Between recruitment, screening, training, taxes, and benefits, hiring a new employee can cost more than $4,000 (Entrepreneur). Recent research also found that companies with 10,000 workers or more spend $41.3 million on employees that don’t stick around (Emergent). If your employee retention rates are low, the cost of constantly recruiting and hiring new workers can have a dramatic impact on your company’s bottom line.

Here are some areas you may want to take a look at as you re-assess your company’s recruitment process and strategy; from the type of background checks you perform to the interviewing process you utilize and the type of relationship you enter into with the candidate.

Where Are You Sourcing Applicants?
Before you can make any changes to your recruitment practices, you need to determine what is already working – and what isn’t. Start with the places where you source applicants – newspaper ads, online job boards, employee referrals, your website, and social media.

Compare which ones produce the most applicants, the highest quality applicants, and the most successful long-term hires. You may find that the employees who came to your company through a specific source tend to stay the longest. Putting more energy into recruiting from that source will result in higher-quality candidates.

Consider recruiting through social media. 73% of respondents to the Jobvite 2012 Social Recruiting Survey successfully hired a candidate through social media. 49% of recruiters saw an increase in the overall number of applications they received per position, and 43% reported an increase in the quality of candidates who responded to their job postings.

Consider Temp-to-Hire Relationships
Many companies are now choosing to recruit workers on a contract or temp-to-hire basis first to ensure that the candidate is a good fit and that both parties wish to continue working together long term. Engaging a highly-skilled professional on a project- basis can be very cost-effective as long as companies engage them compliantly – otherwise misclassification and co-employment issues can prove extremely costly. You can learn more about this by reading How Temp-to-Hires Can Help Reduce Your Turnover Costs. 40% of companies will hire temporary workers in 2013 and of these, 42% plan on transitioning these workers to full time staff at some point so it’s a strategy that’s becoming increasingly popular for many U.S. employers.

Background and Reference Checks
Before hiring, it is imperative that you both check your applicant’s references and proceed with a background check. You will not be able to eke out troublesome issues or red flags just through the resume and interview – you need to avoid the applicant’s biases and utilize external sources of information. Why is this so important?

Are you doing a pre-employment background check? Learn more in the Resource Nation Pre-Employment Check Buyer’s Guide; from driving reports to degree verification, this can be your fist line of defense against going too far with the wrong candidate.

According to a survey by Office Team, 21% of applicants are removed from the candidate pool following their reference check.

Businesses perform background checks to reduce their legal liability for negligent hiring, to guarantee a safe working environment, to prevent criminal activity, and to comply with state laws requiring screening for individuals who work with vulnerable groups. 

Do You Recruit for a Culture Fit?
According to a study from Leadership IQ, 46% of employees fail within 18 months of hire. One of the main reasons employees fail is because they don’t fit in with the company’s existing culture - the philosophy, values, behavior, dress codes, and other values that together constitutes the unique style and policies of a company.

You need to hire based on a candidate’s qualifications, yes. But keep in mind how well each applicant’s personality and work style will align with that of the rest of your company – how each person thinks and makes decisions; their communication style; and the pace at which they work. Conflicting values among employees can cause retention rates to drop.

The Interview
Determining whether your job candidates will fit with your company’s culture and are likely to stay long-term is difficult. You can narrow down your applicant field by asking the right interview questions. Your questions should seek to uncover each candidate’s work style, management style, and overall workplace preferences. Ask your interviewees to:

Describe the work environment or culture in which you were most productive and happy.
Define the characteristics of an effective manager.
Outline whether they prefer working alone or in a team, and what percentage they would allocate each.

Recruitment encompasses the sourcing, interviewing, screening, and hiring of new employees. If your employees aren’t staying with your business, consider your recruitment strategy in order to find higher-quality applicants who will be dedicated to your business’s success.

Megan Webb-Morgan is a web content writer for B2B lead generation service, www.ResourceNation.com. She writes about small business, focusing on topics such as social recruiting and background checks. Follow Resource Nation on Facebook and Twitter, too!

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