Need to make a new hire in a hurry? Or feel like you have had a job listing up for longer than you’d like? You’re not alone. When a firm needs to fill a position, yesterday is often not soon enough. But sourcing, recruiting and hiring the right person traditionally takes a long time.

If you need to accelerate your recruiting process, consider following these tips and get ready to make tracks to your next great hire.

4 Ways to Recruit Smarter and Faster

Move to video interviews.

Part of the challenge is often location of candidates, and you’re trying to recruit candidates from out of state or foreign countries, the interview process can be lengthy and expensive, involving scheduling challenges and travel. But a number of providers now offer affordable, easy-to-use video interviewing technology, which allows recruiters to interact with candidates in a realistic, face-to-face environment without bringing them into the office from far-flung locations.

Source your inbox.

We all have contact files in our computers and tablets, and your existing contacts can be a treasure trove of potential hires. Keep contact information for past employees, promising applicants who were not hired or chose to take jobs elsewhere, and people you meet at industry events and career fairs. When you need to fill a position quickly, it’s easy to scroll back through your contacts and send messages to potential candidates with whom you already have relationships. You never know when the one that got away might be looking for a new opportunity.

Ask for referrals.

In addition to reconnecting with past contacts to find potential job candidates, also ask those contacts to refer others who may be a good fit. Those who are already in your network or industry often have a good handle on the types of skills or expertise you may be looking for and be able to recommend strong candidates. Current employees also are great sources for viable referrals, so make sure you have a referral plan in place, including financial incentives for referring candidates who are eventually hired.

Use targeted job ads.

To find the candidates who are the right fit, your job ads should be targeted rather than simply displayed to be found by whoever happens to be looking in your location. To get more inbound applicants for hard-to-fill roles, ask your candidates where they typically job hunt and advertise there.

Follow these tips for recruiting faster while making sure that speed doesn’t compromise quality when it comes to finding the perfect candidate.