What’s the price of cheap? Getting a lot of junk that costs plenty in the long run.
Poor recruitment is like that.
Many external recruiters focus on one objective: filling seats. Get ’em in — fast. The more time they spend poring over résumés and vetting candidates, the less profit they make. Regrettably, rapid hiring decisions leave your company with a few hits and ample misses. Our business – TaskUs — sometimes results in hiring mandates in the hundreds per week, so we feel this pressure.
Good replacements are tough to find, and it’s not inexpensive to do it right. Costs of hiring and training and getting new workers up to speed varies widely, but even at a white collar entry-level salary it can run $16,000. For call centers, where turnover can be as high as 45%, that’s a significant investment. Even industries with a lower revolving-door rate — at an average voluntary rate of 13% — feel the fiscal pain.
But accepting huge volumes of hires delivered by a specific deadline isn’t the answer. Bodies go in the door but don’t stay in the seats. A wiser long-term aim should be quality bolstered by employee satisfaction.
In the short term, high-volume recruiting methods may bring temporary relief as candidates are promptly placed. The downside is that the process isn’t a two-way street; candidates don’t get a say.
Applicants are treated like livestock flowing in and out the barn door. Given enough monetary allure, incentives, and perks, they easily go where shepherded. But that doesn’t mean they stay. And when they leave?: The cycle of filling roles with not-so-talented parties starts again.
The only winner in this “cattle call” game is the recruiter. The company itself ends up risking negative customer experiences and spending thousands in advertising, training, and lost productivity. Plus, corporate culture takes a hit: It’s tough to keep a consistent atmosphere of stability if all you do is onboard new people.
Slowing down the recruiting process to find lasting talent is the obvious panacea to increasing employee dissatisfaction and the disease of high attrition — the attrition risk is 12 times higher among disengaged employees than among those who are highly engaged. The only way to take a step back is to measure and track recruiting teams’ performance.
What metrics can you use to feel more confident in your recruiters? Four come to mind:
You should not only gauge how long it takes to fill a vacancy, but also how long candidates remain in their new positions compared to industry averages. As noted, call centers have turnover rates as high as 45%; if your turnover rate is that high, you should work to uncover process gaps and delays. This may include readjusting your deadline expectations regarding getting new people in, as well as effectively redistributing responsibilities during employee shortages.
SHRM reports that more than 30% of the best hires come from current worker referrals. The sooner you identify where top talent can be found, the more rapidly you can unearth great people who will fit into your culture and stick around.
What kind of experiences are your new candidates having? You can judge this through a Net Promoter Score survey, which will give you insight into how well your onboarding strategy is working. NPS is an evolving indicator and predictor of your business’s ability to foster positive experiences and set the stage to hire future loyal ambassadors.
Hiring from within should always be a possibility, especially as your company scales. You’ll not only form a big pool of potential hires, but you’ll keep your culture intact. Plus, it’s notoriously easier for recruiters to fill entry-level positions than middle-level ones.
Your organization isn’t a static entity; over time, it’s going to contract and expand as people come and go. Regularly screen your recruiters, and you’ll feel more assured about the candidates they offer to help you achieve your mission.
