At first glance, the cost of adding new talent to your engineering firm may seem minimal. Advertising fees notwithstanding, it would appear as though the hiring process, overseen by an established HR department, requires very little in the way of financial investment. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Hiring is a multi-step process, comprised of performing background checks, contacting references, conducting multiple rounds of interviews, and negotiating an offer. When you combine the astronomical amount of time required to acquire new talent with the cost of training a new employee, you’re looking at $35,000 to $52,500 in recruiting and training costs for a single new engineering hire.
The concrete costs to an employer taking on a new hire are many. In addition to the cost of advertising the position, these may include the costs of background checks, sign-on bonuses, and travel and relocation expenses. But hiring has hidden costs, as well. Reviewing resumes and references and scheduling and conducting interviews require an immense time commitment, and can divert the attention of employees—HR teams and managers alike—from their everyday duties. The process of filling a particularly vital company role or a position that has garnered a large number of applicants can be especially demanding on current employees, reducing workplace productivity for the duration of the search. Moreover, if your search fails to yield a viable candidate, or if you fill the position only to learn later that your new employee is not up to the job, the money and time you have invested are lost.
A contract recruiting firm can help dramatically reduce the costs associated with acquiring new talent by doing the heavy lifting so that you and your HR department don’t have to. A skilled technical recruiter will possess a deep familiarity with the ins and outs of the industry, a keen ability to determine whether a candidate will thrive in a given workplace environment, and an in-depth knowledge of available talent. A technical recruiter streamlines the hiring process to eliminate the need for you to vet and mass-interview candidates in-house, delivering only the most viable candidates for the position directly to you. Additionally, an experienced recruiter can help you to fill a position as quickly as possible, eliminating the inconvenience and high cost of keeping the position open for an extended period of time.
Furthermore, by identifying candidates who are highly experienced, extensively trained, and familiar with your in-house systems and procedures, a technical recruiter can help you save money on the cost of training your new employee. And by locating a candidate that fits well within your organization’s workplace culture, a recruiter can help to ensure that your new employee contributes a positive dynamic—rather than a negative one—to your team. This attention to the whole package has the potential to lower your employee turnover rates by identifying the top candidate for the position the first time around. In the long run, this translates not only to time and money saved, but also to increased workplace engagement and productivity.
The most trusted Kansas City recruiting company, Austin Nichols Technical Search offers direct hire and contract recruiting for engineering, manufacturing, and technical positions. We have been in business since 1988, and are dedicating helping our clients in the region stay ahead of the game by acquiring top industry talent through direct hire and contract recruiting.
