While the size of human resource departments has shrunk over the years, our expectations have not. Across the country, HR is motivated to reduce its recruiting costs while increasing candidate reach and quality. Having the aptitude to quickly and efficiently improve the recruiting process isn’t just some warm and fuzzy intangible; it’s a real bottom-line initiative.
If ignorance is bliss, then you’d likely agree with the notion of what you don’t know can’t help you. Take, for instance, one Fortune 500 company that had implemented a two-step process for interviewing high-level talent. The method relied on a series of two meetings which were conducted on separate days (to fit the scheduling needs of those executives conducting the interview). The rationale seemed to make sense: The company believed it was necessary to execute two interviews performed by two separate executives in order to fully vet the quality of the candidate.
Analyzing Recruiting Efforts
Somewhere along the way, the company questioned whether this process was hindering its ability to hire top-level talent. Not seeing eye-to-eye on the issue, the company turned to a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) agency, for an expert opinion. Yoh was engaged and immediately performed a deep analysis of the company’s existing recruiting process as it stood present day.
The initial investigation exposed that, while seemingly rational, the company’s long-standing interview policy not only increased recruiting costs, but lengthened the time-to-hire by an average of 12 days. Furthermore, the dual-interview approach, which was thought to be vital to screening candidates, in fact, proved the opposite. Less than 15 percent of candidates were actually filtered out as a result of this procedure.
Ultimately, it was discovered that the combination of high recruiting costs paired with lengthy interview cycles increased the chances for quality candidates to walk, or find an alternative job. All of which was the direct result of an internal process set up and preserved by the client.
Reduce Recruiting Costs
To remedy this predicament, Yoh architected a single interview procedure that proved to better match the candidates’ fit and qualifications against the position. Long-term, the company could anticipate a steady stream of quality of candidates. Using this proven methodology would result in reduced hiring costs and consistently meeting company recruiting objectives.
After factoring in the interviewers’ compensation rates, lost productivity as the position remained vacant and scheduling costs,
“It was determined that the company’s previous process added anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million in recruitment expenses.”
“One of the major benefits of RPO is gaining access to best-practice data that can identify where costs are leaking and where time is slipping in the drive to hire,” says Andy Roane, Vice President of RPO at Yoh. “In this case, we were able to empirically demonstrate how process improvement could deliver a real bottom-line value, reduce recruitment costs, and avoid the cascading inefficiencies that result when hiring slips. For instance, this company knew that failing to fill this position would cause it to miss key product development deadlines that would reduce overall revenue. By applying a data-driven analysis, we were able to overcome flawed assumptions and achieve recruiting objectives at a total cost savings for the enterprise.”
This blog was written by Matt Rivera. Matt serves as Vice President, Marketing and Communications and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Yoh’s marketing and brand communications. Matt holds a degree in Journalism/Public Relations and has been working in the staffing industry for more than 25 years. Prior to this role, Matt held many different roles from branch recruiting and proposal writing to technology management and online marketing.
