Reducing Time to Hire in the Public Sector

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

For many hiring managers in the public sector, the thought of conducting a recruitment to fill a vacancy is dreadful: the process is slow, full of rules and regulations that bog down the process, and seemingly at odds with the goal of hiring the best-fit candidate. What’s worse is the fact that candidates don’t need to wait for us to get to them; they’re on to the next employer faster than we can screen their application. The “Great Resignation,” labor shortages, and COVID-fatigue-weary job seekers, make matters worse. County of Nevada, a local government sector nestled in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, challenged itself to reverse the “government as usual” approach to recruiting. By listening to our hiring managers and using continuous process improvement tools to cut redundancy in our recruitment process, we successfully reduced our time to hire from 130 days (or higher!) to 60 days (or less). We not only got bodies in seats faster, but we infused the process with techniques to help sharpen managers’ skillset in selecting the best fitting candidate. HR became better at being Strategic Business Partners in the process, and we attracted better candidates!