Recruitment costs in Poland. An unsuccessful recruitment can cost the company 250 percent. salary
Mateusz Żydek, leader of the communications team at Randstad Polska, points out that the public debate on recruitment costs is dominated by the discussion about direct costs, visible on invoices. — Indeed, HR budgets have been growing dynamically in recent years. We have observed an increase in the rates of headhunting companies, which was a natural consequence not only of inflation, but also of the fact that their commissions are linked to the increasingly higher salaries of sought-after specialists, he says.
He adds that the real battle is for the candidate's attention, and this significantly increases the costs of reaching him. – We are talking here about classic advertisements on leading portals, as well as growing budgets for marketing campaigns in social media and search engines – explains the expert. Competition in these channels is huge today, which further drives up prices.
The key cost of recruitment is time
Mateusz Żydek also emphasizes the paradox of the current situation. — Although the economic slowdown that has been observed for about a year is starting to cool the wage pressure, recruitment is not becoming cheaper. This is because the key cost generator is no longer the increases themselves, but time – he explains.
According to the expert the average time needed to complete the recruitment process in Poland has increased to approximately over 4.5 months. — Every day of vacancy is a real, hidden loss for the company – the cost of lost benefits, unrealized projects or team overload – notes the Randstad expert.
Paulina Król, Chief People & Operations Officer at No Fluff Jobs, adds that analyzing applications alone can take many days, especially when over 100 people apply for one position. Additionally, screening interviews require synchronization of recruiters' and candidates' calendars, which may extend the process by another two weeks. — And we haven't even gotten to the interview stage! – he points out.
According to Randstad's analyses, the full 4.5-month cost of the vacant position IT specialist may exceed even 150 thousand. PLN, and a qualified production worker – nearly PLN 90,000. zloty. It includes: workload on the team, overtime costs, loss of quality or inability to fulfill new orders, as well as a potential increase in turnover among other team members.
The three biggest problems in recruitment processes
Mateusz Żydek points out three key problems in modern recruitment. — The first is paralyzing the cost of caution. Managers, fearing recruitment errors but also feeling the presence of a larger number of candidates who may potentially have very good competences, complicate and prolong the decision-making process so much that they generate additional losses – explains the expert.
The second problem is strategic trap competence gap. – We have a market where 81 percent companies have trouble finding talent, and at the same time, more than half of the candidates believe that it is the employer who dictates the conditions. This is the definition of a situation where companies hunt for ideal profiles, preferring to incur the costs of a vacancy rather than invest in the development of a candidate who is immediately available but does not perfectly meet all the requirements – explains the expert.
The third problem is trapping HR departments in a spiral of eternal recruitment. — The real problem is not the cost of acquiring an employee, but the cost of losing him – and data shows that 70 percent Poles are considering changing jobs, says the expert.
Each departure triggers a vicious circle: a vacancy overloads the team, and an overloaded team generates further vacancies. — This may lead to a situation in which the HR team, instead of building retention strategies, operates in a reactive mode, endlessly putting out fires – sums up.
Read also: Pracuj.pl reveals the results of the study. How quickly do Poles find work?
What constitutes the cost of unsuccessful recruitment?
Anna Barbachowska, HR director at ADP Polska, describes in detail the cost structure of unsuccessful recruitment. As he explains, these costs vary depending on whether the recruitment ends with the employment of an employee who will leave quickly or whether it will be an empty recruitment.
– This includes, for example, the preparation of the entire process, the development and publication of advertisements, and the recruiters' work time devoted to handling a given process: reviewing applications and selecting candidates for the next stage, time necessary for recruitment interviews, involvement of hiring leaders, feedback to people who did not qualify for the next stage of recruitment – says Barbachowska.
The expert also emphasizes that a lot depends on the number of applications to be processed and the number of stages in the recruitment process. – Some tasks are currently taken over by automated programs, but firstly, not all companies use them, and secondly, the implementation of these technologies also obviously entails costs – he adds.
When a new employee leaves quickly
The situation becomes more complicated when the company hires an employee who quickly resigns. — If a new employee leaves after three months or less – and then we also talk about unsuccessful recruitment – this should be included in the analysis recruitment costs and implementation of such a personwhich was wasted – explains Barbachowska.
The expert explains that part of onboarding takes place automatically, via screens and online training, without the participation of live people. In this case, the preparation of training programs has an initial cost that is amortized over time. — However, there is often still work to be done on the part of managers and co-workers, Barbachowska points out.
He adds that part of their working time is related to explaining the specifics of the work, translating nuances, handing over documents, sometimes introducing them to the history of the project or general introduction to the company.
The hidden costs of employee turnover
Anna Barbachowska draws attention to the broader context of the costs of unsuccessful recruitment. — A new employee who disappears quickly affects the motivation of the rest of the team, because someone has to take over his tasks, but also loses the hopes already placed in the new person. – says the expert.
As he points out, the costs of unsuccessful recruitment also include missed projects and lost opportunities as a result of failure to complete specific tasks. — Let's keep in mind that an employee – even one who has been with the company for a relatively short time – leaves with him knowledge about a given company, which may in some cases be important for the competition, and in the case of high turnover, it adversely affects the company's image externally. – warns the expert.
All this makes the average unit cost of unsuccessful recruitment impossible to estimate. – It is influenced by too many variables, varying depending on the size of the company and its specificity, as well as the recruitment process itself – he sums up.
