Tech Recruitment: The Pressure to Hire Quickly

The pressure is on recruiters to fill spots quickly in any market, but in the candidate market we’re experiencing today, filling spots fast could mean beating out the competition for an excellent candidate. It could also mean making a rash decision that could cost you later. With skills gaps pressuring hiring managers and recruiters to put bodies in chairs quickly, and talent shortages making that more difficult, the time to hire has lengthened for most companies. For fast some companies, that’s not an option. They may be experiencing rapid growth, may be turning away work and customers if they can’t fill the vacancies, so they’re pushing the envelope when it comes to hire.

In a survey of companies that anticipate 25% staff growth in 2018, 2018 Growth Hiring Trends in the United States, Spark Hire reports that 49% of companies surveyed put a new staff member on the payroll within 7 to 14 days from the receipt of their resume/application. Another 22% report they add a new staffer on within 7 days of receiving their resume. For many, it’s a roll of the dice whether or not the newcomer will be competent in the long term, but in the interim, demand is filled.

Is this the best way to hire? In another survey, What to Expect at Your Next Interview,  Simply Hired has uncovered 65% of employers education credentials: 56% don’t call former employers; more than half don’t bother checking criminal history and 46% don’t check references. The absence of any background checking is a risk some companies are willing to take to meet staffing needs, but it could be a costly mistake, particularly in tech.

In another survey, recruiters report 85% of them have found a lie on an applicant’s resume. And resume lies are on the rise – up from 66% only 5 years ago. What are they lying about?

• 76% job experience
• 55% job duties
• 33% education
• 26% employment dates

The same survey asked employees if they knew of someone in their company who had misrepresented or exaggerated their resume. Almost half, 46% said yes.

With the pressure to hire so great, the applicant pool so sparse, and unemployment at historic lows in the US, employers are in a difficult position. Take the risk and hire someone who may not be qualified, just to beat out the competition, or risk losing customers as seats go vacant? The cost of a bad IT hire could be great. In addition to the resources lost in the recruitment process, a bad IT practitioner could put your data, customers and company at risk.

Many candidates count on the fact that almost half of employers don’t take the time to verify credentials and pad their resume accordingly. The result could be devastating to your company. Whether or not you do a thorough background check is as choice each hiring manager and recruiter has to make based on their acceptance of risk. You can reduce that risk, however, with Rankdone.

Prescreening with Rankdone assures they can at least perform the work. If they changed their dates or titles, or even their degrees on a resume, it won’t matter. Prescreening with Rankdone verifies they can do the work: irrespective of their resume. In an applicant market, when the pressure to hire quickly is great, you can be sure the talent you hire has the talent you need, if you prescreen with Rankdone. Call us today.