes the average company 34 days to fill a permanent position, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). If your average time to hire is greater than this, work hard to do better in the new year.
Decrease Turnover Rates
If you did a lot of hiring in 2015, but didn’t create many new positions, it’s time to devise a new strategy. The direct and indirect costs of turnover are enormous, so you can’t afford to spend another year accepting resignation letters. Instead of hiring the candidate with the most impressive resume, start digging a little deeper and searching for the best cultural fit. New hires that fit right in with the rest of your team are much more likely to turn into long-term employees than those who immediately feel like outsiders.
Optimize Your Sourcing Channels
You probably spend a lot of time posting open positions to job boards, forums, social media and a variety of other spots, but they’re not all equally useful. Knowing the referral source that draws the most high-quality applicants can streamline your hiring process, allowing you to save time and money. Include a spot on each online application for candidates to note where they heard about the position, so you can better focus your efforts.
Increase Your Acceptance Ratio
It’s beyond frustrating to make it all the way through the hiring process and have your top candidate reject your offer. If you don’t have a qualified runner-up, you have to start the process over again, which is an enormous waste of time and money. Take a look back at every candidate who didn’t accept your offer this year to see what went wrong — salary too low, you took too long to make a decision, etc. Use this valuable data to make improvements that should help boost your acceptance ratio in 2016.
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