5 Quick Tips for Reducing Your Cost-per-Hire

It takes time and money to hire the right people. With these 5 tips, you can reduce your cost-per-hire—starting today!

According to recent data from The Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost-per-hire is more than $4,000, and it takes about 42 days to fill any given position. Needless to say, hiring the right employees can cost you a lot of time and money. Hiring the wrong employees? That costs even more. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to ensure you’re not only hiring the right people, but you’re reducing your company’s cost-per hire.

How to reduce your average cost-per-hire:
1. Clean Up Your Careers Page
2. Utilize Social Media
3. Look for Internal Solutions
4. Clearly Define the Position
5. Focus on Employee Retention

Ready to learn how to put these tips into practice today? Let’s get started!

1. Rethink Your Careers Page

How much thought went into the careers page on your website? If you’re like many businesses, not nearly enough. Think of your careers page as a portal into your corporate culture where you can showcase your core values and your vision for the future—not just the place where you list your available positions. The best careers pages give candidates a true sense of what it’s like to work for your company while making it easy to apply for a position online.

2. Get the Word Out on Social Media

Social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn are relatively inexpensive to use for hiring new employees. Even a modest investment can put your job opening in front of many qualified candidates targeted by experience, job title, location and many other user-definable characteristics. And, Facebook even allows you to publish job openings right on your company’s page for free, with applications getting sent right to your Facebook messages inbox.

3. Hire from Within Your Company

Do you have a part-time intern who is already trained and proficient at the role you’re trying to fill? Maybe it’s time to talk to her about going full-time. You’ll save money on the job search and you’ll already know what you can expect—both in terms of performance and cultural fit within your organization.

Alternatively, solicit current employees for recommendations. If your team members are generally happy working for you, there’s a good chance they know other people who would fit right in. Some companies even offer employees a bonus if a candidate is hired as a result of a recommendation.

4. Make Sure the Position is Clearly Defined and Agreed Upon

You’d be surprised how many companies stumble here. You might have one idea for what the position entails while your co-workers may have something different in mind. Before you list the position on your website or a job board, align internally on the scope of the position. This will help candidates self-filter their applications so you can focus on people with skillsets that more closely match the responsibilities.

5. Keep the Employees You Have

Remember the number at the top of this post? That $4,000+ investment for hiring a new employee doesn’t include onboarding time. It also doesn’t include the time it takes the average person to become efficient in a new position with a new company. So, by far, the single most important thing you can do to reduce cost-to-hire is to improve your employee retention strategy to keep your best workers on your team.

Take the Guesswork Out of Hiring New Employees

While these tips can definitely help you reduce your hiring costs, there’s always going to be a certain degree of unpredictability around the hiring process. That’s where we come in. Labor Systems Job Center specializes in temporary and personnel staffing solutions that match the right people with the right jobs. Fill out a staffing request today, or learn more about our services.