Making solid recruitment decisions is more important for today’s companies than it has ever been before, particularly when searching for specialist skills like bilingualism. When pulling out all the stops to attract and secure the best talent, you either need to have solid recruitment strategies in place or work with an agency that knows your sector inside-out.

A recent report by Oxford Economics found the average cost of hiring a new member of staff was £30,614 per employee. That cost was made up of two main factors:

• The cost of lost output while the new worker gets up to speed;
• The logistical cost of recruiting and absorbing a new worker.

The truth is there’s not much you can do to reduce the cost associated with the loss of productivity while the new worker gets up to speed. The report reveals that new workers can take up to 28 weeks to reach their optimum level of productivity, so it’s essential to have comprehensive onboarding and training schemes in place.

What you can do something about is the cost of recruiting and absorbing a new worker. Depending on the approach you choose, the costs associated with recruiting a bilingual employee in the first instance can range from £1,000 to £10,000. Here’s how we help to keep those costs down…

1. Qualifying applicants

When you advertise a role in-house, you are likely to be inundated with CVs from many applicants who do not have the skills and experience you need. At Linguistica Recruitment, every CV we receive has been carefully qualified by our experts to make sure the applicant meets your precise requirements. Importantly, that includes their language skills. Instead of receiving potentially hundreds of CVs it could take you days to sift through, we will send you a small number of CVs from individuals with the skills and experience to do the job. That can significantly reduce your cost per hire.

2. Telephone screening

We speak to every one of our candidates on the phone before putting them forward for any role. Not only do we discuss their suitability for the role and their experience to date, but we also arrange for a written and spoken language test to be taken and we run a reference check. Only when the relevant checks have been completed satisfactorily and we are sure a candidate has the necessary professional experience and personal characteristics to fulfil the role will we pass their details on to you. This drastically reduces the risk of a bad hire and removes the costly process of calling and screening numerous candidates.

3. Language testing

As specialists in the world of bilingual recruitment, we discuss your position with you and take the time to understand exactly what level of linguistic skills you need to fill the role. For some positions, written or spoken fluency is an absolute must, while for others, an ability to understand a second language is sufficient. We test the written and spoken language skills of every suitable candidate. Only when they have proven their ability meets your minimum linguistic requirements, and that they have the personal and professional skills you need, do we put them through to the next stage of the process.

Testing all of our candidates significantly reduces the time and cost of your hire, but also ensures that the candidates’ results are assessed by linguistic experts who understand the relationship between their test results and the type of skills you need.

How can we help?

Are you looking for a bilingual recruitment specialist who can reduce your cost-per-hire? To discuss your position, please call 02392 987 765 or email info@linguistica-recruitment.com today.