The high cost of slow response times

Your job candidates see faster communication as a signal of your organization’s attractiveness

As the adage goes, time is money. Your customers expect timely service, you need to launch products before your competitors, and your shelves must be stocked quickly. It’s the same with your workforce, where faster hiring cuts costs and increases productivity. Sadly, most hiring processes for hourly workers are not agile enough to take advantage of the benefits of speedy recruitment and hiring. If your recruitment process has slow, poor, or missed communication between recruiters and applicants, it can throw a wrench into what can be a swift and easy exchange.?

The good news is that technology increasingly makes it possible to hire for hourly jobs in a matter of days, or even hours. You can design the recruitment process with the same kind of response-time benchmarks, analytics, and technology that you use to track and improve the speed of your services, products, and inventory. Also, the reporting and analytics capabilities of an applicant tracking system (ATS), can give recruiters important clues as to where their hiring funnel can be tweaked in the most optimal way.

This is particularly important for hourly jobs because those applicants typically simultaneously apply for many jobs at the same time—some even mass-applying to dozens of open positions. If you reach out to applicants in a timely, meaningful way, with faster and more personal communication methods, you are more likely to land the quality candidates that others will miss.?

In this article, we’ll explore why response time matters in recruiting and how to use the technology and features of an ATS to give job candidates the attention and communication they deserve.

Slow response times have costs beyond recruitment

Eighty-four percent of job applicants expect some kind of response soon after submitting their job application, and 48% of job applicants report the most frustrating part of the job application process is not getting a response. Candidates who feel ignored or neglected may shift their focus to one of their other dozens of job applications. Employers who get their attention faster are more likely to get the candidates to accept their jobs.??

So, slow response times increase the time to hire, with the associated costs of the vacant positions and additional recruiter time spent working down the list of candidates who already accepted other jobs. Candidates also use recruitment response times as a signal of the employer’s reputation. Slow responses to applicants become fodder for social media, which may deter others from even applying.?

Even if candidates stick around to receive a delayed job offer, the delay still produces longer time-to-hire and increased cost-per-hire, two important metrics of an optimized hiring process.

What may be surprising is research showing that response times have effects beyond the recruitment process. Scholars use the Applicant Attribution-Reaction Theory (AART) to explain this. This theory suggests that applicants form opinions of employers based on “selection process milestones,” such as how fast they get a reply to their application, and how fast they receive a job offer. Becker et al. found that less delay between application and job offers significantly increased applicant acceptance, because: “later offers are more likely to produce less favorable reactions to the offer and the organization.” Even when applicants don’t drop out to take another job, slow response times cause applicants to attribute negative connotations to what it’s like to work in that organization, and to the terms of the job offer itself. You’re starting on your back foot even with the applicants you do hire if they already have negative attributions due to your slow response.?

Why fast communication matters

Taking a long time to reply to applicants has a negative effect on the candidate experience, your employer brand, and your time-to-hire. So how can fast communication help you improve these crucial steps and contribute to more conversions??

First, a faster time-to-hire means you’ll snatch up qualified talent before other businesses that are fishing in your same pool of applicants. In sum, faster response times tend to yield more hires. Keeping candidates up to speed also improves their experience and your brand’s reputation in the eyes of applicants.?

When it comes to candidate experience, those who receive fast responses to their queries are more likely to report feeling seen and heard by their future employer, a sentiment that can extend beyond the hiring process and decrease the possibility of churn down the line.

How HR tech can support faster response time

An ATS can be designed to send applicants a response acknowledging their application the moment they apply, and to offer immediate automated responses to common applicant questions. Of course, generative AI technology, such as ChatGPT and Bard, has made this even more feasible. Even communication that isn’t bespoke or handwritten can inform applicants that their application has been entered into the system and they should expect to hear from a recruiter soon. Research suggests this can make a big difference in recruitment outcomes.

Once candidates pass the initial screening round, recruiters also can program their ATS to communicate next steps, like scheduling an interview if the applicant has been selected to continue in the process, or rejection notices if they weren’t the right fit.?

Mobile functionality is also increasingly key to going the extra mile with candidates. Many hourly job candidates apply using their mobile phones, so faster responses on their phones can keep them engaged with your messages right in their pocket. An ATS that is able to collect and process applications by text message and can send automated responses to common questions can reduce the time it takes to hire a candidate by half.

Conclusion

It pays to interact with your candidates quickly and effectively. Slow response times not only add costs to your recruitment process, but they can also damage your brand and put you on the wrong foot even with the applicants who accept your offers. Recruiting teams can be more successful when their ATS responds immediately to commonly asked questions with standardized responses via email or mobile. For questions that your FAQs and chatbot might not be able to answer, recruiters can step in when needed. A swift and efficient candidate experience powered by effective communication can leave a lasting impression on employees for years to come.?

1. How to build a strong candidate communication strategy. Recruitee, Jul. 29, 2021.
2. AI Recruitment Statistics: What Is The Future of Hiring? Tidio, Jan. 5, 2023.
3. Becker et al. The Effect of Job Offer Timing on Offer Acceptance, Performance, and Turnover. Personnel Psychology, 2010. THE EFFECT OF JOB OFFER TIMING ON OFFER ACCEPTANCE, PERFORMANCE,?AND TURNOVER
4. Internal data from Fountain