# How much does it cost to hire a new employee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hire-a-new-employee/783096 "2017-03-26T21:06:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hire-a-new-employee/783096/21 "2017-03-29T19:03:36Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > What kind of hiring process do they go through? The steps below all cost something. > > - advertising > - reading applicants materials > - phone interviews > - in-person interviews > - reference checking > - negotiation and hiring > - orientation and HR paperwork > - on-the-job training - advertising: $0. Craigslist, an ad in our newsletter, emailing some job postings to local universities and non-profit job placement agencies, word of mouth. We aren’t hiring the pope, so we’ll find a worthwhile candidate. - reading applicants materials: $0. Nobody charges us to read their materials. Volunteer officers will do the first pass. - phone interviews $0. Cell phones have unlimited minutes. - in-person interviews $0. This is unbudgeted overhead. Yes, our executive director will have to do a few interviews. It’s part of her duties and she’s on a salary. - reference checking $0. Same as above. - negotiation and hiring: $0. We wouldn’t hire a candidate who charges us to negotiate. - orientation and HR paperwork: The payroll processor does the worst of this and we pay a few bucks for that. $30? - on-the-job training. Minimal. We’ll hire someone with the basic skills to do the job. Given that this discussion started talking about solicitors for a charity who generally quit or get fired in a few weeks, you can bet that they don’t offer intensive on-the-job training. I forgot to list the background check fee: $7-13. We buy hundreds every year because we screen all our volunteers too. We’re satisfied with the quality of our services. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hire-a-new-employee/783096/22 "2017-03-29T20:56:12Z")
> [@Grither](#): > > I think this probably varies a lot between industries and even jobs within industries: It’s been my experience that it is very common in both IT and medical fields to expend a lot of time and effort on the pre-employment side of recruitment: one phone interview, a couple of rounds of in-person interviews, and fairly extensive background checking (generally including criminal history, credit check, reference checks, and drug testing) is pretty typical. > > On the other hand, for something like Customer Service or Retail, it seems like one interview, nominally running a background check (maaaaybe with criminal history and drug testing), and getting you on the floor as quickly as possible is much more common. Heath aides have to a background check where I worked but this wasn’t done when I was first hired . It was a few years later when clients were having money and meds stolen , I have a clean record and wasn’t worried about having this done. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hire-a-new-employee/783096/23 "2017-03-29T21:10:08Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > - phone interviews $0. Cell phones have unlimited minutes. > > - in-person interviews $0. This is unbudgeted overhead. Yes, our executive director will have to do a few interviews. It’s part of her duties and she’s on a salary. > > - reference checking $0. Same as above. > > - negotiation and hiring: $0. We wouldn’t hire a candidate who charges us to negotiate. These are only $0 if you don’t count time. Every minute spent on this is time someone could spend on something else, so it’s not $0. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hire-a-new-employee/783096/24 "2017-03-29T21:14:32Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Wow. (repeat about 10 times) > > What planet are you from? > > I’ve worked for national, well-known, reasonably well-respected chains. I’ve interviewed for several others. I have interviewed for local companies that are very well respected. I have **NEVER** had both a phone interview and an in-person interview. It’s always one or the other. > > I would also like to know what companies you think actually go to the time and trouble of actually checking references. I’ve gotten hired at more than one job without even giving references. Does “phone screen” sound better? Yes, our manager calls candidates as a screening before bringing people in. We don’t get a lot of applicants and have to talk to people whose backgrounds aren’t exactly what we’re looking for, so the screen is to see if we’re even close as far as expectations of the job, if there are any dealbreakers, etc. Then we would spend the time to bring someone in, since they would be meeting with our team and a number of other administrators. And yes, references are checked for the final candidates. Why wouldn’t you? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-does-it-cost-to-hire-a-new-employee/783096.md?page=1)