by Hiring new employees for your organization doesn’t have to be an expensive headache—and yet, too often it is. Any responsible hiring manager should try their best to identify and hire smart candidates who are committed to working hard and achieving results. Depending on the size of your company and the number of applications you receive, finding the ideal candidate can be a Herculean task.
It’s a process that can be costly in both time and money—but it doesn’t have to be. It’s possible to make the hiring process less expensive without losing any quality in the workers you hire. These are some strategies that will get you started.
Hire good employees.
Sounds obvious, right? But when you kick off the hiring process, it’s important to do a thorough job and be careful about who you extend a job offer to. That way you won’t have to repeat the expensive, time-consuming hiring process and you’ll end up with an individual who’s compatible with your organization.
So how do you know if a candidate will be a good employee? The honest answer is that you can never be 100% sure, but you might get a better idea if you try shaking up the traditional hiring model. For example, try ditching the standard office interview in favor of something a little more unorthodox.
According to a New York Times article based on interviews with a number of business leaders, “You’ll have a much better sense of a candidate if you get them out from behind a desk and watch how they behave.” Try taking them on a tour of your office or going out for a meal in order to get a sense of how they interact with others outside of the hyper-formal setting of a traditional sit-down interview.
Properly train your employees.
In order to get the most out of a new employee and increase their chances of staying with the company for an extended period of time, they have to be trained and supported by more experienced workers and company leadership. It’s a good idea to upgrade your orientation process so it’s not just a video or handbook (although these can be helpful supplemental learning tools).
Introduce your new employees to the tasks they’ll be responsible for using hands-on training, so that they can ask questions as needed and learn by example. If your company hires many employees at once consider doing a group orientation, which will save you money and also help new hires connect with one another.
Invest in hiring technologies.
Seek out software and services that can potentially save you time and money during the hiring process. You can also reevaluate the costs of your current hiring process and see if there is any tech available that can help you cut costs and streamline the process.
Many companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter through job seekers using specific keywords or traits, review applications, schedule interviews, and initiate onboarding programs. Of course, free video conferencing applications like Zoom and Google Hangouts can be very helpful in conducting online interviews as well.
Evaluate costs and explore ways to cut and consolidate.
First, review your expenses by asking yourself questions like these:
- How long does it take to review a given application?
- How many interviews do we usually conduct?
- What’s the typical wage we’re paying for this role?
- How expensive is our screening process?
- How much does a background check cost?
- How much does it cost to train a single employee?
Then consider some solutions. Once again, certain technologies like ATS can help you save money here, but let’s go beyond that. Instead of spending time and money finding a candidate externally, try promoting employees from within the company. This will save you a ton on recruiting and training costs. But you can’t promote existing employees in every situation.
If you do need to hire an external candidate, make sure you post a specific and comprehensive job description, know exactly what you’re looking for, and have a strong assessment policy in place. This will result in more time spent focusing on qualified candidates, rather than having to manually sift through countless applications.
By hiring and training good employees, investing in technology, and reviewing ways to cut existing costs, you can save a tremendous amount of time and money in your hiring process. It’s always important to hire and keep employees that you can depend on. They are the heart of your organization. However, as this guide demonstrates, bringing on new employees doesn’t necessarily have to break the bank.
