6 Ways To Reduce Recruitment Costs

Are Your Recruitment Processes Costing You Time & Money?

You snooze, you lose. That’s the recurring message from various independent sources when it comes to the length of time required to hire talent. Research shows that 57% of Australian HR managers have lost a qualified candidate to another opportunity due to a lengthy hiring process – a figure that jumps to 67% in large organisations.[1]

What are the costs of recruitment?

According to ELMO’s 2021 HR Industry Benchmark Report, which is based on a survey of 1800 HR professionals in Australia and New Zealand, it takes over 33 days to fill a position vacancy, costing an average of $10,500 per position.

6 Ways to reduce recruitment cost per hire

How can you improve the situation?

• 1. Agree on the budget: Decide on the remuneration package before you start interviewing candidates for the role, so you can sign off on an offer without having to consult other internal stakeholders.
• 2. Manage remuneration processes for new hires: Once a budget is set, Pivot Remuneration by ELMO can help streamline processes by managing complex remuneration structures, including discretionary or complex short-term incentives and long-term incentives. Other features include budget modelling and rules-based controls on spend, as well as real-time standard and customised reporting, workflow management and automated reminders.
• 3. Confirm the job description: Know what skills you are looking for and finalise the job description and requirements of the role before going to the market. Differentiate between the competencies vital for success in the job and the skills that can be further developed through training.
• 4. Streamline your recruitment processes: From requisition creation to offer acceptance, ELMO Recruitment can create a seamless candidate experience by automating candidate screening, interview scheduling and employment offers. It can integrate with external job boards and social media and allows you to create talent pools for future roles. ELMO Recruitment can also be integrated with your agency to track and manage externally sourced candidates.
• 5. Set time boundaries: Set out your hiring timeframe and stick to it. Try not to extend the timeframe with additional rounds of interviews – delaying the hiring process can reduce the odds that the candidate is still available when you do make the offer.
• 6. Keep track and continuously improve: ELMO Survey enables you to assess how effective your onboarding and recruitment processes are. Surveying your candidates is also a great way to communicate that you value their feedback and recommendations on how you can improve in the future.

Reasons for recruitment delays

What’s causing this time blowout? When asked for their 4 main reasons for recruitment delays, HR managers cited the following:

• More involvement from internal stakeholders (49%)
• Increased candidate expectations (47%)
• Qualified candidates becoming more challenging to find (36%)
• Number of interview rounds has increased (31%)

Glassdoor has found that the hiring policies of employers can have a significant impact on the length of the process. For example, group panel interviews, candidate presentations, background checks, drug tests and psychometric and skills tests are becoming more common among employers.[2]

What are the repercussions of a lengthy recruiting process? Apart from the loss of candidates to competitors and the pressure it places on existing employees who must cover for absent colleagues, damage to your employer brand is part of the fallout. In this era of transparency about all aspects of working life, 60% of candidates say they’ve had a bad candidate experience, and 72% of those candidates shared that experience online.[3]

ELMO Software  is a cloud-based solution that helps thousands of organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to effectively manage their people, process and pay. ELMO solutions span the entire employee lifecycle from ‘hire to retire’. They can be used together or stand-alone, and are configurable according to an organisation’s unique processes and workflows. Automate and streamline your operations to reduce costs, increase efficiency and bolster productivity. For further information, contact us.

[1] https://www.roberthalf.com.au/press/slow-hiring-processes-cause-australian-organisations-lose-top-candidates

[2] https://www.glassdoor.com/research/studies/time-to-hire-study/

[3] http://www.careerarc.com/blog/2016/06/candidate-experience-study-infographic/