In Australia’s tight labour market, speed can be vital. Yet many small and medium-sized enterprises still rely on outdated recruitment tools, and as a result can miss out on great candidates, which can reduce their ability to grow. Time to hire is a key metric – and slow hiring can cost businesses far more than they realise.

The impact of slow hiring can extend far beyond inconvenience. Delays can mean strong candidates accept other offers, teams stay under-resourced and key projects stall. For jobseekers, radio silence after applying can be disheartening. And it can harm a business’s reputation.

Faster hiring doesn’t have to mean cutting corners. It can be about building smarter systems. Founded in 2014 by an employment lawyer, Ben Thompson, Employment Hero began by simplifying human resources and compliance – and evolved into an employment operating system that unites recruitment, onboarding, payroll and HR in one platform, helping businesses move faster.

Employment Hero offers recruitment tools powered by artificial intelligence, including SmartMatch and an applicant tracking system (ATS). As part of the broader employee operating system, these features can reduce time to hire by two weeks, Employment Hero says, and help to streamline the entire employee life cycle.

SmartMatch instantly generates AI-curated short lists for any role, drawing from Employment Hero’s talent pool of more than 1.5 million jobseekers. The built-in ATS integrates with all major job boards, giving businesses fast access to suitable candidates, all in one place.

Time is money

Pitcrew AI, a heavy vehicle inspection company based in Newcastle, is one of the 300,000 businesses Employment Hero supports worldwide.

“We hire for a very niche skill set, so I wasn’t sure how well it would work,” says Dan Farthing, Pitcrew AI’s head of product success. “We were about to go through major hiring and onboarding, and compliance was going to be critical.”

Using an all-in-one platform streamlined the recruitment process and sped up the time it took to find and hire quality people, Farthing says.

“It’s been surprisingly effective, and the fact that we can do direct outreach within the ATS is a gamechanger – we’re not waiting for people to find our ad.”

Employment Hero’s salary benchmarks help businesses stay competitive without overspending. From there, SmartMatch builds a short list of top candidates in seconds, and built-in scheduling and onboarding tools make the rest of the process fast and seamless.

Employment Hero claims to take care of 90% of recruitment admin, as well as handle payroll, timesheets, rostering, contracts and compliance documentation.

“Safety compliance and reporting are huge for us, and the platform has helped us stay on top of it,” says Farthing, adding that Employment Hero has enabled Pitcrew AI to grow cost-effectively without disrupting company culture. “We’ve built a structured HR process without needing a dedicated HR person.”

Competitive advantage

Jesse Hambrecht oversees the hiring of two to five new starters a week.

Not an easy task for any company, but as ITEC Group’s people and culture officer, Hambrecht is also competing for hard-to-find talent in Australia’s disability and community support sector.

With support workers in high demand and several companies offering similar pay rates and benefits, Hambrecht says to secure top candidates you need to move fast.

Instead of posting a job ad and waiting for applications to come in, Hambrecht has talent searches set up for each city in which ITEC Group operates, allowing him to instantly find high-quality support workers in the area and contact them directly.

“It’s nice to know that in some locations, I don’t even have to worry about posting jobs and waiting for applications,” Hambrecht says. “Instead, I can be proactive and reach out to the right people when it suits me.”

Using an efficient recruitment system can be a critical business strategy. As competition for talent intensifies, businesses that embrace more efficient, integrated hiring practices may be best placed to grow. For many, that starts with rethinking not just where they find talent – but how.

Hire for free today and get access to 1.5 million candidates.