6 Ways to Reduce Recruiting Costs for Your Company

This guest post is by David Bakke, who runs an online reselling business and contributes tips and insights related to money management and small business on Money Crashers Personal Finance.

Job numbers recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that hiring is on the rise in the United States in some sectors. However, many companies are unlikely to forget the belt-tightening necessary in the recent past, so they will continue to look for ways to cut small business expenses. Fortunately, there are many ways to reduce recruiting costs, and many of these ideas also save time.

Keep Your Current Staff
A simple and easy way to reduce recruiting costs is to do less of it, and retaining your current staff is an effective method to achieve this goal. Of course, you cannot always predict when an employee will step down, but you can work proactively to reduce turnover.

Spend time with your employees and address their concerns before they reach the point where they want to leave. And keep in mind that there are ways to keep your staff happy without just bumping up their pay. For example, saying “thank you” for a job well done goes a lot further than you might think.

You can also conduct scheduled one-on-one meetings where you point out ways for your staff members to improve, and they can in turn provide feedback for management. If raises or bonuses just aren’t in the budget, consider rewarding employees with an extra paid hour for lunch, or let them write their own schedule for a week.

Use Social Media
Consider using social media as an affordable source for recruiting candidates. If your company has a strong presence on any of these websites, post notices for job openings in your search for qualified personnel.

You’ll likely hear from many candidates, but you should prioritize these resumes by separating them into people you definitely want to speak with, those you may want to talk to, and those who just aren’t qualified. Once you’ve reduced the candidate field a bit, you can then resume with traditional interviewing methods.

Screen Candidates Online
A simple way to save money and time is to conduct the screening process online before you ever pick up the telephone or schedule a face-to-face meeting. With this option, you can identify strengths or weaknesses of potential candidates by reviewing the process of online communication. You can analyze a person’s reading and writing skills, as well as their ability to follow directions. Because resumes and cover letters tend to be carefully proofread, you should be able to weed out less qualified candidates by evaluating their correspondence.

Hone Your Interview Skills
In the past, when I sought employment, I was often shocked by the lack of effective interviewing skills on the part of the interviewer. This allowed me to hone my own skills when I moved to the other side of the table.

Carefully review a candidate’s resume, and pick out a few key factors to focus on. Explain the process briefly so the candidate will be able to easily follow along, and don’t feel bad about cutting right to the chase if you see that the person just won’t be a good fit.

It’s also crucial to pay attention to your instincts. If something just doesn’t seem right about a candidate, regardless of their qualifications, you might be better off going in a different direction. However, be certain that you put forth a positive and professional image of both yourself and the company. Many sharp candidates are turned off by interviewers who can’t speak articulately about the position for which they’re being interviewed.

Create an Employee Referral Program
If your organization doesn’t have an employee referral program in place, you may want to propose the idea. Many companies have a hire rate greater than 70% by using this method.

If you are satisfied with your current staff, they will likely know of other qualified candidates. Empowering your current set of employees to assist in recruiting new talent is another way to decrease costs. An effective referral program will offer prompt responses to candidates, an efficient turnaround time for reward disbursement, and a convenient referral card that your employees can use when bringing in potential new hires.

Occasionally review the program to ensure it hasn’t gone stale or is no longer effective.

Tracks Your Results
It will be difficult to adjust your recruiting initiatives unless you know where your best candidates are coming from. Whether it’s through an online source or a cold lead, always be sure to find out how the candidate heard about your company. If you find that you’re investing time and money into recruiting efforts that just aren’t effective, scrap them and implement new ones.

Final Thoughts
Finding qualified candidates can be a challenge. Therefore, rather than sifting through hundreds of resumes each day, look to nontraditional means of recruiting employees. You can also ask your current staff to use their own social media networks to find good help.

Also make sure that your searches are targeted. For example, if you’re looking to fill a job that pays $40,000 per year but you’re listing it on a high-end website for executives, you’re unlikely to get decent results.

What other ways can you think of to reduce recruiting costs?


Link to original postOriginally published on MonsterThinking

Leave a Reply