The $21,000 recruitment mistake you’re making

Here’s what you need to know to fix the $21,000 recruitment mistake you’re probably making right now.

While there’s little doubt we’re yet to see the tail end of the coronavirus thing, many of us are starting to think about recruiting again; either to ramp up or as a result of someone in our team moving on.

Statistics show the recruiting process often has a failure rate of 50 percent. Prospective employees are always on their best behaviour during interviews and oftentimes it’s not until a new hire is onboard that they show their true skills and behaviours. Few things in business are more disappointing than realising the person you thought would be your next superstar isn’t even a one-hit wonder.

The cost of hiring the wrong person varies (depending what studies you read) but in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), a conservative estimate is around $21,000.  A survey of over 1500 HR professionals across ANZ undertaken by ASX listed cloud-based HR and payroll solutions provider, ELMO Software identified average costs of hiring for a new executive ($34,440), senior-level management ($23,059), mid-level hire ($17,841), and entry-level positions ($9,772).

So why are these costs so high? Consider your hours devoted to advertising, shortlisting and interviewing candidates. Add the induction and training of the new employee until they get up to speed. Factor in lost productivity costs associated with having the last person leave. And the dollar figure attached to intelligence leaving the business. Don’t forget the on costs of having employees in the first place: office space, workstations, superannuation, annual and person al leave, workers compensation premium…blah, blah, blah…

Where to start your improvement? Smart HR people know the root cause of most hiring is poor retention. But that’s another story. What about your questioning line during interviews? While traditional interviews consist primarily of technical questions (i.e.: someone’s ability to do the job), technical ability is not the primary reason most new hires do not work out once they start; it’s something else. It’s for this reason that professional recruiters employ a number of questioning dimensions when they interview…and so should you.

In working in HR for over 20 years, I approximate I’ve participated in over 1500 interviews. I’ve witnessed what works, what doesn’t, how to minimise risk and how to maximise success when hiring. With this experience we’ve developed the Bare Bones Consulting Recruitment Toolkit; four simple, practical and cost-effective tools that you can use as a complete resource or to compliment your existing recruitment function.

Not all bad hiring decisions can be eliminated. Using a proven methodology however can help mitigate the costs of getting it wrong. And if a recruitment function designed by a genuine HR expert stops you making a potentially costly hiring mistake just once, it would be hard to argue that wasn’t a smart investment.

Like to know more? Give Bare Bones Consulting a call. We’ll undertake a review of your current recruitment function and offer you some simply options. You might need only a single change to radically improve your existing system or the introduction of an integrated recruitment function  with benefits across your entire business.