Recruitment process automation

Cost per hire

$2,800

Internal cost (the hours)

$5,400

External cost (ads and agency)

$11,400

The numbers on this page come from the inputs you enter and the method stated: 3,600 seconds to an hour, 52 weeks to a year, twelve months to a year, and nothing else. No industry shrinkage figure, no occupancy benchmark and no assumption about your attrition; every one of those is yours to enter.

Recruitment process automation begins with a step most projects skip, which is writing down the process as it currently runs rather than as it is supposed to. For a small desk that is usually a short list: an application arrives somewhere, someone reads it eventually, a shortlist is discussed, interviews are booked by email, a decision is made in a conversation, and an offer is sent. Written out, the automatable steps are obvious and so are the ones that are not. The arithmetic then tells you what the automatable ones are worth. On the worked example a desk spends 120 hours across six hires at $45 an hour and takes 31 days to hire, with 26 of those days passing before an offer exists. The steps carrying those days are receiving, sifting and scheduling, and all three are administration rather than judgement. The steps carrying the judgement, the shortlist conversation and the decision, are not automatable and should not be. This page sets out how to do the mapping, and what to measure afterwards so the project has an answer rather than an impression.

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Write the process as it runs, not as designed

Include the parts that happen in someone's inbox and the parts that wait for a weekly meeting. Those are usually where the days are, and they never appear on a process diagram drawn from the policy. A useful test is to ask who touches an application in its first week and how long it sits between each pair of hands; the gaps are the process, and they are rarely written down anywhere.

Separate administration from judgement

Acknowledging, moving, booking and reminding are administration. Sifting on merit, deciding a shortlist and choosing between two candidates are judgement. Automate the first list and leave the second, which is also the safer position legally.

Measure before and after

Time to hire and cost per hire before, and again a quarter later. Without the before, the project's success is a matter of opinion and it will be assessed by whoever felt busiest. Two figures, taken twice, a quarter apart. It costs a few minutes each time and it is the difference between a project with a result and a project with a story.

Will it do what you need for Recruitment process automation?

Tell us how your team plans its staffing today and where the number gets argued; a person who has built one answers.

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Recruitment process automation: common questions

Where should automation stop? At the point where a decision about a person is being made. Automating the administration around a human decision is a different thing from automating the decision, and the second carries fairness and legal considerations for your employment adviser.

Do I need a consultant for this? For a small desk, no. The mapping is an hour with a pen, and the two figures that measure it are free sheets on this site.

What if the process is different for every role? Map the commonest one. If senior hires genuinely run differently, map that separately, but most small desks find their processes are more alike than they expected.

Orgplanly Pro

Keeping what you make

The worksheet answered today's question. Pro keeps the answer: the plan you just worked saved against the team it belongs to, re-opened at the next review instead of rebuilt, branded and exported for the budget meeting.

• Download the finished checklist or intake form as a file the client accepts
• The paperwork goes out clean, without the Kickoffo watermark
• Re-use the checklist for the next client instead of rebuilding it
• Your firm's logo on every checklist and form you send
• Export every client's onboarding at once when the account review or the buyer asks
• Send the plan for review from the record, not a spreadsheet
• Not part of Orgplanly today; your billing stays where it is
• Not part of Orgplanly today; your ledger stays where it is

$90per month, whole team

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