Quality versus efficiency is one of the biggest challenges in the world of talent acquisition – the quality of the candidates versus the time and cost to fill the position.
Recruiters are always facing a dilemma: Do I wait a bit longer for the most qualified candidate or finish a faster recruitment process with a chance of a low-quality hire?
The pressure of finding quality workers versus the cost of a bad hire can be addressed in the hiring process. If a company balances the resources needed, it will find a balance in terms of a good, quick hire.
In order for this to work, both groups must understand the needs of the other side. The recruitment team should understand the hiring managers are pressed for time. The hiring managers should understand the need of the recruiter to fill a position as soon as it becomes vacant.
Both sides must recognize that hiring the wrong person is very costly. It can lead to low morale, possible legal issues and productivity issues.
Should the Position be Left Open?
More than 50 percent of the managers who responded Career Builder’s Candidate Behavior 2015 survey said that having a bad hire is far more costly than leaving the position vacant.
Hiring managers understand the high cost and risk of a bad hire. Many of them are willing to leave the position open rather than face the deficit of a bad hire.
The Cost of a Bad Hire
In the production business, a vacant post in operations means less productivity and a slowdown in the manufacturing process. It is always a battle – fill the open position as quickly as possible to bring operations up to speed again or wait for a period of time while sourcing for the best candidate while production suffers.
The decision is always influenced by production’s daily operations, especially the schedules and orders that have a financial implication.
However, hiring the wrong people has long-term costs as well. The quality of the product is affected which may lead to consumers going elsewhere. These are costs that cannot be resolved in the short term. According to many studies, it costs 90 percent less to retain an old customer than to find a new one. Depending on the scale of the customer base affected, this can mean millions of dollars in lost sales and lower ROI!
A Focus on Quality
The recruiters and hiring managers may not have the same goals at all times, as they operate from different perspectives. But if the common goal is to improve the process of talent acquisition, collaborative hiring and sourcing efforts would lead to a better selection of candidates.
Both sides being focused on internal quality control leads to a better process. Recruiters should learn to focus their outreach efforts on the most qualified candidates. Wide net marketing for job prospects needs to be retired.
Hiring managers must focus on creating a process to eliminate as many bad candidates as possible – as quickly as possible. The company must also facilitate a two-way conversation between these departments. If the hiring managers are interviewing low-quality candidates, this should be immediately reported to recruiting. They will be able to modify the outreach process.
With both sides working to help the other, the probability of a bad hire is tremendously reduced.
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At New Era HR Solutions, we want to help you find the right talent to fit your company’s needs. Contact our staffing specialists today to get your search started.
