HR Solutions Weblog

What is the real cost of recruiting?  Most businesses only think in terms of the cost of running an ad.  But I’d like you to think about the following:

• Yes, there is the cost of the ads, but there are many more creative ways of recruiting than by just posting on Careerbuilder or Monster.com.
• The cost of sorting through what - in this economy - could be hundreds (even thousands) of resumes. Who on your staff is equipped to properly review and sort resumes?  What is the cost of productivity for the time spent on this process?
• Do you have an inside employee capable of doing a proper phone screen, and have you factored in their time to conduct this process?
• Can you ensure that your recruiting process does not discriminate? Discrimination charges in 2009 hiring practices totaled more than $82M.  Can you afford to make any mistakes?

All of the above is even before the candidate has walked in the door for an interview!

Then even more costs are accumulated by on-boarding costs, ramp up costs for the the employee coming up to speed, training, and administrative costs for responding to candidates not selected.

Tie in the above with the potential waste of total dollars if you don’t have the right people advertising, sorting through resumes, phone screening and ultimately in person interviewing and end up hiring the wrong person.

HR Solutions is your single source for recruiting for your high level executives, managers, supervisors or even your front-line hourly employees.  We are experts at finding the right person for the position and for the long haul.

In all business, small and large, we have to keep our eye on unnecessary loss and employee theft.  A few key areas where we see repeated theft are:

Time theft:  Employees that repeatedly come into the work area at exactly starting time, but then proceed to make coffee,  chat with co-workers, use the restroom and then eventually make it over to their work station.  We also have the issues of time spent on Facebook, the Internet, etc.  This is stealing time, and can easily be controlled through enforced policies and treating this, as it should be, a disciplinary issue.

Payroll theft: Often in small businesses one person is responsible for Payroll and there is not a solid backup and audit process.  No business should allow one person to be solely responsible for managing the payroll system without a backup audit system in place.

Office Supplies theft:  Believe it or not 67% of all employees steal office supplies! Post-it notes are the #1 item stolen by employees when it comes to office supplies.  We are not suggesting you micro-manage down to whether or not your employees are walking out the door with a Bic pen; however we are suggesting you pay attention.  Example:  Which employee orders your office supplies?  Do you ever conduct an audit or even look at the invoices as they come across your desk?  We once had a client whose Administrative Assistant was over ordering supplies, small amounts at a time, then would immediately return them and request a gift card for the credit.  As the gift cards piled up, she would trade them in for big items, such as a laptop, and then sell it on Ebay.  She did this for ten years before she was caught with a simple audit.  In the end, if your employees know you are (at a minimum) monitoring the office supplies, they are less likely to risk taking more than they need for their actual work. 

Full Product Theft: If your business produces an actual product it is very likely you have some type of theft occurring.  Often we find company owners that are making some small product that perhaps has pieces that can become something more valuable and they think “why would my employees steal these?"  If that is what you are thinking, run, don’t walk, to Ebay and do some searches on items similar to what your company makes. You will be surprised at the number of small items that are broken down for copper, stainless, etc. and are just sold in large lots to companies that manufacture something else.  

Why do employees steal?

  There are a myriad of reasons but some of the key ones are:  

• They feel the company owes them because they are not paid enough
• They are concerned about losing their job – for reasons other than stealing
• They feel the company is mis-managed and no one will notice

What can managers do to prevent theft?

• Have a solid disciplinary plan to address issues as they arise
• Monitor your workplace and processes for equipment and office supplies
• We believe in and suggest often to our clients to install Webcams in critical areas of your workplace
• Audit!  If your employees know there are random audits, they are less likely to steal

Recently we had a 40-employee client where a supervisor knew he had an employee that was bullying another employee.  The supervisor, rather than bringing it to the Manager’s attention or to us, thought he could handle it on his own by coaching the bully rather than protecting the employee being bullied.  By the time this came to someone’s attention, the victim employee had quit, was seeking legal damages and the company was negligent.  

This was a true form of harassment and should have been dealt with swiftly and specifically after the first incident. 

Questions that should have immediately been asked:

• How did the supervisor know? 
• Did he witness the harassment on a regular basis? 
• Did the victim bring it to the Supervisor’s attention? 
• Did all employees know if they brought an harassment issue to a supervisor and felt it was not resolved, they had recourse through another avenue? 
• Was there harassment training on a regular basis?

Are you comfortable identifying harassment issues?  Do you have questions that need answers for your business on all forms of harassment?  April 22, 2010 our monthly live Webinar will be on Harassment. Please join us.

Today I was thinking about all the businesses that will be dealing with employees developing “Spring Fever” and taking unscheduled time off work.  This wreaks havoc on production, schedules, deadlines and productivity because, as we know, someone has to pick up the slack.  I talked to 3 business owners this week who thought they had to let employees take time off without pay!  

As always, when addressing this issue, we ask the question “What does your handbook say?"  If your employee handbook does not address this issue, it should.  Still, there is no reason an employer should feel they need to grant time off work when an employee has used all their vacation, sick or - our preferred - PTO except in extenuating circumstances.  Allowing time off without pay prevents you from running your business according to plan and expectations when your employees will be present. 

If you don’t already have a policy stating the above, create one.  If you need assistance writing this policy or need a complete review of your handbook or one started from scratch, contact us anytime.