How to Calculate Employee Recruitment Costs with Cost per Hire

Employee recruitment costs can increase if not managed properly. This can worsen the performance assessment of the HR team and hurt the company’s operational costs.

In fact, the purpose of recruiting employees is as a way to maintain company operations and help it grow.

Therefore, as the  HR division ,  you must pay more attention to budgeting or  budgeting  for the HR team, starting from hiring new employees to retaining employees.

Read Also : Omnichannel Marketing: Definition, Functions, Practices, and Tips

There are several strategies that the HR team can apply in analyzing and considering  the HR team’s budget  . In this case, especially in the employee recruitment budget, that is by calculating  the cost per employee hire  .

In the following, Mekari will discuss what  cost per hire is  and the components  of the cost of hiring  that are calculated in  the cost per hire .

What is Cost Per Hire?

Cost per hire  is a metric component that is used as a reference for calculating employee recruitment costs. This cost per hire  is the component most commonly used by the HRD team to measure the team’s expenses and budget.

Being able to know and measure how much  the cost per hire  is considered quite important because in general it can optimize your company’s recruitment process. In addition, measuring  cost per hire  can also be used as a yardstick in determining employee recruitment budgets, managing expenses, and measuring  employee performance  in recruiter or HR teams.

Cost per hire measurement   is calculated starting from the screening stage, the selection stage, to the  on-boarding stage  for the total employees selected in one period. The simple formula for calculating  cost per hire  is more or less as follows:

Read Also : Easy Ways to Make Absent Online on Google Form

 

Example of How to Calculate Cost Per Hire

To calculate it is actually quite easy and simple. All you have to do is use the calculation formula as shown above in one employee recruitment period. Then the next step is to calculate  the cost per hire  as follows:

  1. You record expenses for recruiting new employees, starting from the selection process to  on-boarding  and  training .
  2. Add up your external costs and internal costs on all new hires in a given period.
  3. Then, divide the resulting number by the total number of employees in the same period.

Here’s an example:

Company A will conduct  mass hiring  to fill the needs of workers/employees who are currently vacant within the company. The recruitment process will last for 3 months and will also take part in a  job fair  that will be held in the city center. The expenses or  hiring costs  for carrying out  the mass hiring process  are:

  • Salary, allowances and overtime pay for the HR team for 3 months of IDR 175,000,000.00
  • Office facilities (Wifi, ATK, and so on) IDR 40,000,000.00
  • Transportation allowance of IDR 4,500,000.00
  • Advertising costs IDR 35,000,000.00
  • Health test IDR 15,000,000.00
  • Employee recruitment agency IDR 55,000,000.00
  • On-boarding  and  training costs   IDR 5,500,000.00

Then, after the  mass hiring process  was completed, the company recruited 30 new employees who had passed  the on-boarding  and training stages. Then, how much is the employee recruitment fee and  company A’s cost per hire  during the recruitment process?

Answer:

Cost per hire formula  : (Total internal costs + total external costs)l : number of recent recruits

(IDR 225,000,000.00 + IDR 85,000,000.00) : 30

Cost per hire               = Rp 11.000.000,00

Read Also : What is Human Experience Management? Definition, Components, Benefits

Employee Recruitment Cost Components

In terms of expenses or hiring costs during the employee recruitment period, there are various components that need to be considered.

Based on the cost per hire calculation formula   above, it can be seen that the cost components of employee recruitment are divided into two, namely internal costs and external costs.

You should understand what these cost components are because they can help reconstruct the budgeting for employee recruitment costs so that they are more optimal and economical.

Internal Costs

Internal costs are the costs of the employee recruitment process used within the company or organization of the HR team. Overall the components included in  the internal hiring cost  are:

Salary or Bonus for Recruitment Team

When the recruitment process begins, of course there are many structures in the HR team that join and work together. Starting from the head of the recruitment division, supervisors, to staff  recruiters .

The salary system  provided depends on the amount of responsibility carried out, then there are also other costs such as benefits, target bonuses, and overtime pay if employees get additional working hours outside of working hours.

Office Facilities

Office facilities are often used by the HR team to recruit new employees. Starting from the psychological test stage, English test, interview, to the  on-boarding process .

In addition, if the recruitment process is done  online . The HR team can use  work facilities  in the office that support the process, such as laptops and wifi networks.

Transportation

Transportation expenses are included in the company’s internal costs if the recruitment process uses a different strategy. Like if a company recruits in a  job fair  and  campus hiring .

Read Also : 4 Roles of Big Data in HR Work

 HR Support Software

Currently, many companies are using  online  HR  software  to support the management of the new employee recruitment process. This will simplify the recruitment process so that it runs more effectively and can be done anywhere and anytime.

External Costs

In contrast to internal costs, external costs are expenses for employee recruitment or  hiring costs  that come from outside the company or use services outside the company’s internal. The following are the external cost components:

Employee Recruitment Agency Services

HR teams who lack the resources to find candidates will usually use the services of an employee recruitment agency as a third party. This is in order to reduce the team’s workload, avoid  burnout , and avoid  human error .

The choice of needs for employee recruitment agencies also varies in form. Some process it for the  outsourced section , some only focus on  talent hunting / talent headhunters , there are also employee recruitment agencies that do almost the entire selection process

Then the candidate data will be forwarded from the employee recruitment agency to the HR team to then proceed to the  on-boarding process .

Hiring Advertising Fees

In carrying out the recruitment process, sometimes companies also need a place to advertise available positions to the general public. Social media and  job hiring platforms  are media that you can use.

This is necessary in order to increase  online presence  and help find suitable candidates with qualifications quickly and precisely.

Medical check up

Some companies sometimes also ask candidates to do a health check-up session first, or what is commonly called a medical check-up. This is one of the stages in the recruitment process that is also commonly found.

Usually, companies will work with health clinics or hospitals because rarely does anyone have this field specifically within the company. Therefore, the cost of medical tests is included in the external costs of employee recruitment.

Read Also : Employee Welfare: Definition, Benefits, and Implementation

How to Minimize Employee Recruitment Costs

After you know how to calculate  the cost per hire  and the components of employee recruitment costs. There are several strategies that can minimize the cost of effective employee recruitment and that you can apply in your company.

This is quite important considering the expenses or  hiring costs  which are quite large for one new employee who enters. The swelling cost of the employee recruitment process can also interfere with the assessment of the HR team in the eyes of company management.

Here are some effective strategies you can employ:

  1. Take advantage of  talent pools
  2. Optimizing  employee referral programs
  3. Optimizing company social media
  4. Using  HRIS software  that can help the employee recruitment process
  5. Create an effective recruitment ad
  6. Analyze the budget and hiring costs optimally
  7. Recording or  keeping records  of expenses

That’s a complete review of what it is and how to calculate  the cost per hire  as well as the cost components of employee recruitment.