Speed Hiring: The Fast and Furious Hiring Trends
Let’s talk about speed hiring and what it means for your job search. Don’t feel like reading? Listen here!
With lots of flux in the markets these days and plenty of positions still open, employers have signaled that they’re currently seeking to fill those spots by accelerating the hiring process. By employing a technique called speed hiring, they’re cranking through potential hires and getting people connected with work at a rapid rate.
But what are job seekers to make of this approach? Could this finally be the answer to your job search frustrations? Is a faster hiring process even necessarily better for job seekers? What are the implications of speed hiring on things like job fit, satisfaction, retention, and performance?
Getting to the bottom of these questions is essential to finding where you fit in the fast and furious trend of speed hiring.
Speed Hiring: The Fast Facts
Speed hiring is an accelerated hiring method intended to increase the workforce at scale. It has become particularly interesting to employers as they try to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Via the speed hiring method, employers are able to extend job offers within just days of receiving the initial application.
Speed hiring techniques can include:
- Fast-tracking interviews. Upon receiving an application, employers might skip checking references and immediately schedule interviews. If they see no immediate red flags, they’ll extend an offer.
- Ditching resume reviews. Rather than combing through resumes, employers are sending potential hires real-world problems or puzzles to solve, sometimes through an automated response system. This approach is intended to evaluate applicants’ skills and knowledge without overly relying on background or pedigree.
- Booking back-to-back short interviews. Much like speed dating, speed interview days allow employers to steam through potential hires quickly. They may spend as little as ten to fifteen minutes per candidate, and it’s rare that a speed interview lasts more than half an hour.
The Home Depot recently announced that by deploying methods such as these, they’re hoping to boost spring hiring by 25%. Other employers are following suit. Considering the number of help wanted signs increasing by the day, we can hardly blame them.
If you’re currently on the job search, you should be prepared to face the speed hiring process and consider what it might mean for your employment future.
Job Seeker Advantages and Disadvantages
The question remains: Who really benefits from speed hiring? While it’s evident that employers have turned to these methods because of their own needs, that doesn’t mean it’s all bad news for job seekers.
Advantages of Speed Hiring for Job Seekers
One of the obvious advantages of speed hiring is that you will find out fairly quickly whether you have the job. If you’re seeking to avoid a long employment gap and trying to keep current on groceries and rent, this method has the potential to get you working more quickly than traditional job search methods.
By bypassing time-consuming screening processes and getting faster responses, you can sprint down the employment track, leaping potential employers like an Olympic hurdler bolting toward the finish line.
In short, if getting a job as quickly as possible is one of your current goals, speed hiring might sound like nothing but good news. That doesn’t mean the process is all sunshine and roses. Speed hiring comes with some disadvantages as well.
Disadvantages of Speed Hiring for Job Seekers
There are definite downsides. Viktoriya Maya, CEO of CustomersFirst Academy, has taken time to spell a few of the problems out for us.
With speed interviews, the focus is given on quick screening rather than quality control, which may result in poor employment decisions (and consequent costly turnover). Since many employers opt for this type of recruitment system, they don’t have to worry about investing time or money into employees that won’t work out long-term.
This doesn’t sound like good news for employers or employees.
Maya also notes that job seekers face other disadvantages:
- The process makes it difficult for them to assess the company’s values and culture.
- They could be accepting a position for which they are not a good fit.
- The process might not allow them time to demonstrate to the company what they’re truly capable of, meaning they might miss out on positions they’re more qualified for.
In short, Maya concludes, “Applicants who do qualify for jobs through speed hiring might feel pressured into accepting any offer that comes by because of time constraints. They also have less ability to negotiate salary terms without taking too much time away from their job search.”
These disadvantages are rooted in the speed hiring system itself.
How Speed Hiring Really Works
Though each company makes internal decisions about how they will institute their own speed hiring strategies, at the core of each approach, you’ll find the following principles in play:
- Less reference checking
- Employing automated options to speed the hiring process further
- Decreased reliance on resume “proofs” and pedigrees
- More uses of practical tests and scenarios for job seekers to solve in order to prove competency
- Shorter, punchier interviews
Alex Mastin, the CEO and Founder of Home Grounds, notes that while such methods can get people hired faster, sometimes both employers and employees lose out in the long run.
Maintaining the quality of hiring while using speed hiring techniques can be quite difficult since speed tests cannot test everything at once. The abilities of potential hires can falter under pressure and recruiters can miss out on top talent due to a little anxiety.
On the other hand, Mastin notes, “It may be beneficial for recruiters to speed hire, as professionals well versed in the work of the company perform well and easily find jobs.” But just because it’s good for employers doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
The Bottom Line
Whether speed hiring works to your advantage or whether it’s a hiring strategy you want to avoid comes down to your journey and your specific employment goals. If your goal is to avoid a long employment gap or get hired as quickly as possible regardless of relative job fit, then this rapid type of hiring could be exactly what you need right now.
If, however, you’re wary of accepting a position for which you’re unqualified, being underemployed, or otherwise shunted into a role for which you may not be the best fit, you may want to be mindful. But don’t be too quick to shun the process entirely.
Though speed hiring has been known to produce some erratic results, there’s a reason certain employers are looking to leverage it in this particular moment. Employers are looking to nab top talent, job seekers are eager to find open positions, and the jobs market is moving faster than ever.
The bottom line? Times are changing. So should your job search approach.
