4 Steps Recruiters Can Take to Reduce Candidate Cost

The Society for Human Resource Management found that the average hire costs $4,129 and takes approximately 42 days. If you want to optimize your candidate pipeline, you’ll need to look for ways to reduce costs and speed up processes without sacrificing quality.

Here are four steps to take to control hiring costs at your organization:

1. Automate processes with recruiting software

Automating certain HR tasks can free up personnel to complete more complex projects efficiently. Recruiting software takes care of many routine tasks that would otherwise take up much of the the day. For example, tracking applicants with spreadsheets can be incredibly time consuming. Once all of the information is in the system, some of it is likely out of date already. Replacing that clunky system with an optimized tracking solution not only keeps databases up to date, but also allows HR stakeholders to process more tasks in a single day.

2. Assess your recruiting channels

Are you putting money into recruiting channels with low return on investment? If you don’t track recruitment metrics, you could be making this mistake without even realizing it. Depending on your business and the types of skills you need, some channels may be more effective than others. Understanding which channels are most valuable to your organization will help you control costs by putting dollars where they will have the biggest impact.

For example, surveyed hiring managers prefer referred candidates to those from more opaque channels, according to SHRM. Therefore, creating incentives for current employees to reach out to their own professional networks may lead to stronger hires while simultaneously controlling costs.

3. Reduce time-to-hire

The more time it takes to fill a position, the more costly the process becomes. Spending on resources plus the lack of revenue generated by the empty position isn’t good for business. Shortening the average time-to-hire can, therefore, conserve your resources. However, you don’t want to sacrifice quality of hire for extra time.

Optimizing your candidate experience is an effective way to speed up processes because prospective employees will be more engaged throughout. Maintaining open lines of communication with potential hires keeps them engaged at every step of the workflow so you can proceed with interviews and background checks without delay.

4. Streamline your recruiting pipeline

Effective hiring managers have an engaged talent pipeline ready to go before new positions even open up. Preparing ahead of time allows for quicker reaction times. If a current employees leaves without notice, hiring managers can immediately spring into action and reach out to candidates in waiting. To streamline this process, consider providing an option for applicants to submit their resumes and contact information via a general purpose form, rather than attaching each candidate to a specific role.

Then, you’ll have a pool of talent from which to draw as needed.

See how drastically you can improve upon existing time-to-hire and cost-per-hire numbers by making process improvements at each hiring stage.

Auditing your organization’s hiring workflows to implement process improvements can be a major undertaking – unless you have the right tools for the job. Schedule a free demo today to learn more about how JazzHR can reduce your company’s hiring costs.