Why Multilateral, NGOs and Impact startups pay a higher cost per recruited staff?

Is an HCM your silver bullet to a more effective recruitment process?

By Henrik Rydén

Many Multilaterals’, Non-Government Organizations and Impact startups go cheap on recruitment software.

When effective organizations only invest in the best candidates and use systems to manage most of the admin burden, these organizations pay $25 per non-qualified candidate just to facilitate a process. 

However, given the budget structure, where the organization gets dedicated core funding for staff. Given how hard it is to negotiate more resources, cost-savings linked to cutting staff are not a successful trigger for change.

For those organizations, however, our calculation also shows that tailored recruitment software saves the unit three weeks of administration work. Hours that could be better spent for more strategic purposes of the recruitment process, such as targeted outreach, improved accessibility, smarter candidate assessments etc.

In this article, I have looked closer at the main argument for not choosing to use a proper recruitment system, related process risks and the cost of ineffective recruitment.

Do you receive your job applications through e-mail or web form? 

If so, invest 5 minutes to read through this article; you are far from alone. 

Too many recruiters receive applications through e-mails or similar tools. The administrative burden is heavy and costly, and the risk of bias linked to “process tiredness” is high. When you have opened 100 e-mails and downloaded 200 attachments, how motivated are you then to reopen all these attachments and read the CV...

To publish a job with an e-mail application link is, of course, super fast and cheap, but the admin work it generates down the road is everything but cheap. 

After having someone else (probably from Communications) place the ad on the career site. A recruiter must at least

  1. build an e-mail structure to file the applications, 

  2. open all e-mails one by one and label them to know what actions are being taken, 

  3. open the attached documents and add them to folders,

  4. open each application and score the applications, 

  5. create a summary sheet with name, education, nationality, gender, age, years of experience, title etc.

  6. build binders with the CV for the hiring managers and screeners to review,

  7. attach all CVs, including scoring sheet and e-mail to the reviewers,

  8. compile all the CV reviews from the hiring managers and the screeners, and update the Excel sheet.

  9. Start the manual booking for panels and assessment slots…

Although all the efforts listed above, the activity list continues. From a personal data privacy (GDPR) perspective the process is also questionable, is the personal data treated correctly?

Organizations know that recruitment software would make their recruitment process more effective and GDPR compliant, but what holds them back?

When receiving applications through e-mail, you must up to a certain process stage invest the same administrative effort for all applicants, irrespective of their quality. All e-mails must be open and files, all attachments must be downloaded, application lists must be built and reports compiled, etc.

Impactpool has made cost estimations, where we only study administrative recruitment activities and reporting (that could be automated). The estimated cost per candidate is at least €25. 

This cost is the same irrespective if the applicant is eligible or non-eligible. 

It may be worth spending time and money on eligible candidates, but to spend so much time and money on non-eligible applicants can be something other than a waste.

Is a full-fledged HCM your silver bullet?

When I meet these organizations and point this out, they all agree; they have identified the problem and agree to the administrative burden. The recruiters are unhappy with the administrative burden and the management is concerned with the non-compliance with GDPR.

What surprise me still, though, is their response...

Too often, they don’t plan to go for a recruitment software, but instead, await a management-led implementation of a full-fledged HCM tool. An "HCM extra everything", Single Sign-On (SSO), integrated Talent Acquisition, Pools, Payroll, Performance, Learning, etc…

I don’t know how many clients I have heard this answer from. I believe the main reason is that the management receives a good five pre-screened CVs to review, and lacks insight into the actual process.

So, when I made a courtesy follow-up one or two years later, I still haven’t met one single organization that have moved on their management-led "HCM project".

The recruiters still spend most of their days on meaningless administrative activities, at the same time they are still facing diversity issues and challenges with low application quality.

One could argue that Rome was not built in one day. On the other hand, Rome was probably not their first building project. 

An HCM is a long-term strategic direction, not the first aim for an organization with an empty HR infrastructure. According to my own experience, for an impact organization (given the complex workflows), it takes a good 12-36 months of implementation from the day of the decided supplier.

Get your recruiters a tailored recruitment tool and make them spend their time on strategic things...

More or less, every organization I meet has a diversity challenge. It could be attracting PWDs, certain nationalities, women in senior roles, minorities, etc.

Investing in a recruitment tool has a quick return. Since cloud software made its entry into the recruitment market around 2010, the implementation time for recruitment software has gone from years to hours. And the price has dropped significantly, Impactpool even offers a freemium version that eases a majority of the admin burden.

The market for cloud tools is huge, make your homework before choosing a recruitment tool.

But only Impactpool has built one tailored for the different workflows of Impact companies. Having inbuilt outreach features to Impactpool talent pool, delivered diversity reports, roster features, and a smart recruiter access setup, saves you an enormous amount of time.

Impactpool is tailored for Impact recruitment, hence built for the combination of international and local recruitment. If you are considering implementing recruitment software, download our white paper to learn what questions to ask when you build your internal case.

Do you consider a recruitment software?

Do you want to ease the administrative burden for yourself or for the recruiters in your organization? Please fill out the form and we set up a call.

Impactpool recruit can be setup with a tailored recruitment workflow within a few hours. So don't wait for your next recruitment, test us today.