Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol. 47 No. 3 - 86

To understand the investment necessary to facilitate
RA hiring processes, we created a " baseline "
departmental recruitment process based on commonly
employed structures, components, and formats to
serve as a miniature case study.
	
Interest sessions required a total of 32
hours of paraprofessional time [4 RA/session x 8 sessions x 1 session hour] and $440
in wages [32 hours x $13.74 RA salary/hour];
structured interviews required a total of 62.5
hours of paraprofessional time [1 RA/interview x 1 interview/candidate x 0.5 interview
hour x 125 candidates] and $859 in wages
[62.5 hours x $13.74 RA salary/hour]; group
process required 94.5 hours of paraprofessional time [3 RAs/station x 3 stations/group
x 0.5 station hours x 21 groups] and $1,298
in wages [94.5 hours x $13.74 salary/hour].
In total, the baseline process required 189
hours of paraprofessional time which converted to $2,596 in wages. Facilitating the
baseline process collectively required 299
hours of staff time and $4,500 in staff wages.
	
Put another way, with 125 candidates,
facilitating the baseline process costs 2.39
hours of staff time and $36 of staff wages
per candidate. The highest proportion of
monetized human capital in the baseline
process is invested in structured interviews
(43.12%, or $1,940); closely followed by
group process (40.96%, or $1,843); and finally, interest sessions (15.92%, or $717).

Group Sizes
While the baseline process had six candidates per group, we first considered what
value, if any, existed in increasing the size
of the groups in group process. Increasing
group sizes from six to eight candidates reduced the number of groups required from
21 to 16. The resulting effect was a total savings of 30 personnel hours (or $439 in wag-

es), broken down between entry-level staff
and RAs to 7.5 hours ($130) and 22.5 hours
($309), respectively. Adding in a fourth RA
evaluator to ensure equal assessment of all
the candidates, because two candidates per
RA was the baseline, increased the paraprofessional staff cost by 1.5 hours (or $21), but
the increase was still offset by the previously determined reduction in entry-level staff
yielding a total savings of 6 hours and $109.

Number of Group Process Stations
Altering the number of group process activities in which candidates participate changed
the entry-level and RA time by 10.5 hours and
31.5 hours per station. This change accounts
for ±$182 and ±$433 in collective staff wages
per added or removed station. Put another
way, adding a third station increases the total
hiring process cost of necessary personnel
wages by 13.7% ($4,500 to $5,115).

Eliminating Group Process
Analysis of the baseline process revealed
group process represented the second highest proportion of monetized human capital.
Eliminating group process substantially
lowers the time required to facilitate the
recruitment process. The total hours of entry-level and RA time decreased by 42.1%
(299 hours to 173 hours) which converts to
$1,843 in total wages.

Structured Interview Staffing Configuration
Interviewing 125 candidates for 30 minutes
each requires 62.5 hours of entry-level time
and 62.5 hours of RA time. Removing RAs
from the interviews saves 62.5 RA hours and

Volume 47, No. 3 * 2021

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Journal of College & University Student Housing Vol. 47 No. 3

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