Human Resources Blog - Spark Hire
Better Staffing Placement Times: The Holiday Gift that Keeps on Giving

Better Staffing Placement Times: The Holiday Gift that Keeps on Giving

The holiday season is upon us. No matter which festivities you celebrate, giving is a huge part of this time of year. As a staffing professional, this means there’s an opportunity to give your clients something they’ll truly appreciate: shorter staffing placement times.

The less time your clients have a position open, the better for their productivity, team morale, and bottom line. Yet, even for experienced staffing professionals, like yourself, it can be difficult to come up with new ways to speed up placement times.

Fear not, we’re here to make your clients’ wishes come true this holiday season. By using these tips, you can improve your staffing process and give clients the employees they need in no time:

Have a better scheduling tool

Communicating is one of the most time-consuming parts of staffing. But since it’s also one of the most important, many staffing professionals assume any attempts to save time will also lead to inefficiencies. As a result, something as seemingly simple as scheduling a live video interview can take days of back and forth emailing.

The right scheduling tool eliminates this issue, saving you and your clients an immeasurable amount of time. Instead of sending a dozen emails to determine when you can meet with a candidate, you simply give them a link to your calendar. They look at your availability and pick a time that fits in their schedule. The whole process takes a matter of minutes, meaning you can place talent faster.

Bonus tip

Make scheduling easy by adding a link to your calendar directly from your email signature. This enables candidates to schedule a time to speak with you from any of your correspondences.

Use digital interviews

In a perfect world, you would know absolutely everything about a job seeker before passing them on as a candidate. They’d go through every possible interview screen ensuring they meet all your client’s needs. But, as you know, every step in the staffing process increases placement times.

It’s better to use the right tools to balance speed and effectiveness. Digital interviews allow both you and your clients to assess candidates quickly without sacrificing the quality of your decisions.

Digital interviews provide all the necessary candidate information in a fraction of the time, compared to phone and in-person screenings. Job seekers record a few short responses and if they meet the requirements, you pass the video recordings on.

Watching potential employees’ videos is more engaging for clients than reading your notes or listening to your summaries. Clients can see for themselves why you’re recommending candidates and confidently make decisions about who to move forward.

Bonus tip

When you’re using digital interviews as an initial staffing screen, it’s best to ask all candidates the same questions. Having this consistency makes it easier — and faster — for your clients to compare candidates.

Have an easy way to revisit past candidates

Sometimes, you find a candidate who is obviously talented but not quite the right fit for your current client. Saving that individual’s responses and information saves you time when the right opportunity does arise.

Start building a video talent pool you can readily tap into. After filling a position, re-evaluate the candidates who showed potential. Rewatch their digital interviews with an open mind and take notes about what roles they would be perfect for. Then, whenever you have a client who needs a vacancy filled, look back and see which candidates meet their needs.

Bonus tip

Job seekers won’t wait around for you to reconsider them for another position. To save even more time, reach out to your reserve candidates to make sure they are still looking for employment. Every few months, check in with this talent pool and update your notes. This way, you won’t waste time trying to engage with unavailable candidates when actively trying to fill a position for a client.

Want more tips on improving your staffing process? Check out our digital interview guide!

Staffing's Ultimate Guide to Video Interviewing

Josh Tolan

Josh Tolan is the Founder and CEO of Spark Hire, a video interviewing platform used by 6,000+ customers in over 100 countries.