The Cost of a Bad Hire – 4 Reasons to Use a Professional Recruiter

Hiring the right employee could be one of the most important decisions you make when it comes to the growth and success of your company. Most small business owners don’t hire tremendously often, and don’t have a depth of experience with hiring, so avoiding wrong hiring decisions and legal liabilities are many times a product of luck.

Using a professional recruiter is an investment, and investment in talent. It’s not an overnight process and unfortunately, employment agencies don’t usually have a “pool” of eager and qualified candidates to choose from. In this tough labor market, its easy to make a bad hire and cost your company thousands of dollars in time and expense. Professional recruiters can reduce this risk considerably.

Here’s 4 reasons recruiters can save time and money by saving you from that bad hiring decision:

Recruiters Cast a Bigger Net

Posting jobs in the right place at the right time is key to catching the right candidate. Professional recruiters have a much larger toolbox to choose from when it comes to job postings. They not only have the typical online postings that are available to anyone, but they can access other resources where they spend the time to search for qualified candidates, places most businesses cannot access.

Knowing where to look comes from experience and knowledge, hiring hundreds, even thousands of employees.

Recruiters Have More Time to Prescreen

You as a small business owner, and even your limited management team are rightly focused on day to day operations and making a profit. It’s very easy to rush through the pre-screening process and either miss a good candidate or pursue an unqualified candidate. Professional recruiters take the time necessary to thoroughly review resumes and have the experience to know what to look for.

A good recruiter will also take the time to understand your business and your culture, and help you find the ideal candidate beyond what their resume says.

Recruiters Have Market Knowledge

Professional recruiters know what market pay rates and benefits are common for the particular market they are operating in, and for different industries within that market. They know where to make adjustments based on experience, benefits, distance and your budget. They also know the hot buttons to hit when constructing a job description or job advertisement, and many times will place multiple ads using different terminology.

Through special techniques and specialized knowledge, recruiters have a far higher success percentage than your average hiring manager at a small business.

Recruiters Manage the Hiring Process

Face it, recruiting is a process, it takes time and thought to make sure it works right. Once you have that great candidate on the hook, you certainly don’t want to lose that catch! This means the process must be structured to take everything into consideration. The urgency of the position, the candidate’s time and the process of communication between all the parties involved. Whether it’s setting up phone screenings, interviews or second/third interviews, its easy to let a good one slip through the cracks.

There is a term in the industry for this: ghosting. Ghosting is where good candidates, or even someone who has accepted a job offer and a start date, disappears. You can’t always stop ghosting from happening, but a good process can reduce the risk.

Good recruiters know how to get the right candidates through the process from prescreening to solid job offer smoothly, in the least amount of time for all concerned and without ghosting.

Bottom Line

The cost of a bad hire is unquantifiable but when you consider your time, the time of your staff, lost production, mistakes and the nuisance of having to continually rehire, the expense of a professional recruiter is truly an investment.

Infinium can assist you with your direct hire or temporary staffing needs. Just shoot us an email at jobs@infiniumstaffing.com or call us at 951-816-6434.