With new jobs being created every day and hiring demands steadily rising, today’s recruiters need tools that help them successfully compete for talent. But if you want to reduce your cost-per-hire, or if you have a limited recruiting budget, you need tools that are both effective and affordable.
When it comes to reducing your cost per hire, the challenge is figuring out how to save money without sacrificing candidate quality. Here are some tools that can help you accomplish exactly that:
Building and maintaining a pipeline of interested, qualified candidates can do wonders for your cost per hire. When a new position on your team becomes available, you can source your talent community to fill the position faster. This will minimize the costs associated with advertising jobs, as well as the time spent on interviewing unfit applicants. Reducing your time-to-fill can also eliminate the need to hire a temporary replacement, which is a major contributor to a high cost per hire and lost productivity. If you want to learn more about talent communities and how to use them, read How to Build a Talent Community.
Employee referrals are a critical tool for finding new hires. In a 2015 SilkRoad study, employee referrals produced more hires than any other source studied. The best part is that you don’t need to invest in an expensive employee referral program to get more referrals. By strengthening your employment brand, your employees will encourage others to apply without even being paid to do so. For more details and tips, read The Secret Strategy for Increasing Employee Referrals.
Social media is free and widely popular, so it can help you connect with more job seekers without costing you a penny. A SHRM study also found that nearly two-thirds of organizations have hired candidates who were sourced through social media—verifying its ability to connect you with quality candidates. To effectively leverage social media, first ensure that your social profiles share your employment story and encourage job seekers to learn more. Then use social media tools like Facebook’s Graph Search or Twitter’s search engine to start sourcing the talent you need.
Because a career site can advertise your jobs and employment brand 24/7, it allows you to reach substantially more candidates for a very reasonable cost. Career sites have also been one of the top internal sources of hire for several years in a row—proving that they can attract quality candidates. In other words, a career site can help you find the right candidates faster and more affordably. As a result, you can spend less money on more expensive recruiting tactics like job advertisements or career fairs. If you already have a career site and it isn’t generating this outcome for you, request a free career site evaluation so you can get the results you want.
As you test out these recruiting tools, remember that every company is unique and the results that these tools produce vary. But if you measure and track each tool’s effectiveness, you can learn which ones are the most cost-effective for your organization. In return, you will reduce your cost per hire while still hiring some of the best job seekers out there.
