Hiring Strategies for Small Businesses: Top 4 Ways To Reduce Cost-per-Hire

Recruitment is an essential part of every business, but it can be an expensive process, especially in terms of time and money. Here, cost-per-hire means the total cost incurred to hire a new employee. It encompasses several types of costs, such as:

• Cost of hiring HR managers and building a recruitment team
• Joining bonus for the candidates
• Payments made to recruitment consultants
• Expenses incurred to conduct interviews
• Job search app or job portal subscription costs
• Miscelleaneous costs like relocation cost

These are some of the additional costs businesses have to incur to hire a new employee. Cost per hire is obtained by dividing the total cost by the number of candidates employed.

What is The Role of a Job Search App?

An organisation’s cost-per-hire continuously varies. Businesses should try to keep costs within acceptable limits. Here, the deciding factors can be the skill level of the candidates, number of fires, demand and supply, compensation, and the sourcing strategy.

Job search app in India is one of the most popular mediums these days to recruit the best employees. Job search apps in India are leveraged by recruitment agents and HR professionals to find the best talent pools.

It can filter candidates, improve hiring velocity, and save costs by matching the job requirements to candidates’ skillsets and experience. What’s more, today’s job portals are even capable of upskilling employees, tracking applications, recommending employment opportunities, notifying candiates about vacancies, providing virtual interview options, to name a few.

So, how can you, as the employer, make the most of job portals and other avenues to reduce hiring costs? Let’s take a look at 4 examples below. Before that, you should keep in mind that these strategies aren’t absolute, meaning there is no “one size fits all” solution to reduce the cost-per-hire. The hiring strategy and the outcomes will depend on the industry your orgaisation belongs to, and various other factors like business needs, total employee strength, seasonal customer demands, the economy and so on.

i) Promote Career Opportunities on a Company Website or Job Search App

An organisation can promote vacant positions on a robust website that they own. Employment opportunities can be listed on the careers page of the company website. It’s also one of the best ways to advertise jobs as candidates, even today, visit company websites to seek out vacancies.

The advantage here is that you need only pay for the design, development, and hosting of the website which is minimal. There are many tools online today that can help you set up a website in a matter of minutes. 

Of course, there’s no limit on what you can spend on your website to make it better or more appealing. Besides, you will need to invest in a company website for online presence sooner or later. Why not do it now?

The other option is to advertise job opportunities through a mobile job search app in India. Registering on online job portals or job search apps, where businesses can enlist the open positions and recruitment details, is an effective way to reduce recruitment costs as most platforms allow employers to post jobs and hire candidates for free.

ii) Establish an Employee Referral Program

While it is common for applicants to apply through portals or job search apps in India, internal employee reference is much more effective when employees encourage their friends and families to apply for vacant positions. 

Some companies also offer referral incentives which is an added bonus for those who are referring. The beauty about referral programs is that the hiring velocity improves; news about a vacancy can spread quickly if the referring individual has excellent networking capabilities (which is usually the case). Moreover, they’re mostly aware about the employment status of those in their social circles, and if someone has been actively looking out for a job change.

Additionally, the other beneit of referral programs is that the HRs have to spend less on time on verifying the authenticity of the candidates’ claims as they’re vouched by someone within the company. 

iii) Hire an Experienced HR Professional

A growing business should also hire a full-time HR or human resource specialist because they bring so much to the table. For instance, they’ll be able to tell you how investment in human capital has a direct affect on organisational success.

What’s more, their knowledge and expertise in HR strategic management can help the company make important decisions based on the current workforce and future staffing needs based on business growth and customer demands.

An HR professional will also chalk out compensation structures that are realistic and competitive in the industry. Another contribution is cost-optimisation based on attrition, turnover, and personnel replacement. They can handle a variety of tasks that can save hiring costs, from planning and administering employee benefits to maintaining compliance and training new employees. 

iv) Outsource Recruitment Service

Partnering with a staffing agency may also offer several business benefits to small business owners. These business-savvy recruitment agencies have well-established talent pools, including far-reaching media presence through which you can source exceptional candidates. 

HR recruiting agencies also build HR tools, products, and services which can lower hiring turnaround times, effortlessly induct and onboard new hires, assess candidate background and skills, provide employee feedback, handle compliance, and so much more. In short, they adept at handling every aspect of employee lifecycle, from the time they’re scouted till the time they retire. 

Conclusion

Hiring is a tricky matter because critical resources, human or otherwise, are tied in. Small businesses and startups should realise that spending more on hiring doesn’t always mean better quality. While you may have the funds, it’s best to strategically align your hiring agendas with your business goals first before spending.