The Link Between Revenue And A Recruiting Brand

Many leadership teams don’t fully recognize that an attractive recruiting brand does more for your organization than keep a steady pipeline of quality candidates, it can also lower your recruiting costs, improve onboarding and initial employee performance, and – most importantly – add to the bottom line.

 

Lower Recruiting Costs

The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 2016 Human Capital Benchmarking Report calculates the average cost to hire a new employee to be $4,129 with job postings taking 40-45 days to fill.

What makes up your recruiting “brand”? This includes all the ways a candidate might interact with your company ranging from social media ads, job board listings, blogs, company website and recruiter discussions. Any avenue to build trust and a relationship is part of the brand. When candidates select to work with you as a result of your brand, less time and resources can be used over the long-term. 

If the quality of candidates being attracted to open positions is not what you would prefer, chances are your brand needs improving. As with any brand or culture, it must first be embodied by your organization’s leadership team and other key influencers (e.g., long-term employees). Once that is in place, a content strategy can be a significant next step. Review all the information being shared about your organization and ensure it conveys a positive message about your mission as a healthcare provider and the community you serve. Highlight employee benefits and work environment, patient and employee satisfaction comments, employee message board comments, company celebrations and events, etc.

 

Rapid Onboarding and Productivity

More than a decade ago, MIT Sloan Management began using a term referred to as rapid onboarding to describe a process by which new employees could be more productive in a shorter timeframe.  It is estimated that, depending on their role, it can take 10 to 30 weeks for an employee to be completely comfortable in their new role; this could be longer for senior management positions such as CFO and CIO, which has a decreased tenure within healthcare.

In an article published by Hundred5, it is suggested an average company loses anywhere between 1% and 2.5% of their total revenue on the time it takes to bring a new hire up to speed. This may include activities such as onboarding and training as well as ongoing mentoring. As you can imagine, strategies to decrease the time to productivity can be highly impactful and begin even before the first day of work.   

Mentoring programs have long been considered an effective strategy to improve productivity and increase employee engagement. According to discussions within the HR & Employee Engagement Community, mentoring is undergoing a paradigm shift. As it was initially implemented, a mentoring program would include a more senior person sharing their wisdom and guidance with a younger person or new hire. However, in today’s environment we have created a bi-directional scenario where both parties are expected to learn from each other and develop a personal and professional relationship. This changes the skills sets of both parties involved and increases the overall business value and potential long-term revenue.

 

Increased Revenue Through Better Hires

According to Brandon Hall Group and Kronos’s 2015 “The True Cost of a Bad Hire” report, organizations with strong recruiting brands are three times more likely to make quality hires.

Stronger candidates outperform. According to Harvard Business Review and a study conducted by Bain & Co. in 2017, approximately 15% of a company’s staff are A players or “stars” – that’s one in seven employees. In all companies surveyed, this number did not differ significantly between highly vs moderately successful, international vs. US-based, etc. However, what made a distinct difference was in how these A players were deployed.

These employees generally possess several common attributes, including but not limited to: self-motivated, highly competent, strong communicator, takes ownership, dynamic and adaptable, and a team player. They are considered a business asset and are deployed to business-critical areas of the company to ensure they can have the most impact.

We are not suggesting you can change out a CNO for a CMIO. However, when there are strategic projects for the health system that need committed, outside-the-box thinkers to participate and drive a vision forward then these are the people you should go to. Or perhaps a CFO needs an objective, third-party comparison on salary & benefits across departments or forecasting on clinical IT spend for 5 years. These are excellent areas to deploy talent.

To attract the best and brightest to your recruitment brand, be sure to highlight your accomplishments and share stories of employee success through your website and social media channels. And remember the candidate experience includes everything from job descriptions and phone screens to interviews and feedback and should be as thoughtful, thorough and positive as possible.

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