The Economics of Recruitment: Efficient Hiring Strategies That Can Help Save Money

Recruitment is necessary to maintain a company’s workforce and continue its processes. Even so, one cannot deny hiring new employees is costly. The cost of hiring one employee in the UK is estimated at £81,200 yearly. This includes but is not limited to the recruitment funds, which equal £6,552 alone, training costs, National Insurance, and salary.

This shows how hiring new employees greatly affects the company’s finances. If recruiters happen to hire an unfitting candidate and need to hire another, such costs will add up. Fortunately, several efficient hiring strategies will help HR professionals get top candidates while saving money. Here are a few:

Automate tedious recruitment processes

Recruitment is a tedious process. Hiring managers and HR professionals must review several resumes and CVs, take notes on each candidate, and narrow down those who fit the requirements and the job description. This takes their time away from doing other recruitment tasks, such as setting up interviews.

Luckily, HR technology can assist in automating such tedious tasks. Existing software can scan and assess resumes to filter out the best candidates. Hiring managers only need to set the rules or criteria for screening the applicants, giving them a narrowed-down list. Another is those programs that can answer simple questions about the role. Hiring managers can’t always attend to applicants’ enquiries, particularly when interviewing candidates. This program acts as a chatbot that answers basic questions about the job, so applicants can learn more about the position while hiring managers do other tasks.

Prioritise quality over quantity

Selecting fewer candidates with the best qualities is better and more cost-effective than hiring many people whose qualifications do not match the role. After all, hiring managers may end up with future employees who deliver subpar work that doesn’t offer value to the company, prompting them to go through another recruitment procedure.

Hiring managers should invest in recruitment solutions, including permanent placement and assessment services, to determine high-quality candidates. Permanent placement is when hiring managers can leave other experienced recruitment professionals to handpick top candidates in their place, allowing them to focus on other tasks. Meanwhile, assessment services enable them to be hands-on with recruitment but let a professional provide in-depth, actionable insights regarding applicants to help them make the right decisions. This saves time and effort while ensuring that they get high-quality candidates. When looking for a company offering recruitment solutions, check the companies they’ve helped and how successful they were.

Offer efficiency wages

Job listings don’t often include the position’s salary, although applicants may ask about it during the first few rounds of interviews. During this time, hiring managers should give an idea of their salary and even offer efficiency wages.

The efficiency wage theory states that paying employees higher wages than the market rate can improve productivity, ultimately leading to better efficiency and profitability. Thus, they’ll be motivated to work harder and less likely to leave their role once hired. This reduces the chances of going through another recruitment process, which—as established above—is costly. Hiring managers must guarantee they’re offering such wages to high-quality candidates only to avoid regrets.

Schedule online interviews

While interviewing in person is preferred by many hiring managers to gauge an applicant better, it’s more expensive. They may need to compensate for the applicant’s transportation costs and boarding (if they live far away), and they’ll use company equipment, such as a meeting room.

Hiring managers should schedule online interviews, at least during the first few sessions. This helps both parties save on resources, more so if many applicants need interviewing. If the candidates need to come into the office to see how things work or for a company tour, then that’s when hiring managers should see them in person. Until then, online interviews should be the priority.

Recruitment is expensive. To save costs, hiring managers and HR professionals should employ the efficient strategies above to save money while getting quality candidates.