NEW DELHI: Employees leaving an organisation is a natural phenomenon — everybody wants to grow in life and would like to move on for better prospects. What creates concern, however, is when people quit in very short time — less than six to eight months or a year of joining. This is bad for an organisation because the costs incurred in recruiting the person does not get recovered in such a short span of time.

Let us look at the various costs involved in recruiting an employee:

Direct costs: This includes costs like advertising, travel, stay, fees for consultants and placement agencies, et cetera. Depending on the recruitment process, it could also include rentals for venue, fees for psychometric tools and external professionals involved in interviews.

Induction costs: New recruits have to be given an induction programme to enable them to understand the workings of an organisation. Whether this is done in-house or through external agencies, it involves costs for on-the-job training.

Settling down costs: Usually a person takes about five to six months to get a grip of the job.

In the initial months, other team members or supervisors or seniors are still helping him figure out the role. The time costs of people involved and the opport-unity costs are incurred here.

Demotivation costs: In case the person does not like the job

or is disillusioned by the

actual work, he would not

contribute at all. He may spend his time unproductively, or start focusing on finding another job. He may spread negative energy, which may also impact the motivation, morale and productivity of others.

Costs of leaving: Even after a person has decided to leave, he is still around to serve the notice period. During this time, the projects he is working on may be delayed because of his disinterest and lack of commitment.

Client or market related loss: The organisation may suffer negative publicity if the turnover rate is high. Also the concerned employee may not be bothered about maintaining good relations with the clients or may even motivate the client to shift to the organisation that he aspires to join.Therefore, the cost of bad recruitment is very high and organisations need to strengthen their recruitment and selection processes to ensure they are recruiting the right kind of people to minimise this cost.

(The author is a learning and development professional and the chief synergist at Kiai Peoplez Solutions at New Delhi. She can be reached at kalpanaarora@hotmail.com)