As a recruiter, one of the biggest challenges you may face is keeping hiring costs in check. The average cost per hire is just around $4,000. That number cuts significantly into profits, particularly for small businesses. Reduce hiring costs using these tips.
Tips to Keep Hiring Costs Low
While it might not seem like an expensive process, the many aspects and moving parts during hiring add up, so make sure you’re doing your best to reduce expenses. Here are some ideas so you can save on hiring.
Tip #1: Choose Free Job Posting Sites
Before slapping up your job post, evaluate several to determine which are within your budget. Choosing low-cost or free options whenever possible helps keep hiring costs down. Depending on your industry, even just putting “We’re Hiring!” in a storefront window could be incredibly effective — and it’s totally free.
Businesses with decent followings on their social media accounts can get the word out about a job without spending. Of course, to reach your organic audience on Facebook, you need to boost your post, but that sum can be a fraction of what you’d pay for a job platform listing.
Tip #2: Write a Detailed Job Listing
When crafting your job listing, make sure it includes all expectations, both with regards to the applicant and the job itself. You can even include pre-qualifiers to the job listing to reduce hiring risks. For instance, saying “financial industry experience a MUST” or “photoshop proficiency required” will give you fewer, but better, applicants to select from. By looking through fewer applicants, and ideally only looking at those fit for a job, your hiring process will go much faster.
Tip #3: Consider Group Interviews
An interviewer’s time can be the costliest aspect of bringing on a new employee. When interviewers have other jobs to perform, vetting multiple candidates can be a lot to handle. A rushed hiring process won’t benefit the company.
Some companies cut this time by creating a group interview for the first round. Group interviews give a feel for many applicants at once while cutting interview time down to a fraction of that involved in one-at-a-time interviewing.
Tip #4: Recruit Via Referrals
Your current employees may be the best way to find your next candidate. Many employers have found that recruiting via current employees’ referrals to be the most effective way to find stellar candidates without little effort. These eventual employees also have the added pressure of doing a great job so to support their referring friend’s reputation.
Businesses can incentivize employees to refer good candidates with referral bonuses. Build these bonuses to occur only if an interview is scheduled or a referral hired (the biggest bonus.) Using an employee referral system not only brings in decent candidates, it can improve company morale. Hopefully, employees realize their friend reflects on them, and only refer the best.
Tip #5: Avoid the Wrong Hire
The most expensive mistake employers make in hiring is choosing the wrong person.
There are some unavoidable steps and costs when hiring, and background checks rank among them. Still, pre-employment background investigations pay for themselves in saved wrong-hire costs.
Background checks ensure that the information provided by an applicant is true and valid. They also provide extra data on an individual that can make or break their candidacy. Companies that skip performing pre-employment background checks may save money initially, but doing so ultimately hurts the company in the long run as an employee who was not qualified takes a position from someone who’d be a better fit.
The wrong hire often means restarting the entire hiring process — an extremely costly decision both financially and in regards to the hiring team’s time. Further, terminating a bad hire may result in a lawsuit requiring further time and investment.
For instance, without a background check, an employer has no way of verifying employment or education history or workplace behavior. Should anything happen in the workplace, the employer can be held at fault to at least some degree due to negligent hiring. Additionally, if a new employee fights their termination, you may need to engage in a lengthy, expensive legal process.
Background Checks For Lowering the Cost of Hiring an Employee
Instead of relying on gut feelings, use data to reduce business risk and costs. Background checks contain a library of information on a person, making them invaluable. Using a pre-employment background check allows employers to verify many things. For one, when you verify the identity of your new hire, you ensure the person you’re speaking to is who they say they are. You’ll be able to cross-check information from their resume with education and employment verification, as well as look for any history of a criminal background.
Choose DataCheck to Reduce Your Hiring Costs
To avoid choosing the wrong candidate for your open position, choose DataCheck’s background check services. With over 20 years finding relevant details on candidates from all 50 states, DataCheck’s pre-employment checks, drug tests, and screening services have allowed hundreds of employers to hire with confidence. Reduce your hiring costs by picking the right employee the first time. Contact us today to see how our custom and comprehensive employment screening solutions could benefit you.