HR Resources & Blog | IsoTalent

Corporate HR Metrics for Small Companies

Written by Admin | Aug 2, 2023 3:00:00 PM

Job candidates are more empowered than ever. They aren’t just looking to trade time for hours, but expect balance in work and life, a healthy company culture, fulfilling work, and growth opportunities. Candidates have the luxury to be selective, prioritizing organizations they are ethically aligned with. With the rise of globalization, they are considering remote work and relocation more than ever. This shift in priorities doesn’t just impact large corporations, but SMBs too. The HR metrics for small companies below can help you create and refine your human capital strategy. This includes time and cost-efficient strategies for small HR teams, part-time HR teams, and organizations that require a spike in hiring. 

 

Recruitment and Attraction

Traditional recruitment channels are effective, but they limit your talent pool. Partnering with IsoTalent enables multi-channel global outreach. We market your open positions, implement a strategic workflow, and reach out directly to qualified candidates on your behalf.

 

Our services enhance the recruitment strategy for small businesses by:

 

  •         Empowering your HR team to focus on mission-critical projects.
  •         Expanding your reach to top talent, including those who are gainfully employed.
  •         Accelerating the rate at which your open positions are filled.
  •         Supporting your human capital strategy by delivering on the below metrics.

Time to Fill

The Centre for Economic and Business Research (CERB) compiled a variety of HR metrics for small companies. They found that, on average, only 43% of job openings are filled within 30 days. The remaining 57% of job openings take 3 months or more to fill.

 

Partnering with IsoTalent ensures that most roles are filled in under 40 days, often 30 days or less. We never prioritize filling a position over the quality of a candidate. In fact, the faster we fill your position, the higher the quality of the candidate. This is because top talent who is ready for a transition are a catch, so they don’t stay on the market long.   

 

The Reach of Local and Global Talent Pipelines

 

LinkedIn is a go-to recruitment tool that incorporates a variety of HR metrics for small companies. Like everything, LinkedIn must be utilized strategically. You can measure the success rate of networking, partnerships, and referral power by analyzing the KPIs below. LinkedIn provides these metrics for you, or the metrics can be calculated with the data provided by LinkedIn:

 

  • Social selling Index (SSI)—this metric demonstrates how well you are engaging with your existing network.
  • Application completion rate—this metric shares the percentage of job seekers who complete your application after viewing the position you posted on LinkedIn.
  •  Reach factor—divide your total connections by the number of followers on your company page to determine your reach factor. 
  • InMail response rate—this metric measures engagement by determining the percentage of responses you receive from your direct messages.
  • Time to fill—this is the amount of time it takes to fill an open position from the date of posting it on a job board. You should track your time to fill across all job boards and tools you use.

 

Unlike some job boards, LinkedIn allows for global reach. Sometimes the best candidate is in the United States, but they could be in an international location. Many small businesses don’t consider hiring international team members as they don’t want to navigate the hassle of foreign payroll and labor laws. Utilizing a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) that offers Global Employer of Record (EOR) services eliminates this hassle. A global talent pool can improve your candidate quality, supports your diversity and inclusion initiatives, and may boost your labor KPIs by minimizing payroll spending. 

 

Attrition and Retention 

Wondering how to measure your HR success? Workforce attrition and retention are common HR metrics for small companies. Both of these metrics are directly related to employee experience and are essential for refining the recruitment strategy for small businesses of every kind.

 

Strategic onboarding is also key to retention. According to data from job board Zippia, poor onboarding accounts for 44% of employees who turnover in the first 6 months. In addition, 89% of employees who have a positive onboarding experience enter the workforce feeling engaged and 69% of employees whose onboarding experience is positive are likely to stay with your company for at least 3 years.

 

WTW gathered HR metrics for small companies in their August 2021 North America Talent Attraction and Retention Survey. They found the top 5 actions businesses can take to both attract and retain candidates are: 

 

  1.   Prioritizing diversity and inclusion.
  2.   Offering full-time or part-time remote work.
  3.   Adding international recruitment to the mix.
  4.   Improving the employee experience.
  5.   Forming partnerships with schools and universities.

Partnering with a professional recruitment agency can assist with most of the areas of opportunity above. When initial candidate outreach comes from your professional recruiter it makes you look more professional, boosting your brand credibility. Onboarding and improved employee experience are included in our recruitment services.   

 

Training/Onboarding Cost

We can’t discuss HR metrics for small companies without assessing what happens after an employee is hired. Training and onboarding costs vary greatly depending on the industry, job role, skill, and experience level you are recruiting for. Most companies will invest at least $4,000 to recruit, onboard, train, and scale. For some roles and industries, the cost of scaling a new hire is 1/3 or more of the employee’s annual salary.

 

The Zippia data mentioned earlier found that companies that prioritize employee training make a median revenue of $169,100 per employee. So, training is an investment worth making. 

 

The sooner you identify quality candidates during the recruitment process the better. Once hired, you must ensure training and onboarding are strategic and organized. Everything must be measurable, so continue to track all HR metrics for small companies.

