How Soon Should You Send an Offer Letter? Here’s Why Speed Matters in 2022.

In recruiting, how quickly you send an offer letter makes all the difference.

This is especially true right now, during a jobseeker’s market, when your company needs all the advantages it can get in hiring. 

Although it may seem that taking longer to fill a position may result in a higher-quality candidate, in reality, the opposite is true.

Speed of hire and quality of hire are positively correlated. The sooner you hire someone, the better-quality candidate you get, on average.  

The average time it takes for candidates to hear back about a job offer is between 20 and 40 days after an interview, according to Glassdoor. Yet, top talent is usually gone within ten days.

The actual length will vary depending on your industry, location and local regulations. However, companies can control a great deal of the hiring process and the time it takes to hire.

So, make sure to send your offer letters as soon as possible to attract the highest quality candidates. 

4 Benefits of Hiring Faster

Candidates deserve a fast decision and shouldn’t be dragged on for weeks waiting on a unanimous call.

The longer you wait, the more likely candidates are to move on.

But, sending an offer letter faster doesn’t just benefit the candidate; it also saves you time and money, and leads to better quality recruits. 

Here are four reasons you should send candidates an offer letter as soon as possible. 

1. Keep higher quality candidates

The most in-demand candidates are always the first to drop out of the running.

So, the slower your hiring process, the fewer top performers you will have in the pool.

Top candidates tend to have multiple offers and decide quickly, especially in high-demand roles like digital marketing and technology.

If your process takes too long, the candidate may have already moved on to another offer. 

2. Save time and money

One of the top reasons to hire faster is to save resources.

You can save serious time in HR, where hiring managers spend days researching, interviewing, and recruiting candidates.

You can also save time that team members spend interviewing potential candidates. Several culture fit interviews can quickly take time away from valuable day-to-day tasks, reducing your productivity in one department, or several.

In fact, according to HR thought leader Dr. John Sullivan, job performance can decrease by up to 1% for every extra day you spend hiring. 

3. Fill in-demand roles more quickly

With certain roles, you can’t afford to go weeks or months without someone filling it. Some roles have immediate needs, with pressing deadlines.

That means you need to reduce your hiring time so your current team members aren’t permanently taking on responsibilities outside of their job description.

This furthers burnout, which could lead to more employees leaving, creating a vicious cycle where you’re constantly looking to fill the same roles on a team.

Alternatively, you could temporarily outsource high-demand roles while you attempt to fill them, but this will still be costly to your organization.

Your best bet is to get an offer letter sent to a qualified candidate ASAP.

4. Reduce candidate bidding

If you make the first offer before a candidate starts getting other opportunities, you may be able to save on the salary cost.

The longer you wait, the more likely a candidate is to get another offer, leading to a bidding war, increasing salary costs, and potentially losing you the candidate.

That can lead to higher acceptance rates; if you are the first to make an offer, the candidate might be more likely to accept it.

So, if you’ve got a qualified, amazing candidate for a role, don’t keep waiting and hoping for a better candidate to come along.

Send them an offer letter as soon as possible. 

How to Speed Up the Hiring Process 

The average hiring process in the U.S. is about 24 days, based on a Glassdoor survey in 2017. That said, if your hiring process takes longer than three weeks, you should probably reevaluate.

Especially since most top talent becomes unavailable within ten days.

In fact, according to some studies, top talent is snatched up as quickly as five days. 

In talent acquisition, speed is everything.

Here are a few things you can do to speed up the hiring process. 

1. Edit your hiring process

First, evaluate your current hiring process. How long is your current time to hire?

How many interviews do you conduct for each candidate? How can you reduce them?

Simplify your hiring process by scheduling all interviews on the same day or two of the week, reducing necessary travel for delays and limiting the number of decision-makers to get to a consensus faster. (CIO recommends only having two interviews per candidate.)

2. Plan ahead 

If you know of a role opening up in the future, be proactive.

Order background checks and contact references in advance so that you have all the information you need before making a decision.

Additionally, if you have a department or role that typically has openings, keep a qualified pool of candidates on hand for those roles.  

3. Promote internally

Finding qualified candidates internally can be quicker than hiring externally because there will be less work to onboard them, and it’s easy to get the word out if you have an internal job board.

Additionally, even if your internal network doesn’t want to take on new roles, develop an incentive program because your top performers likely know who would be best suited for new roles. 

4. Invest in automated workflows and digital tools 

Finally, you can reduce your time to hire by taking some of the pressure off your team with digital tools.

Using technology, you can filter through candidates, reducing how many candidates you interview which will save you time and help you get to quality candidates quicker.

By integrating the right hiring tools, you can speed up hiring, save time and be ahead of the game to attract top candidates.  

Reduce Time to Hire with Pequity 

It can be overwhelming to move this quickly with the hiring process, especially if you are working to fill multiple roles at once.

With Pequity, you can automate hiring workflows to save time, money, and talent. 

Contact us to see how Pequity can work for you.