The Hidden Cost of DIY Hiring for Small Businesses
For many small business owners, hiring feels like something you should be able to handle yourself.
After all, why pay for help when you can just read the CVs, shortlist a few people, and organise interviews?
On the surface, DIY hiring looks free.
In reality, it’s one of the most expensive ways to hire.
Not because of money leaving your bank account—but because of the time, focus, and opportunity it quietly drains from your business.
At Mornington Screening Service, we see this pattern constantly. Business owners underestimate the true cost of screening CVs themselves, because the impact doesn’t show up as a line item.
It shows up everywhere else.
Time is the real cost of hiring
Screening applications rarely happens in a neat block of time. It gets squeezed in around client work, admin, and everything else that keeps a business running.
A few CVs over coffee.
Another batch late at night.
A quick skim between meetings.
Individually, those moments don’t feel significant. Collectively, they add up to hours—sometimes days—of fragmented attention.
And time spent screening CVs is time not spent:
Serving clients
Growing revenue
Managing your team
Or simply switching off and recovering
That’s the first hidden cost.
Decision fatigue leads to weaker shortlists
CV screening isn’t just about ticking boxes. It requires consistency, focus, and judgement.
When business owners review applications in short bursts, fatigue creeps in fast. That’s when problems start:
Strong candidates get overlooked
Average candidates slip through
Shortlists become inconsistent
Interviews stretch out longer than necessary
Hiring decisions become harder, not easier.
The irony is that by trying to “save money” doing everything yourself, you often end up extending the hiring process—and increasing the risk of a poor hire.
Opportunity cost: what’s not getting done?
Every hour spent screening CVs comes at the expense of something else.
For small business owners, that something is usually higher-value work. The kind of work that only you can do.
Strategy
Client relationships
Business development
Leadership
CV screening doesn’t require your expertise—it requires time and structure. When owners do it themselves, the business absorbs the cost quietly, week after week.
Why screening is the easiest part to outsource
Hiring decisions should stay with you. Culture fit matters. Team dynamics matter. Reference checks matter.
But CV screening? That’s the grunt work.
Outsourcing the screening stage doesn’t mean handing over control. It means removing the most time-consuming, lowest-value part of the process so you can focus on what actually matters.
That’s exactly how MSS works.
We screen applications against your criteria and provide a shortlist of suitable candidates—nothing more, nothing less. No replacement guarantees. No reference checks. No recruitment fluff.
Fixed fee, clear outcome
One of the biggest frustrations with traditional recruitment is uncertainty—percentage fees, open-ended costs, and services you don’t actually need.
MSS operates on a fixed, low-fee model designed specifically for small businesses. You know the cost upfront, and you know exactly what you’re getting: a qualified shortlist that saves you time.
Our CV Screening Services page outlines what’s included.
👉 Services / CV Screening
DIY isn’t always cheaper
DIY hiring feels cost-effective because it doesn’t come with an invoice. But when you factor in time, fatigue, and lost opportunity, it’s often the most expensive option of all.
Outsourcing CV screening won’t hire someone for you—but it will give you back hours each week and make hiring feel manageable again.
If you’re ready to stop spending nights and weekends reviewing applications, get in touch with us.