Time to hire, which measures the time it takes from the moment a job opening is posted to when a candidate accepts the offer, plays a crucial role in attracting and securing top talent. Unfortunately, recent surveys and insights into recruitment trends in Australia paint a concerning picture of economic concerns, productivity pressures, and the need for more sustainable strategies when acquiring skilled talent.

1. The Soaring Cost of Hiring

It now costs organisations around $20,000 on average to hire a new employee across Australia and New Zealand. This staggering figure underscores the significant investment required to bring on new talent. With such high costs involved, HR managers must carefully evaluate each hiring decision and explore alternative strategies, such as upskilling and internal mobility, to meet their resourcing needs in a more sustainable way.

2. Time to Fill Roles Stretches to Nearly a Month Across Australia and New Zealand

The average time to hire across industries in Australia and New Zealand currently stands at around 24 days, with this number reaching around 30 days for senior and executive-level roles. While these numbers are an improvement on global averages which can reach up to 44 days, they’re still not ideal for businesses in a competitive market, where tightening budgets and high productivity demands mean every day of vacancy creates financial burdens and burnout-inducing stress on existing team members.

3. One in Eight New Hires Don't Make it Past Probation

While the average time to hire time may appear in decline, approximately 13% of new hires across Australia and New Zealand leave their roles before the end of their probationary period - at least 40% of those who had left their jobs before probation cited a mismatch in expectations set during the recruitment process. This high new hire turnover rate represents an alarming drain on organisational resources, both in terms of financial investment and the loss of valuable knowledge. It also indicates significant issues in the hiring and onboarding processes.

4. Productivity Rates Are  Plunging

The average time for new hires to become fully productive has increased dramatically, now standing at 38 days in Australia and 42 days in New Zealand. This could be due to multiple factors including shifting personal priorities, shorter working hours, complicated or insufficient onboarding processes, or a combination of all of these. This extended ramp-up period can have a notable impact on team productivity and organisational agility — rethinking how businesses approach onboarding could be the key to turning this trend around.

5. Recruitment Budgets on the Rise as Talent Shortages Persist

The current talent shortage and employee market means the best candidates are being quickly snapped up by organisations that can act fast, leading 41% of HR professionals in Australia to report that recruitment budgets will increase in 2024. This investment reflects the intense competition for in-demand skills and the need for organisations to enhance their recruitment strategies to snap up and retain top talent.

Insights Into The Problems Around Time to Hire

These recruiting statistics underscore significant problems in the recruitment, onboarding and interview processes across businesses in Australia and New Zealand.  Understanding the driving factors behind these issues is crucial to addressing their root causes — here's a closer look at some common culprits based on our own experiences and feedback from hiring managers:

• Inefficient Shortlisting: The tendency to wait until 3-5 suitable candidates are secured before sending them over to the hiring manager (rather than forwarding qualified applicants as they are identified), can lead to crucial delays and qualified candidates dropping out or being picked up by businesses with quicker recruitment processes.
  
  
• Scheduling Ping-Pong: The back-and-forth to coordinate interview schedules between recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates creates unnecessary delays, further extending the hiring timelines and likelihood of skilled talent moving on.
  
  
• Lack of Synchronisation: Poor communication and feedback loops between the internal recruiter/hiring team and the hiring manager often mean critical information gets lost in translation, increasing the risk of a poor hire and the concerning 13% new hire turnover rate before the end of probation.
  
  
• Approval Delays: Bureaucratic hiring approvals, especially for senior roles, can add significant time to the process, contributing to the longer 30-day average time to fill executive positions.
  
  
• Mismatch of Expectations: Delays in getting accurate, timely feedback from hiring managers on interviewed candidates can lead to a frustrating experience for both the recruiter and the candidate, as well as increase the risk of a poor hire due to misaligned expectations.
  
  
• Holding Out for "Perfect": A tendency to hold out for the absolute "perfect" candidate, rather than moving quickly on qualified individuals, can extend search times and lead to missed opportunities, further exacerbating the spiralling $20,000 average cost per hire.
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Streamline Recruitment & Reduce Time to Hire

Ready for some good news? You can significantly improve your time-to-hire and gain a competitive edge by streamlining your recruitment process. Teamified offers a suite of tools designed to help you achieve just that. Here's how:

• AI-Powered Candidate Shortlisting: Teamified leverages artificial intelligence to quickly review and shortlist the most qualified candidates based on their resumes, eliminating the manual and time-consuming review process that can lead to delays.
  
  
• Automated Interview Scheduling: The platform automatically schedules interviews between candidates and hiring managers, removing the back-and-forth coordination that often creates recruitment bottlenecks.
  
  
• Interview Transcription and Feedback: Teamified records and transcribes interviews, allowing hiring managers to review and provide feedback without the need for manual note-taking. The insights gleaned can then be used to optimise future hiring for similar roles.
  
  
• Seamless Communication and Approvals: The platform streamlines communication between the recruitment team, hiring managers, and candidates, ensuring a smooth, transparent hiring process and candidate experience. It also automates internal approval workflows to expedite decision-making.
  
  
• Pre-Screened Candidates: Teamified's global talent marketplace means businesses can also access a diverse pool of pre-screened, highly skilled candidates across a range of specialisations — quickly identify the right fit, rather than holding out for the "perfect" candidate.
  
  

..but that’s not all! Teamified's compliance-focused features help businesses hire internationally with confidence. The platform generates compliant contracts, manages onboarding tasks, and takes care of meeting all local employment regulations. This means your HR teams can put their focus where it really matters, while we take care of the legal and administrative complexities that can further delay the hiring process.

Take the next step and discover how Teamified can help you build high-performing teams faster. Get in touch with our experts today.