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Why cutting down hiring costs doesn’t make it cheap

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man with hiring costs headache employer problemsThe harsh reality of hiring costs– we upset ourselves without even knowing it!

Sometimes we make bad hires because we don’t have the necessary expertise or resources to
ensure robust hiring practices.

I can tell you that there is, in fact, ONE simple reason why bad hires occur.

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The reason that we make bad hires is quite simple. It is because we make a compromise. Sometimes we settle for less and don’t ensure we hire the best. (We strive to lower hiring costs, yet end up incurring more.)

We don’t make bad hires intentionally. So let’s look at reasons why it may happen:
 There’s time pressure to fill the vacant position.
 We focus on skills but forget to focus on the person’s attitude.
 We tend to ask the wrong questions instead of the right questions.
 Focusing too much on “nice to have” qualities rather than the “must haves.”
 Hiring bias, such as being seduced into hiring someone we like or someone that “looks” good
 Having the wrong people making or influencing the hiring decisions
 We may bypass or compromise on important checks, for example, reference checks and personality tests.

The solution is to not Compromise – and ensure we minimise the possible causes. We can do this by:
 Having a mindset of securing the best candidate (not the first)
 Reducing pressure to hire quickly
 Hiring for attitude first and skills second
 Focus on getting the “must haves” right before the “nice to haves”
 Ensuring we have the right people involved in the hiring process
 Making hiring a group decision, eg involve key members that will work with the candidate
 Using behavioural based interviewing techniques
 Using robust checks (eg reference checks and personality tests etc)

By doing these things you will experience a higher percentage of successful hires and a reduction in the frequency and expensive hiring costs of a bad hire. For more information on hiring right, contact Neil at 1300Hired. [/read]

 

Job advertising: how to market jobs and win top talent

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There is a lot more to job advertising than simply writing a few paragraphs. My not so favourite tasks – the pasting a whole job description and posting on a job board – also don’t sum up. Many employed in the fields of advertising and marketing can attest that our careers are beyond knowing how to write a job advertisement.

If not done properly, you will then experience a mix of results ranging from too few responses, wrong candidates applying, too many wrong candidates, or no ideal candidates applying. There are 15 key ingredients…

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Job advertisement and marketing tips

job advertisingWhen selling a house, you only need one buyer. However in recruitment, you not only need one buyer, you actually need ‘the ideal buyer’.

Because you want to recruit the right candidate, you must create the most compelling message and offer. Then make sure you target the right candidates.

You must maximise the exposure of your message so that you capture the widest yet most targeted audience. There are many key ingredients that will ensure the success of your job advertisement. However, get any one of these wrong and you risk losing valuable candidates.

My job advertising strategy

In over 18 years of recruiting and job ad copywriting, here are the 15 key areas that have allowed me to get great results for clients:

How to write a job advertisement

  1. Have a well-defined Position Description including salary range & benefits
  2. Have a Person Specification with 3-6 essential and preferable skills  and attributes
  3. The Job Title must be meaningful, descriptive and marketable
  4. Create a compelling 150 character teaser (or “lead-in”) to capture the attention of job seekers. Then give them a reason to “click through” to the main advertisement
  5. Craft up 3 compelling bullet points that best describe the opportunity and benefits of applying
  6. In the body of the advert describe the company, why it exists, what it does and points of difference – what is the culture and why would the reader want to work there?
  7. Describe the job opportunity and summarise why it exists and what it does.

Job advertising in action

  1. Selection Criteria: Describe the key skills and attributes required to successfully undertake this role

    job advertising and marketing

    Reader hit in the face. Shocking assault causes an emotional response.

  2. Provide a closing date and any other information to help candidates apply
  3. Select the job location, job classification and subclassification. Research all the available classifications and sub-classifications
  4. Check to see if there are additional locations, job classifications and sub-classifications relevant to this job and be prepared to use more than one to capture the market
  5. Research comparative jobs to ensure your salary level is competitive
  6. If your remuneration package is competitive, publish it to generate a higher response rate. If it is marginally or less competitive, do not publish it
  7. Enter the engagement method (eg part-time, full time, casual, fixed term contract etc)
  8. Is the job board you are using where your preferred candidates ‘hang out’? Some of the best candidates don’t apply via major job boards. Therefore, posting on multiple job boards will ensure your exposure to the widest applicable candidate markets

For more information on how to craft compelling and effective job advertising, contact Neil at 1300Hired. [/read]

Employee turnover costs and how to avoid them

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Employee turnover is disruptive, expensive and has both tangible and intangible effects.

employee turnover cost iceberg staff

The cost of employee turnover is like an iceberg.

Like in an iceberg, the tangible effects are visible above the water. Meanwhile, the intangible effects appear underneath, less visible yet often quite larger than it seems.

Staff turnover is more than filling up a job vacancy due to attrition. In fact, the costs exceed the average cost to hire a new employee.

 

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How expensive can a turnover be?

Aside from measuring how much it costs to hire and train a new employee, other factors to employee turnover also exist. When added up staff turnover can cost as much as 1-2 times an employee’s salary or $50k-$100k on average per hire. Here are some more interesting pointers: 

  • When measuring attrition cost, anticipate that the expense of employee turnover varies within the organisation. The costs of replacing an employee rise from entry-level to more senior management and executive positions.
  • While hiring expenses go up the ladder, employee turnover cost goes up, too. Hence, for the CEO of a major corporation, the price can be in the millions as reflected in the share price and market capitalisation.
  • In the Australian construction industry, turnover costs around twice the profit generated by an employee.

Strategies to reduce employee turnover

Excessive staff turnover distracts management, can eliminate profit and cause business failure.

Hence, how do we minimise the hefty cost of replacing an employee? 

  • Have a strong and supportive culture
  • Have strong leadership and management aligned with your work culture
  • Recruit the right people
  • Implement strategies to engage and retain the right staff
  • Have strategies to engage all disengaged staff
  • Have strategies to reduce actively disengaged staff

Employee retention now becomes a big issue. Let us turn the tide and avoid the iceberg that may soon sink our ships. For more information on how to reduce Staff Turnover costs, contact Neil at 1300Hired. [/read]

Disruption is the new “Norm”

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The world is changing rapidly and the world of business is no exception. What excites me greatly is the pace of change (which is not slowing down). In fact it is growing at an exponential pace with no let up. There is hardly a day that goes by where there are not exciting new developments, breakthroughs, or reports of changes that are only just being understood and hence, reported well after they happen. Some of these changes are positive, some are not so positive, and some – well it depends on which side of the fence you sit on, or what your perspective is.

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