Hiring costs can be elusive for many companies.   Below is an in-depth checklist to help you get a full picture of your hiring costs.  Answer each of the questions Yes or No.  The more questions to which you answer “yes,” the more you analyze the cost of hiring employees and the greater use you make of the information obtained.

_____________________________________________________

Yes / No _____________________________________________________

General

Is one person or one department responsible for analyzing hiring costs?

Do you have stated goals with regard to the cost of hiring new employees?

Are these goals in writing?

Do you analyze the cost of hiring new employees?

Does your analysis include:

  • Salaries or fees for any recruiters?
  • Advertising for new employees?
  • Hours spend interviewing and testing new employees?
  • Compensation paid to current employees for interviewing and testing new hires?
  • Number of new hires made in a year?
  • Average training time for new hires to learn how to perform efficiently?
  • Cost of training in terms of compensation paid to new hires?
  • Increase (or decrease) in compensation due to new hires?
  • Reason you need to hire a person (e.g., turnover, increased sales)?
  • Amount of raise (if any) that would have caused the employee you are replacing to stay?
  • Cost of temporaries hired to perform services while looking for a replacement?

Is this analysis performed at least annually?

Do you use the analysis to evaluate your:

  • Goals?
  • Policies?
  • Budgets?

Do you use the analysis to reward:

  • Your managers?
  • Your recruiters?
  • The person responsible for the analysis?

Budgets

Do you have a budget for the:

  • Training department?
  • Recruiting department?
  • Personnel department?

Do you analyze those budgets for:

  • Being over budget?
  • Being under budget?
  • Efficiency?

Factors to analyze

Do you know the sources of your applicants?

Do you analyze the number of successful applications based on the cost of the mechanism used to recruit them?

Do you know whether the most successful applicants are recruited by:

  • Internet/online advertising?
  • Social media?
  • Newspaper advertising?
  • Word of mouth?
  • Bulletin board postings?
  • Outside recruiters?
  • Internal recruiters?
  • Radio or TV advertising?
  • Referral from educational placement offices?
  • Other__________________________?

Do you know the cost of:

  • Internet/online advertising?
  • Newspaper advertising?
  • Word-of-mouth advertising?
  • Bulletin board advertising?
  • Outside recruiters?
  • Internal recruiters?
  • Radio or TV advertising?
  • Referral from educational placement offices?
  • Other__________________________?

Do you realize these costs in terms of the:

  • Number of applicants generated?
  • Number of applicants hired?
  • Length of time the persons hired work for you?
  • Success of the persons hired?

Questions above to which you answered “Yes” indicate you are capturing costs in those areas.   Questions to which you answered “No” may be areas you should explore to have a better understanding of the costs involved.   Once you can put a dollar amount to all areas of recruiting you can clearly see the costs involved.  In many cases, a recruiting/staffing agency may be more economical.  Check your list.  Check it twice.  Then check out Unique Employment Services for your direct hire, temporary, or temp-to-hire needs.