Without a doubt, to take your business from where you are now to where you want to be, it's going to take more people. Unfortunately, traditional hiring practices can make this an intimidating task for even the most dynamic entrepreneur.
Not only are these practices clunky and time-consuming, they’re often ineffective. And what can be most damaging to your business is their unnecessary and prohibitive costs.
But these costs are just a fact of business ownership we all must deal with, right? That’s not necessarily the case. Keep reading to find out what these hidden costs are and how you can combat them in your business.
On average, it takes six to seven weeks to hire for a new role. Whether it’s crafting the perfect job posting, sorting through resumes or conducting interviews – this process can be extremely time-consuming. Most of the time, it’s a process that involves ownership. And for business owners, time is money.
Even if you delegate the hiring process to internal staff, there’s still a cost. Department managers or HR teams – who likely already have full plates – must divert their focus from core responsibilities. Any delays in hiring can result in lost revenue opportunities, while critical roles remain unfilled.
Speaking of lost revenue opportunities, you could watch a golden opportunity pass you by if you take too long to make a critical hire. When you’re unable to scale your team quickly, you could miss out on landing a new client, launching a new product or expanding into new markets.
The slow pace of traditional hiring can also put you at a competitive disadvantage. In today’s fast-paced business environment, agility is key. If your competitors are able to meet the marketplace's demands more efficiently than you, you could lose business in the process.
Additionally, the length of time that traditional hiring takes may result in allowing excellent candidates to slip through the cracks and get hired elsewhere. While you may spend weeks pursuing a candidate, in the end, they go with another company and leave you empty-handed.
One of the most significant hidden costs of traditional hiring is the risk of a bad hire. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire can equal up to 30% of that employee’s annual salary. This includes direct costs like recruitment and training, as well as indirect costs like lost productivity, decreased team morale, and potential damage to client relationships.
Bad hires don’t just affect your bottom line – they can also disrupt progress. Whether it’s a mismatch in skills, a poor cultural fit, or lack of work ethic, replacing a bad hire requires extra time and resources, creating a chain reaction of challenges throughout your organization.
Hiring traditional in-house employees comes with more expenses than just their salaries. You also need to cover office space, equipment, utilities, benefits, insurance, and payroll taxes. It all adds up very quickly.
Further, as a business experiences the ebbs and flows of the market, there could be seasons in which labor needs may need to be regularly adjusted up or down. For small and midsize businesses that hire in-house employees, the process of going through layoffs and re-hires for these various seasons can be costly.
Traditional hiring often leads to high turnover, especially when onboarding and training are rushed or not done well. High turnover can disrupt work and create extra costs for hiring, retraining, and lost productivity.
It can also hurt team morale. Employees who have to take on extra work because of unfilled positions may feel overwhelmed or unappreciated, which can lead to disengagement and more people leaving. Before you know it, you’re having to fill additional positions and incur additional costs.
To scale your business without the constraints of traditional hiring, you may opt for a non-traditional hire. For this, you could lean on a firm like WorkBetterNow that provides outstanding nearshore talent from Latin America to businesses like yours.
Here’s what you can expect:
WorkBetterNow (WBN) provides outstanding remote talent to small and midsize businesses. WBN’s highly skilled and pre-vetted Latin American professionals are hand-matched for each client’s unique needs. Hundreds of growing businesses turn to WBN to unleash their potential through our exceptional talent, ease of hiring, and ongoing support. Request a consult today!