Why Your Time-to-Hire is So Long (And 3 Ways to Fix It)

As a founder or hiring manager, your most valuable asset is time. Yet, you're likely spending a huge portion of it (some founders report 40-50%) on the frustrating and inefficient process of hiring. Every hour spent sifting through resumes is an hour not spent building your product.

A long time-to-hire isn't just a drag on productivity; it's a significant financial drain. The problem often lies in a single bottleneck: a clogged and leaky hiring funnel. Let's look at how to fix it.

The Real Reason Your Funnel is Clogged

The game has changed. AI tools now allow candidates to effortlessly tailor their resumes and cover letters, making them look like a perfect fit for the job. This has led to a flood of applications, but the signal-to-noise ratio is at an all-time low.

The result? You're forced to waste weeks on "sifting through resumes and then taking first calls to vet out bullshitters". This manual grind is the primary reason it takes so long to find qualified candidates.

1. Automate Your Top-of-Funnel Technical Screen

The most effective way to accelerate hiring velocity is to stop manually screening every applicant. Instead, automate your hiring process at the very first step.

• The Old Way: Spending hours on introductory calls with candidates who look good on paper but lack basic skills.
• The New Way: Use an AI agent to conduct an automated phone screen before a candidate ever speaks to your team. The AI can ask from a pre-determined question bank, assess core conceptual knowledge, and provide a detailed report, including a transcript and cheat detection. This is the essence of hiring funnel automation: filtering out unqualified candidates efficiently so you only spend time on the best.

2. Replace Broken Take-Home Tests

Take-home coding assignments are almost universally hated by candidates. They often require 8 to 16 hours of unpaid work, causing your best, most experienced candidatesto drop out of the process.

• The Problem: The ambiguity and massive time commitment of take-homes create friction and damage your employer brand.

• The Solution: Offer a fair, on-demand assessment. Instead of a multi-day project, allow candidates to prove their skills instantly. With a tool like EvoHire, candidates can simply enter their phone number to receive an automated call right away, respecting their time and dramatically improving completion rates.

3. Screen for Conceptual Understanding First

Success in a real-world engineering role is rarely about solving abstract algorithm puzzles under pressure. In the age of AI, where code generation is becoming automated, what truly matters is a developer's conceptual understanding of systems and architecture.

• The Flaw: Many interviews still rely on Leetcode style questions that filter out perfectly competent engineers who aren't good at high-stress riddles.

• The Solution: The key to reduce time to hire is to first verify that a candidate has the foundational knowledge to succeed. Use a screening tool that focuses on core concepts related to the job's required skills and seniority level. This ensures that by the time a candidate reaches a final interview, you already know they have the right foundation.

Stop Wasting Time, Start Building Your Team

A slow hiring process is a solvable problem. By automating your initial screening, replacing frustrating take-home tests, and focusing on what really matters, you can reclaim countless hours. You can build a stronger team, faster.

Ready to put your technical screening on autopilot? Learn more about how EvoHire can help you reduce your time-to-hire and find your next great engineer.