Washington - Finding the right employee is not easy and a
new study proves why.
According to research by recruiting software service
Lever, a typical small business employing fewer than 200 people needs to go
through an average of 86 applications to find that one right person for the
job. The study looked at data from about 1.5 million candidate considerations
and 15 000 hires at 600 of Lever's customers throughout most of 2016. Although
reviewing that many candidates sounds like a lot of work, this rate is actually
better than most larger companies, who need to see an average of 100 candidates
before hiring someone.
Finding new people, especially for a small business, is a
long process. The study shows that companies only offer invites for an initial
conversation to 17 percent of all candidates. The group of applicants who get
to the screening stage most often (almost 60 percent of the time) are those
that come by way of referral or a staffing company. As employers, we turn down
almost 90 percent of the people who just send us a resume directly. Those who
make it to the onsite interview get an offer about 30 percent of the time.
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Unfortunately, even when you've finally found the right
person don't get your hopes up. The study found that 31 percent of those who
were offered jobs declined them, with the worst offenders being engineers,
product managers and business development people - all who reject their offers
about 60 percent of the time. The best acceptance rates come from, again,
referrals.
The easiest people to hire, it seems, are sales people.
Sales candidates are most likely to receive a screening (i.e., review) of their
resume, and 44 percent of sales candidates progress from getting their resumes
screened to receiving an onsite interview. They also require the fewest number
of resume screenings. Best of all, 74 percent of sales people accept an offer
when they get it.
So, the takeaways? Brace yourself to see a lot of people
for that one job you're offering. If you're looking for good people, look to
those you know. "This research shows businesses must simultaneously
nurture their networks for referrals, source passive candidates, improve the
quality of their incoming applications and have backup offers at the ready,
said Sarah Nahm, chief executive and co-founder of Lever, in statement."
'The smaller the team, the higher the stakes' and [small and medium-sized
businesses] that apply this mentality to their hiring process will be the ones
that succeed.