You are a business that is experiencing a staffing shortfall. You are turning work away because you can’t find new employees, new employees who will do the work in your business. You are at a loss as to what you should do and feel that without Recruiters, you won’t be successful. Imagine the following scenario, this could be your business.
“I can’t afford a recruiter, so all of my recruiting is done by XYZ staffing company.” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this in my career. Staffing companies are great resources, no mistake about that. However, are they always the best resource for a small or mid-sized employer to use as their sole recruiting support? Most often the answer to that is a resounding “no.”
Bob, not his real name, operates a company that machines parts for the marine industry. He has 40 employees in many different machining and metal fabricating roles. About 10 of those employees perform office functions with the remainder in leadership or production. Bob’s annual turnover is about 10% if you exclude the occasional “feast and famine” staffing issues that he experiences due to new contracts that need a fast ramp up. When these occur, Bob can add as many as 10 temporary production workers, averaging $16.00 an hour in direct wages. He uses a staffing company for this; the staffing company charges him 145% of direct wages or $23.20 per hour per worker. Assuming Bob did this work himself it would cost him approximately 7% of wages per hour per employee or about $17.12 per hour per employee.
But Bob can’t afford a recruiter.
Bob doesn’t realize it but he has 40 recruiters that he is already paying, in addition to the staffing agency. What Bob doesn’t have is a recruiting culture.
A recruiting culture is nothing more than a process where the responsibility for recruiting rests with everyone in the company. Recruiting becomes part of how business is done and everyone has a role. It builds on having employees embrace the idea that in order for them and the company to survive, to prosper, to grow they must WANT to work with the best possible people available. And it is up to every one of them to tell that to people they know, to help build an interest in the company, a desire for people to want to work there. Call it being a recruiting scout for the company. In short, you turn every employee into a Recruiter.
This process drives applicants and candidates to the company. It allows the company to build a simple Excel spreadsheet or Access database for talent. Not only does this help for short term fast “ramp-up” projects but it also works for replacing staff who depart, goes on a leave of absence or other people needs the company has.
The only real costs are the time it takes for someone to maintain the data and someone to make the phone calls when the needs arise.
Further, given the many different interpretations of employment law using a staffing agency to avoid any liability isn’t very real anymore. The odds are great that you would at a minimum be found to be a co-employer for anything from unemployment to workers comp or even pension claims.
Doing it this way, and not calculating the costs of maintaining the data or making calls to potential employees saves Bob about $48.00 a day per employee. For 10 employees over 1 week that could be as much as $2400.00. Not a small amount of money for a small employer.
You can even take those dollars saved and invest it back into your employees in the form of bonuses and other perks. Doesn’t save you any hard dollars but it improves morale. Improved morale means happy employees. Happy employees produce better and make for happy customers. Happy customers turn into better sales.
By the way, this Recruiting Culture process works for any size employer. Whether you have 5 employee’s or 5000, a recruiting culture will help you find the right employees for your business.