As a Founder or People leader, you’ll already know hiring top talent is crucial to your company’s growth. Hiring can be expensive, but hiring poorly can be even more costly. There is good news, however. There are still a number of ways to reduce the cost of hiring without sacrificing the quality of the candidates that come through your door. Here are six tips for doing exactly that:
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1) Employee referrals
Employee referrals are a cost-effective way to hire top talent. Encourage your employees to refer candidates, and offer incentives for successful referrals. Employee referrals are more likely to be a good fit for your company culture and the position you’re hiring for, which can lead to faster onboarding and increased productivity. Check out our recent blog on how to build your employee referral program for more information!
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2) Build your flexible workforce
Freelancers and contractors can be a cost-effective solution for short-term or project-based work. They can help you fill talent gaps quickly; reducing ’empty chair’ time as well as the overall cost of hiring full-time employees. We’re having more and more conversations around this topic – a combination of permanent and flexible workforces is a great way to add depth to your talent roster and keep costs manageable as you grow. Consider using platforms like YunoJuno, Upwork or Fiverr to find elite quality freelance talent.
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3) Leverage AI
AI seems to be cropping up in every other conversation right now and, in some ways, rightly so. AI-powered hiring tools are a great way help you make your hiring processes more efficient and, ultimately, reduce your overall costs. For example, AI tools out there can identify and screen candidates more efficiently and analyse CVs, social media profiles, and other data to match candidates to your job openings. Consider what your biggest ‘blockers’ are in your current hiring processes – if you can leverage AI to alleviate them, you’ll see huge improvements in capital efficiency when hiring.
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4) Get social
In the world of information, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can be some of your greatest allies. They are powerful tools for finding candidates, discovering the digital communities they exist in and understanding what truly drives them to love their work (or not!) – use these platforms to build your company’s brand and promote your vacancies. Consider what your candidates find most valuable, interesting or exciting in their working worlds and develop a schedule of content to meet those curiosities.
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5) Keep things streamlined
A streamlined hiring process will save you time and money, plain and simple. In the same way that ‘time kills deals’ in the sales world, unnecessary delays during a hiring process will not only cost you cash, but also great candidates. Automation can play a part at almost any part of the recruitment process; start by identifying the key stages in your process and examine them solely from the viewpoint of looking to simplify or automate them. For example, utilising technology such as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a simple yet hugely effective way to remove enormous amounts of time and stress away from managing applications and communicating with candidates throughout their application journey.
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6) Network, network, network
This one’s for your Founders and People leaders. Make a conscious effort to find and attend networking events and conferences on a monthly or quarterly basis (depending on costs and travel requirements) to meet potential candidates and build relationships with professional peers. Some of the more niche events could prove to be the only place to find, meet and engage with specialist talent within a given skill set. Real-life relationships and conversations will always carry you further than a LinkedIn Inmail ever will!
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Summary
The six tips above should give you some basic insight into how you can reduce or limit the cost of hiring while still bringing in high-quality candidates. Now, more so than ever, it’s not just about finding the right candidate โ it’s about finding the right candidate at the right cost.
With these strategies in place, you can achieve both.
For a more in-depth, obligation free chat about any of these points, you can book time in here with our CEO, Louis!
Author
Shelley Wright
Leadership
