Record of a Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise That Reduced Hiring Costs by 90% - "Transformation Story Collection Vol. 02" Released

Sketch Inc. (Location: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Yuichi Sakane) has released the second installment of its owned media series "Transformation Story Collection," which delivers real-life examples of hiring and organizational transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises. The new installment, titled "The More We Spent on Hiring, the Less We Seemed to Hire: The Stories of Three SMEs That Reduced Costs by 90%," was published on July 1, 2026.

About the Record We Deliver This Time

The second installment features the transformation processes of three companies that significantly reduced their hiring costs.

We introduce a social welfare corporation in Kyushu, a recycling company for industrial waste, and a logistics company in Hokuriku.

Although their industries and scales differ, the three companies shared a common starting point.

"We had no choice but to spend money on hiring activities."

That's what they thought.

Of course, they didn't intentionally think that way.

Reasons varied, such as "It was the only method we knew" or "We thought it was the norm."

However, what they had in common was approaching hiring activities with the premise that "hiring activities = spending on advertising costs and referral fees."

Episode 1 | Healthcare and Welfare Industry x Kyushu (Approx. 300 employees)

The corporation was unable to escape its high-cost structure while remaining heavily dependent on recruitment agencies. Despite hiring, employees quit soon after, leading to burnout in the workplace. This cycle was broken when the organization redesigned its hiring activities from scratch, achieving a 95% reduction in hiring costs per hire.

Episode 2 | Industrial Waste Industry x Kyushu (Approx. 200 employees)

They continued to invest 6 million yen annually in a medium that was losing its effectiveness. They were stuck in a state of comfort derived from "having done it this way for many years." By re-examining their hiring activities from zero, they reduced hiring costs from 6 million yen annually to 1.8 million yen (a 70% reduction), while increasing hires by 128%.

Episode 3 | Logistics Industry x Hokuriku (Approx. 70 employees)

They used recruitment agencies for hiring young employees, with costs sometimes exceeding 1 million yen per hire. By identifying their company's strengths and revising their hiring methods, they reduced hiring costs to about one-tenth and increased applications by 4.6 times.

What the three companies had in common was that they correctly grasped their current situation and were able to communicate their company's appeal in their own words. Furthermore, they broke away from their dependence on media and recruitment agencies and shifted to hiring activities that accumulated in-house hiring expertise.

In all cases, they didn't "cut" hiring costs, but rather "changed" the awareness and structure of their hiring activities.

Recommended for:

Those who spend money on hiring every year, yet see gradually declining results.

Those who experience a temporary increase in applications each time they change media, only to face the same problem the following year.

Those who have no hiring expertise remaining within the company, and start from scratch with hiring concerns every time they recruit.

We hope that the records of these three companies will serve as the "first step" in transforming your hiring activities.

Transformation Story Collection Vol. 02

Title: "The More We Spent on Hiring, the Less We Seemed to Hire."

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About Sketch Inc.

【It's Time for Change. For People and Organizations.】 As a consulting firm centered on human resource recruitment consulting, we support the transformation of "people and organizations" through organizational development, system design, human resource development, training, AI utilization, branding, and new business support. No matter how excellent a product or vision, it is "people" who realize it. That is why we are seriously committed to "making companies stronger through the power of human resources."

https://sketch-consulting.co.jp/