Five Steps To Save Time and Money When Hiring New Employees

Many people overlook the costs, in terms of both time and money, that go into hiring new employees, and they can certainly add up!

From the hours put into posting jobs, vetting candidates, and interviewing applicants, to negotiating offers and training new hires, a lot of valuable time goes into the recruitment process. Plus, job site subscriptions and sponsored ads cost money.

And, if you don't make sure to hire the right employees from the get-go, there's a chance they'll quit or you'll have to let them go, and you'll be right back to square one.

That's why it's super important to implement some best practices to streamline your hiring process and help ensure you're hiring the perfect new employees every time jobs open up.

Do These Five Things for Cost-Effective Recruitment

1. Use a reputable background check service

Background checks can help weed out candidates with a history of criminal activities, including violence and theft, as well as help verify certain past activities and personal info that applicants list on their resumes and job applications.

In short, they help make sure that anyone applying to a role at your company is who they say they are, and that they aren't lying to hide something in their past or make themselves look like a better candidate for the position.

The best background check services will dig into relevant areas of a potential hire's past and, ultimately, help ensure you make a good investment of time and other resources into hiring trustworthy, reliable employees that will hopefully be with your company for years to come.

What employment background checks look into:

• Criminal record
• Identity/address verification
• Employment history/education verification

2. Ask for employee referrals

Whenever a new position becomes available at your company, one of the best ways to start looking for people to hire is to ask current employees or other people in your professional network to refer potential hires.

People are going to recommend friends, family, and acquaintances that they trust not to make them look bad and that they would actually want to work with.

This makes referrals a very reliable source of new employees, and it will save you the time and money that goes into posting jobs on tons of different job boards and interviewing potentially hundreds of unknown applicants.

3. Post accurate, specific job descriptions

If you want the right people to apply for an open role at your company, we can't stress enough the importance of writing accurate and specific job descriptions wherever you post the opening.

If your job descriptions are vague, you're likely to get a bunch of applicants who simply aren't a fit for the role, and you'll waste a bunch of time reviewing irrelevant applications and discarding candidates who aren't experienced enough or who lack the required skills.

Not only that, but accurate and complete job descriptions ensure that any successful candidates who you hire will not have any surprises when they actually come and start working for you, so they're much more likely to stay with your company long-term.

Make sure to write job descriptions in a clear, concise style, and use bulleted lists wherever possible to make them easy to read and refer back to for key information.

At a minimum, all your job descriptions should include:

• Job title
• Job purpose
• Roles and responsibilities
• Required skills/qualifications
• Preferred skills/qualifications
• Working conditions/expectations (e.g., in-office or remote, hours, etc.)

4. Offer competitive salaries (and be open about them during hiring)

Many companies make the mistake of thinking that offering the lowest salaries they can get away with is saving them money.

But, the reality is that if you're not offering salaries that are sufficiently competitive, your employees are going to leave at the first chance they get for a better opportunity.

When this happens, you have to reinvest time and money into the hiring process all over again, and this will keep happening over and over again.

It's a good idea to list salary ranges in job descriptions or, if not, you should discuss salaries during initial job interviews to make sure you and potential candidates are on the same page about pay.

If your salaries are competitive, you should have nothing to hide when interviewing job applicants. But, if you deliberately leave salary discussions until the end of the interview process, you can end up wasting a bunch of time interviewing someone who will not accept a job offer.

5. Optimize your onboarding process

Once you actually decide on hiring a new employee, the next step is to onboard them to your company.

Onboarding is the process of introducing them to their new role, training them on company procedures and policies, and everything else it takes to get your new employees up and running in their new job.

The more efficient your onboarding process is, the faster your new hires will actually be able to start working, and the sooner you can see a return on the investment you put into the whole hiring process.

(Disclaimer: Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)