There are really only two ways to minimise your recruitment costs. One is to get the people that you want in the first place, and the second is to hold onto them. Unfortunately, organisations seem unable to do either very well. If they can hire those they do want, then quite often find that those same people leave in the short term. And those they wished that they hadn’t employed at all turn out to cost them an arm and leg to replace, because those same organisations have to repeat the recruitment process until they do.

It is possible to have your cake and eat it, too. The key is in the preparation. It all starts in the kitchen.

So let’s look at the first one. How do you get the people that you want?

It’s not by following the process that is commonly used. Typically, written (nowadays that means online) applications are submitted. From that a smaller group is extracted. They might be invited for a first interview, and then a second interview. Some organisations will insert the odd personality test, to see if that person fits their idea of an ideal candidate. If this is the way that you hire people, then you should expect, rather than be surprised, that you’ll employ the wrong person most of the time.

Here’s why.

Applications

Applications are good for you and easy to process. They tend not to be good for candidates. They make it harder for applicants to demonstrate their skills and experience. That’s because they leave very little room for them to express their uniqueness. So at the very first fence, an application is an attempt to make everyone look pretty much the same. Isn’t that the opposite of what you want? Aren’t you looking for that one person that stands out from the rest?

Personality Tests

This is a minefield. For one thing, few people in the Human Resources department (or whatever they call themselves now) understand how such tests are constructed. They don’t know what reliability or validity means, or what it takes in order for a measurement to satisfy the requirements that demonstrate that those things are true. They tend to succumb either to the pressures of a trainer who has used the test, but probably doesn’t know how to create one, or are using them because they know someone else who did. If you’re going to use any test, then at the very least you need to have a Level B qualification as well as the training for how to use that specific test. The more tests you use, the more training you’re going to need. It’s the only way that you’ll learn how to use them responsibly.

For the record: NO test should ever be used by itself to select or deselect anyone. In other words, you should never use it as a step in the recruitment process to cull anyone from the group of applicants or to choose one person over another. And you want to run as fast as you can away from those who tell you otherwise. It’s impossible to develop all the whys and wherefores in this article – entire books have been written on this subject - so you’re just going to have to accept this as truth.

Interviews

Numerous studies have been done on the effectiveness of interviews in the selection process. They all share the same conclusion. Interviews are about as effective for getting the right person as walking up to someone on a busy street and asking them if they’d like to run your company. The chances of getting someone who can do it are improbable to say the least.

Why are interviews so unreliable? It’s because a decision is made about whether someone is suitable before anyone says anything – before a handshake, before inviting him or her to sit down, even before the person gets close enough for you to see the colour of his or her eyes. Appearance, gait, manner, even shape – these are the things that create that all important first impression; and the problem is that because of the way we’re wired, we tend to act in a way that’s consistent with our earlier beliefs. In other words, if we like someone, then we’ll act more favourably towards that person and invite him or her to the next stage. If we aren’t that impressed (nothing to do with competence) with that person, then we probably won’t.  And that means that all the objectivity that you thought you were bringing to the interview is out the window.  

The second problem is how to hold onto the people you want to keep.

Typically, organisations misunderstand why people leave. A higher salary is quite often cited as a reason, and it’s true: Some people leave for that reason; but it certainly is not the only one or even the most important one. It’s a popular excuse because it’s convenient, and it absolves the company of any responsibility to do anything about it. Others cite a poor skills match, or a conflict with the culture of the firm. All of these, and there are others,  are important, however that don’t begin at the beginning; and that’s where your recruitment problems start.

Think about this: How difficult is it for someone to apply for a job with your firm?  What happens if an applicant tries to contact the HR office? More to the point, is it even possible for that person do so? Many companies don’t want applicants to contact them. Enquiries are directed either to a generic email address or worse, a snail mail address. And on those rare occasions when it’s possible to ring someone, what is that applicant told? Is it something like, “You’ll find everything you need to know about applying at blahdy-blah.co.uk.” Or, “We don’t take calls about positions”?

What kind of a first impression do you think that makes on people who are thinking about working for you?

Of course you will get applicants. You may even get them from people who you want to keep. But you have to think about the message you’re sending to all who apply. If it’s this hard to apply, just imagine what it must be like to actually work there.

If you want to hire the right people, then you have to make sure that you have the right recipe. Not only do you want to attract talented people, you also need to make the application process as easy for them as possible. They are customers. If you treat them well, then they are more likely to become good advertisements for you than if you don’t. And if you hire them, then they’ll become internal clients in any case.

And you must – this cannot be overstressed; you must act responsibly when evaluating applicants.

If the financial stakes are as high as the research suggests, then you are deliberately sabotaging your bottom line if you don’t.