Do You Know What All Goes Into Your Hiring and Onboarding Costs?

More elements go into hiring new employees than you may think. It adds up fast, from the time and resources it takes to find and vet candidates to onboarding costs and the training cost per employee.

The primary hiring expenses fall into nine categories: 

1. Job posting
2. Resume sourcing
3. Interviewing
4. Assessments
5. Background screen
6. HR technology
7. Onboarding
8. Company training
9. Regulatory compliance

Let’s go over some of these in more detail.

How HR Technology Contributes to Hiring Costs

Many factors contribute to HR technology costs, including the system type, company size, number of users, system implementation fees, and system training fees.

Below are a few strategies your company can implement to reduce your HR technology costs: 

1. Determine a set budget for your HR technology needs.
2. Conduct cost comparison research on the options available.
3. Discover the benefits of an applicant tracking system (ATS). According to Aptitude Research, 65% of companies with high-volume hiring needs aren’t happy with their current ATS.¹ Sparks Group staffing and recruiting firm has advanced HR technology and an ATS to streamline hiring. Clients can leverage this technology without investing in the tools themselves.

“There are online recruiting tools available for companies, or you can research the best HR technology that fits your current needs and is scalable as your company grows and hiring needs change.” - Crystal Connelly, Director of Sales at Sparks Group

Onboarding Costs and Strategies to Reduce Them

According to one of our LinkedIn polls, more than half of respondents expect onboarding and training to be the most expensive part of hiring in 2024. The main factors contributing to onboarding costs are HR personnel involved, company size, orientation duration, and unique orientation process needs.

To reduce your onboarding costs, companies can apply these strategies to their hiring process:

1. Use technology tools to automate and streamline onboarding processes.
2. Outsource non-essential tasks, such as new hire paperwork and compliance training.
3. Leverage Sparks Groups’ experts who can recommend onboarding strategies to create a more efficient process for both employers and employees.

“Onboarding new employees is an important process to ensure new hires feel welcomed, and set up for success. It's important to be mindful of hidden cost, but not jeopardize the success of new employees.” - Crystal Connelly, Director of Sales at Sparks Group

Company Training Factors That Play a Role in Hiring Expenses

According to SHRM, 37% of companies surveyed plan to spend more on training and development in 2024.² Regarding company training cost per employee, the number of employees needing training, session duration, hourly trainer rates, location, company size, training complexity, and training time required for each employee all makeup company training costs.

Employers can use these strategies to reduce their company training costs: 

1. Determine a set budget for your company training program.
2. Use technology tools to automate and streamline training processes.
3. Reach out to Sparks Groups’ experts who can recommend training strategies to create fewer barriers to ongoing education for employees.

“A great place to start when trying to better define your training process is with your current employees. Asking a high performer, as well as an average performer what their training experiences were and how they feel it can be improved.” - Crystal Connelly, Director of Sales at Sparks Group

Download the Components of Hiring guide to dive deeper into strategies to reduce your recruiting costs, or reach out to one of our experts if you’re ready to streamline your hiring process.

Sources

¹Aptitude Research, The State of High-Volume Recruitment, 2021.

²SHRM, 5 Key HR Executive Challenges for 2024.