Hiring is a never-ending cycle for a business. The perpetual process of finding, onboarding, training, and discharging employees isn’t just constant. It’s expensive.

Most people have seen the dated statistic that it costs around $5,000 to hire someone. However, the HR professionals at SHRM clarify that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you consider the entire impact of employee turnover, it can actually add up to as much as three or four times the position’s annual salary.

This makes the hiring process a multi-million-dollar activity. HR reps must race to minimize costs and streamline the process of finding and attracting top talent for each position.

If your company is struggling to reduce these hefty costs, you’re not alone. Here are a few hiring tactics that can help identify quality talent and reduce the time spent on each hire — all without breaking the bank in the process.

1. Be concise and thoughtful with job postings

If you want to improve your hiring process, you need to start with the basics. What tactics are you already using that you could improve? Where can you enhance your current hiring and firing processes to create efficiencies and save on costs?

One of the easiest ways to stall out early in the hiring process is by creating low-quality job descriptions and advertisements. In the same way that an employee wants to make a good impression on the first day of a new job, employers want to send the right message when job seekers find their job postings.

Part of this comes from being thoughtful in what you include in each description and how you include it. Job postings should be concise and insightful. They should be well structured and should describe and then sell each position well.

For the record, that includes information like pay ranges, benefits, and perks. You can bet most job-seekers are prioritizing this information. In fact, according to one heat map put out by LinkedIn, day-to-day job details, qualifications, and compensation were some of the top things potential candidates looked for.

These are often left off of job descriptions in an attempt to attract the best candidates who might otherwise skip on to the next, higher-paying advert. And yet, it is a courtesy to candidates to show them this critical information right out of the gate. It shows that you respect them and want to earn their trust.

If you want your hiring tactics to be effective, you have to meet the workforce halfway. Provide high-quality job postings that help you attract genuine, qualified candidates. This will refine your search quickly and, as a result, reduce the time and costs you’re investing.

2. Use a global employment platform

The modern capability to communicate and collaborate from anywhere in the world has had a dramatic effect on the size of the talent pools that many companies can work with. Of course, hiring someone for a specific position when they live half a world away can be expensive.

When a company tries to navigate the international hiring process alone, it can face a plethora of barriers. Deciphering what a competitive salary is in each geographic location is hard. Legal regulations and requirements are a concern. Benefits packages don’t always translate smoothly.

Fortunately, the ever-evolving world of technology is creating more affordable options. Global employment platform Oyster, for instance, offers hiring support in multiple ways, such as:

• Generating real-world salary data based on location
• Calculating compliant and equitable compensation
• Offering pre-created local and global benefits packages
• Providing effortless enrollment directly through their platform

All of these capabilities are available without the need to set up a traditional EOR (employer of record) or work with a PEO (professional employer organization). By using a global employment platform, you cut through the red tape, reducing the cost of overseas hiring in the process.

3. Consider using referral programs

Referral programs are a powerful way to encourage your audience to help you achieve your business goals. In a customer setting, a referral program incentivizes existing, satisfied customers to invest in spreading positive, sales-oriented messages about your brand. When they help bring in a new customer, they receive some kind of reward or compensation for their contribution.

In the context of hiring, referrals are an employee activity. A company sets up an employee referral program in an attempt to empower its existing workforce to help them find the best talent available.

When a referred candidate is hired, the employee who referred them is given a reward. This could be a gift card, cash bonus, or even additional PTO.

Hiring platform Indeed points out that referrals speed up the hiring process. It’s true that there is a cost to each successful referral. However, this is typically much lower than the expense that comes with using other established talent-discovery channels, such as working with a professional recruiter.

If you’re tight on cash, create a referral program. This can save resources and streamline the gathering of candidate information. It also reduces job posting costs and speeds up candidate selection.

4. Proactively hire from within

A clean, efficient job posting can improve candidate quality. A well-incentivized referral system reduces the steps in the hiring process. A global employment platform makes it easier and more affordable to find and hire international talent.

These are all ways to improve your outward-facing hiring tactics. However, there are also times when looking within your company is the best option.

The affordability factor here is easy to spot. Consider, for example, an employee who decides to leave your company, creating an open position that you need to fill quickly. The easiest solution is to slide a well-informed and capable employee into that slot from further down your organizational hierarchy.

With that said, finding an ideal individual can be challenging. The Peter Principle is a very real thing. You don’t want to promote internal candidates into positions of incompetence.

Instead, you want to cultivate internal talent pipelines well before a position opens up. The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) points out that this takes multiple steps:

• Start by identifying critical roles that you do not want to leave unfilled for a significant amount of time.
• Establish a succession plan to fill those roles when the time comes.
• Conduct skill assessments to gauge each employee’s capabilities.
• Post internal job postings to attract interested candidates — and don’t ignore cross-departmental opportunities.

As you discover candidates within your company, begin to invest in them. This can include coaching and mentorship, performance feedback, and continuous learning and development. Above all, maintain transparent communication.

When you do that, you create a trusting and positive current of upward career momentum across your brand. This can have a direct and profound impact on your ongoing hiring costs.

5. Invest in quality branding to improve employee retention

A comprehensive approach to hiring must consider retention as much as acquisition. The rate at which you keep quality talent in your company has a direct impact on your hiring process. A longer employee lifecycle can also have a serious impact on how cost-effective your hiring activities are.

One of the best ways to improve retention is through fostering a healthy and engaging workplace culture. There are many ways to do this. However, since the conversation here is about hiring and the costs associated with it, we’ll jump ahead.

Assuming that you already have a healthy workplace environment and brand identity in place, the next step is to promote that reputation to folks outside of your company. If you want to attract and retain the right workers, you need to showcase your attractive corporate culture to candidates.

This can happen through employer branding. This is the process of positioning your company as an appealing place to work. It demonstrates your organization’s unique set of culture, values, vision, and mission.

You can broadcast your company culture in various ways. Social media allows for personal-yet-public interactions. Your company website also provides a space to detail your company ethics and post employee testimonials.

Employer branding is not only effective. It’s affordable. So much so that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lists it as the #1 way a small business can attract top talent through inexpensive strategies.

If you want to reduce your hiring costs, use the previous tips. But remember, they are short-term solutions related to specific job searches. If you want them to genuinely save you money, you have to start here with retention and a high-quality, well-promoted employer brand.

Finding affordable hiring solutions

Every business has different resources that they can invest in their hiring strategy. If you find that your current personnel budget is restrictive, use the tips above to cut back on costs.

Create targeted job postings and utilize referral programs. Consider efficiently expanding your search with a global employment platform. Narrow your parameters with an internal talent pipeline if that makes the most sense for certain positions. Above all, create a company culture and work environment that attracts and retains talent over the long term.

If you can successfully implement these tips, they can reduce your brand’s ongoing investment in the hiring and termination process. This can help you stick to your budgets while simultaneously building a talented workforce that can help you achieve even greater success in the future.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Sora Shimazaki; Pexels; Thank you.

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