The High Costs of Poor Recruitment

All too often in our market, I see people offered a role as a recruiter (or in some cases a Recruitment Manager) with no prior experience and expecting them to succeed. This is not only unfair to the person but a complete disregard for the complexities of recruitment.

Now I am not saying you cannot learn on the job. It is a process. However, to be consistently effective at recruitment, you need time to experience that process. If you get recruitment wrong, there is a substantial cost to your business. If you get it right, your people issues and risks are significantly reduced.

Some of the high costs of poor recruitment include:

·         Costs for the outgoing employee - exit interviews, payroll paperwork.

·         Recruiting for a replacement – It is a costly activity and time consuming to find the right person. Direct costs of hiring a new person, including advertising, interviewing, screening, and hiring.

·         Costs of onboarding a new person, including training and management time.

·         Lost engagement - high turnover can cause other employees to notice, decreasing their productivity and impacting the culture of the company.

·         Ripple effect - turnover has an impact on the peer group making everyone less effective. Co-workers need to pick up the slack, distracting them from achieving their own performance goals.

·         Increased risks with workplace safety

On the flipside, if you get the recruitment of your people right, you will increase retention, improve productivity, and minimise risks. You will have an engaged workforce and the benefits of a strong culture which will reduce workplace conflict and promote teamwork which in turn, helps people feel like they belong. An effective recruiter will not only focus on the current vacant position but have in mind the future direction of the business and potential opportunities that may be available in the future.

Effective recruiting is about aligning values, recognising motivations and setting clear and honest expectations. If you don’t take the time to do this effectively, you run the risk of recruiting the wrong person. There is a reason why the team at Nic Willis Consulting have a face-to-face meeting with potential clients before we start the working relationship. We need to ensure the business has values that align with ours and they will treat people well and with respect. I am happy to say that 100% of our clients do exactly that.

Good luck with your recruiting!