Dive Brief:

• Time-to-hire rates for tech roles can reach 45 days for recruiters at large companies, according to survey results from HackerRank. The study, shared with HR Dive via email, was based on the responses of 5,000 tech leaders and examined key data points in the hiring process such as requisition load, number of applications per posting, application pass through rate, and phone screen pass through rate.
• Recruiters at large companies (defined in the study as those with more than 1,000 employees) had an average requisition load of 12 compared to their counterparts at companies with fewer than 1,000 employees who had an average of eight. Even though recruiters at large companies have better access to resources, such as technology and support staff, the study warned against keeping the load too high. It notes that recruiters with over 20 requisitions had an average time-to-hire of 45 days.
• Large companies receive an average of 566 applications for open tech roles, the survey revealed. While the rate of candidates who make it to the phone interview varies greatly depending on a variety of factors, the study says that "most hiring teams pass 26% of applicants to the phone screen stage." After that, a majority pass less than 30% of candidates through to the interview stage. Ultimately, time to hire for development roles is 43 days for larger companies and 29 days for smaller ones, though more than 30% of larger companies' time-to-hire is also under 30 days.

Dive Insight:

Tech jobs are widely considered to be among the most attractive openings in the job market. Out of the top 15 roles in Indeed's annual 'Best Jobs' survey, the recruiting services company listed eight jobs in the tech space. With companies constantly struggling to fill openings, having these benchmarks can be helpful for determining where a company stands against others and where any weaknesses may exist in the recruiting process.

For example, companies curious to see how their application pass through rate stacks up can compare their figures against similarly situated segments. They can also track overall time-to-hire and try to identify the logjams holding their process up. Many companies are finding ways to speed this process up. In fact, 43% of recently hired employees surveyed in late 2018 were offered a job in less than two weeks after applying.

Companies can also add an assessment in between the application and phone screen to further weed out candidates before introducing them to hiring managers, which would also benefit the candidates' likelihood of accepting an offer, according to recent Glassdoor research.

While economic conditions have shifted power into the hands of candidates, another constituency HR leaders need to keep in mind with respect to their talent acquisition strategy is the recruiters themselves. Corporate recruiters had the highest job satisfaction, according to a recent Glassdoor survey, but Workforce Logiq found that recruiters are among the most likely to consider external opportunities. A LinkedIn report discovered that demand for recruiters is up 63% over the last four years, largely due to the increasingly strategic nature of the work.