Guest PostRecruiting the perfect candidates for your business is no easy feat. It can be time-consuming, costly, and the outcome is never guaranteed.
There are, however, a number of things that you can do to reduce the costs of hiring new talent, as well as protecting the productivity of your business and avoiding having to rehire – all of which also come at a cost when not properly managed.
Here are some clever ways to save on hiring costs, while improving the overall experience, maximizing productivity, and minimizing the risk of a bad hire.
Automate your recruitment process
Automation is big business these days, and recruitment automation can save time and increase efficiency, whilst also potentially speeding up the recruitment process.
As with many industries, automating repetitive tasks cuts down on labor costs, and the same can be said of automating recruitment practices.
Automation can be used to streamline such tasks as advertising roles, tracking applicants, screening candidates, scheduling and conducting interviews, and more.
Embrace digital social recruiting
Recruiting employees via social platforms has grown in recent times, with a reported 70% of managers attest to successful hires from social media . Many also report that it is an effective way to speed up the hiring process.
Optimizing your social media recruiting and efforts across other business platforms drives down recruitment costs, while organically furthering your brand as an employer.
Advertise strategically
One of the most cost-effective ways to advertise for new job candidates is to make sure that you place your ads in the most effective places.
Historical data helps determine which avenues result in the best outcomes for your past recruitment, or you could use programmatic advertising services. These vendors can significantly reduce your advertising costs, by as much as 30% per applicant found, and offer a variety of results-based options that are priced accordingly.
Screen more thoroughly
Regrettable recruitments and low staff retention rates are costly and negatively impact productivity across your company. So it really pays to focus on quality hires upfront to avoid expensive mistakes.
Hiring the right candidate the first time obviously saves money in the long run, so if you’re having trouble hiring the right people, it may be time to review your screening process. It is helpful to utilize such checks as Situational Judgement Tests and other assessments to get a full picture of a candidate’s job compatibility. Another great option is to organize a short-term job trial period – just enough time for you to determine whether they are the best fit for the role and your organization.
Encourage employee referrals
If you have a trustworthy, loyal employee whose opinion you respect, then there’s a good chance that anyone they refer to you will have similar attributes. Employee referrals enable you to hire a quality candidate much faster and at significant savings. Almost 70% of employers have reportedly implemented an employee referral program for this very reason.
Additionally, candidates that are directly referred by an employee are likely to already have some familiarity with your employee handbook and general work culture, further increasing the chances of a great fit.
You can optimize this effective and cost-saving recruiting avenue by introducing or improving upon your organization’s employee referral scheme. Not only can you ensure employees are aware that you encourage them to refer candidates to you, but you can implement incentives, such as gift cards or bonuses, upon successful recruitment of a referral.
Interview remotely
The popularity of remote interviewing was already on the rise pre-pandemic but has exploded in the wake of the lockdown conditions that made face-to-face interviewing virtually impossible. According to a recent Gartner survey, 86% of organizations conducted virtual interviews during the pandemic to hire candidates, and it is a shift likely to remain.
There are many benefits to interviewing candidates remotely using video interviewing platforms. Firstly, it leads to quicker hiring turnarounds and eases the pressure on managers to schedule multiple face-to-face interviews. Video interviewing also reduces the instances of unconscious bias to the hiring process, as well as reducing the overall costs of hiring.
One-way video interviews can be implemented to avoid time-costly two-way calls and meetings during the initial candidate screening process, thus reducing labor hours and costs, and subsequently boosting productivity. Live virtual interviews can then be held with short-listed candidates to facilitate the final decision.
Final thoughts
Hiring the right people is essential to the smooth running of your business, which directly impacts your bottom line. While there are some ways to work smarter instead of harder when it comes to recruiting, it’s also essential to maximize your chances of getting it right the first time.
About the Author
Denise Langenegger is part of the team at Instasize – a content creating tool kit for anyone editing photos and online content on mobile.