 

Before you onboard and train: 

 

  • Define your objectives—before you begin, ensure you are clear on what successful onboarding and training look like. This includes what paperwork must be completed, the policies and procedures new hires need to learn, and clear training objectives.
  • Map things out—map out a clear and measurable process for onboarding and training. Mapping things out requires an upfront investment in time and resources but saves time and money in the long run.
  • Offer support—delegate mentors, encourage new hires to ask questions, and let them know to go for ongoing support. Once trained, create individual development plans.

IsoTalent ensures your recruitment and onboarding process is strategic. We make a measurable impact by focusing on quality and efficiency. Our services include new hire support and tracking a variety of HR metrics for small companies. 

 

Cost Per Hire

The hidden costs per hire must not be forgotten. When determining how to measure your HR success, you must calculate:

 

  • HR expenses—HR labor hours, recruitment software, marketing on job boards, screening, and background checks.
  • Labor hours—overtime may be incurred while waiting to fill open positions.
  • Operational bottlenecks—when employees pick up the slack it often creates costly bottlenecks.
  • Lost revenue—you may need to turn down business or slow down product and service delivery until key positions are filled. 

IsoTalent optimizes the recruitment strategy for your small business by reducing the cost per hire. Our services offset our fees in terms of candidate quality, the efficiency of hiring, and the ripple effect of effective recruitment. We also have the tools and technology to streamline our services and deliver in-depth HR metrics for small companies.

 

Payroll Costs 

Ongoing labor costs are an essential part of every recruitment strategy for small businesses. Nothing is more valuable than your human capital, but labor remains a controllable cost and one of the top HR metrics for small companies. 

 

Initial salary negotiation is a balancing act, as quality candidates can command a competitive salary. The recruitment strategy for small businesses must go beyond the initial salary to budgeting for raises and promotions.

 

Minimizing your labor line while improving the quality of your candidates is another reason to consider a multinational and hybrid team. Out-of-state remote employees expand your reach to top talent and many international employees that work remotely can be paid a lucrative local salary that greatly reduces your labor spending per role.

 

Consider questions such as:

 

  • Which positions can be conducted remotely and/or what percentage of each team can be remote?
  • Which near-shore countries offer a more affordable labor market, while operating during aligned business hours?
  •  Which positions can be effectively conducted in a vastly different time zone without disrupting daily operations?
  • Do you have positions a bilingual employee or international employee will deliver the added benefit of expanding your market share?
  • What is holding you back from exploring a global talent pool, and can PEO/EOR services for payroll and benefits resolve these concerns? 

Software Utilization 

Wondering how to measure your HR success? Tracking your HR metrics for small companies comes standard with our services and we have the advanced software required to optimize recruitment. 

 

Creating a robust recruitment software infrastructure for your small business can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are valuable for tracking key HR metrics for small companies. ATS software helps you manage candidate lifecycle from sourcing to hiring, providing in-depth lifecycle analytics. However, the software costs up to $1,000 per user or between $100 and $500 per employee.

 

While effective, if you only have a position or two to fill or a short-term ramp in staffing, you may not be able to justify the investment. Even with the investment, the software is often underutilized. This is typically because the hiring volume is too low to see the full potential.

You can also invest in talent acquisition software and other tools designed to streamline recruitment.

 

Working with a professional recruitment firm enables “on-demand” access to such software when you need it. Power ISOTalent up when you have positions to fill, with the confidence that our software will optimize outreach, reporting, and organization. 

 

Internal Promotion

When calculating HR metrics for small companies, you must not forget to factor in the benefits of promoting from within. Promoting from within makes employees feel empowered, which can boost both morale and performance. Your internal promotion pipeline demonstrates that you lead by example, as it aligns with your mission and vision statements. 

 

A study of 32 million active LinkedIn users, found that employees promoted within 3 years of being hired have a 70% chance of staying with the company longer. Those promoted laterally, have a 62% chance of staying. In terms of employee lifecycle, employees stay an average of 41% longer in companies that promote from within.

 

DEI

Candidates from all backgrounds prioritize businesses that commit to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). This includes where they do business and where they are employed, making DEIs essential HR metrics for small companies. In addition to meeting candidates’ expectations, diversity is proven to boost organizational innovation and profits.

 

The smaller your business, the more you will need to recruit with intention. This includes local and nationwide talent but can also include global talent. Working with a global EOR empowers you to take a high-impact approach to expanding your DEI initiatives. With an EOR the process is seamless and as easy as hiring local talent.  

 

Whether local or global, you must invest energy in attracting and retaining diverse candidates and employees.

 

This can be achieved by: 

 

  •         Creating a diverse internal hiring panel and considering third-party panels.
  •         Ensuring your website and marketing materials feature a diverse audience.
  •         Communicating your commitment to DEI on your website and in your job postings.
  •         Utilizing marketing channels and job boards that prioritize diverse outreach.
  •         Implementing bias-free applicant screening that removes candidate images and names. 
  •         Building professional and community partnerships with diverse communities. 

Conclusion

These HR metrics for small companies will help you build a long-term human capital strategy. These strategies are further optimized by working with a professional recruitment agency that provides both PEO and EOR services.

 

IsoTalent offers PEO and EOR services, along with cutting-edge recruitment strategies for small businesses. Reach out today to learn more!