How to Offer More When Your HR Budget is Maxed Out

Attracting and retaining quality employees is an ever-present pain point for HR departments. Another is staying on budget while keeping employees on board. In one survey, only 21% of hiring professionals reported staying on budget. It’s important to manage budgets effectively, but this can be difficult when you have employees to satisfy and business goals to meet. Making the most of what’s available to you is important and making the most of your budget is essential for avoiding overspending.

Optimize your social media recruiting

Free social media recruiting can be extremely fruitful if you target your job ads well. Social media is extremely popular with job hunters. Many companies simply post a tweet linking to their recruitment page or a specific job landing page, bringing in many qualified and experienced candidates. Your social media followers are likely already interested in your company, which means potential candidates have a higher chance of being enthusiastic about your brand and fitting in.

Payactiv job boards

As the recruitment challenges continue post-Covid, technology companies are coming up with innovative ways to help employers find talent. Payactiv has found that many of the companies that they partner with could use a little help right now when it comes to hiring. Payactiv’s customers can now post their job openings right in the Payactiv app. It’s the perfect solution offered to thousands of workers who no longer work for an employer that offers Payactiv to come and look for another job in their area. It’s really a win-win, both for the workers and for the companies struggling to hire.

Listen to your people

Most companies offer some kind of employee referral program, but how effective is yours? Do you pay attention to the potential candidates your existing team suggests? An incentivized referral program may result in better-qualified candidates being presented, which can be a good investment from the HR budget.

Encourage your employees to see themselves as brand ambassadors. If you can’t offer a financial incentive for qualified referrals, consider alternative perks such as extra-long lunch hours or early finishes every Friday for a month. If you have any successful hires because of employee referrals, make them known – include them in the company newsletter and ensure they’re singled out for praise. This may encourage others to do the same and minimize your spend on advertising upcoming roles.

As well as referrals, you may find potential for more senior roles within your organization. If you have employees with promise, giving them a trial and training to step up to the next level is often much more cost-effective than external recruitment. Internal recruitment is also morale-boosting, and many employees are much more content working with supervisors who they’ve known at their level compared to someone being brought in from outside. Of course, this isn’t always possible but if you’re worried about budget overspending, look at your internal talent pool before immediately placing advertisements.

Cut back in-person interviewing

Cutbacks are never nice to think about, but since the impact of Coronavirus has got us all used to Zoom and other video-based working technologies, why not embrace the trend and use it for future recruitment? In-person interviews may only be necessary for the final stage of the recruitment process, so you can minimize the need to bring unnecessary people into the office and the costs this can incur. Take the time to assess your current interview processes. You may find you can cut several in-person stages out and streamline the interview process using video tools.

Focus on retention

If you recognize your company has a problem with retaining top talent, this is where you need to focus your efforts. The right technology and communication work together to make employees more likely to stay in a role. Retention rates are famously low in deskless and shift-based roles, and we know this is due to employees feeling disconnected from the company.

The right tools can help employees access what they need from their employer to work in a way that suits their lifestyle. Payactiv Connect has been designed to help your deskless employees manage their workload and lives in a way that ensures they work together seamlessly. It connects employees to your wider network instantly via their smartphones, and can also be used to offer incentives through bonuses and awards.

Many people opt to work in shift-based roles due to their flexibility, but the reality becomes very different as employers rush to fill shifts and cover absenteeism. With Payactiv Connect shifts, it’s easy to coordinate schedules. It also offers transparency as all employees can see open shifts and request to cover them if it suits them. However, retaining and engaging employees you may only see once a week is a challenge if you don’t commit to offering them effective communication and listening to their needs.

Earned Wage Access

When the HR budget reaches its absolute maximum, there is very little you can offer employees who may need financial support or are in a difficult situation. Shift workers across America regularly stretch to make it between paydays, resulting in stress and unnecessary pressure. Payactiv pioneered Earned Wage Access to stop this and give employees the breathing space they need without any pressure on their employer.  

Employees can immediately access money for hours already worked, transfer it to their bank, load it on a debit or prepaidcard, or pick up the cash from a local Walmart. The money comes from Payactiv, so the payroll and employer are not impacted; it simply gets paid back when the employees’ paycheck is actually due. Many employees can plan and manage their lives better with this additional support, and they may even be more likely to pick up extra shifts if the cash is more readily available. As a result, you may find shifts easier to fill, and staffing issues become much less of a problem.

Forecasting future HR budgets

No one wants to admit they’ve maxed out their budget, but it does happen. You may have had a few employees leave or have issues with sickness. These kinds of problems can occur at any time, and even with the best planning, it is not always possible to get the budget 100% correct. Making use of the resources available to you and maximizing your current workforce’s potential is central to getting through those tricky months where budgets are tight.