How to Reduce the Cost of your Recruitment
Caroline Hunt
★Director at Emerald Starfish ★ Outsourced Recruitment Solutions ★ Charging for time rather than a placement fee ★ Outplacement Programmes ★07584 483570
Recruitment costs are made up of two areas.
1.????? The cost to do the actual recruitment
This includes things like what you may spend on advertising, recruitment agency fees, room hire for interviews if needed etc.? Physical costs, which you can track over a period of time.
2.????? The costs to the business itself
These are more difficult to put a figure on but include things such as loss of productivity for a department, management time away from the day job to conduct recruitment processes (CV sifting, interviewing etc), damage to your reputation with effects on service levels.
?Even if you choose to track the first of these points over a year would you be surprised as to what you spend?? Would you be interested in reducing these expenses?
?Here are 5 ideas to quickly reduce your recruitment costs over the remainder of the year
1.????? Look at what you are spending with recruitment agencies
Typically, you are likely to be spending between 15 – 25% of salary on recruitment fees with an agency if you use them.? Whilst it is worth looking at these costs don’t try and just negotiate lower fees with an agency.? Whilst it might seem smart to try and reduce these fees this means that you won’t get to see the best candidates first.? They will go to the companies prepared to pay higher fees.? Instead work with your agencies offering them exclusivity on roles for a while at lower rates.? If you are regularly using a temp to perm model – how can you work to reduce these costs?
2.????? Reduce your time to hire.
Do you know what your average times to hire are? Is this different in different parts of your organisation.? By reducing time to hire will affect things like your productivity.? You are also more likely to keep your recruitment on track, starting with the end in mind.
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3.????? Search CV databases
All the job boards also have a CV database of candidates.? These are candidates who are actively looking for their next roles, so easier to approach than headhunted candidates as they have already made the decision to look for their next role.? Most boards will offer a monthly license, or a free trial.? It’s a great place to start and can cost less than advertising.
4.????? Reduce your interview time
Remember you want to be spending most of your recruitment time talking to the candidates that you are most interested in, not the ones that will be ultimately rejected.? Review your interview stages – how many do you currently have?? What can you condense or how can you change the format, so it is less time intensive for you without losing the rigor in your process.? What parts of the process can you automate to maintain a great candidate experience whilst not increasing your time input.
5.????? Employee referral scheme
Run well these can be a lot more successful than they usually are.? You need continual promotion and an incentive for people to not only refer friends in but to ensure that they are committed and stay.? We usually offer a financial incentive when the referred person starts and another at the end of the probationary period.? This gives the referrer buy in to the process too.? It should be a meaningful amount for the individual, but less than your standard recruitment costs and you will save money.
?Action points for you:
Considering this information as a business owner/hiring manager when you are next recruiting you may want to:
If you want help to reduce the time that you spend on recruitment as well as optimise your hiring processes and attract the best candidates book a free strategy session with me, Caroline Hunt at Emerald Starfish HERE.
Management Academic | PhD, M.Sc., MBA, PgD, PgC & LLB | Professional Fellowship Certificate in Higher Education
7 个月This is a great article and lays down some very practical management tips. However, I would share some potential pit fall, for SMEs that would put "too much focus on decreasing recruitment cost" instead of focusing on "recruitment of key players for future". If you are a future directed SME and would like a establish your foot print in your respective industry than you must have to have a right focus during the hiring process. Like Steve Jobs said his main focus was on hiring the A-category employees. He believed that A-Category employees love to work with similar nature employees and hence they will hire more A-category colleagues... Its is basically contagious and will have a ripple effect. Secondly, these suggestions are more relevant to practitioners who carry significant hiring/recruitment experience. These may prove negative for someone who are just learning and development. Thirdly, it may be subject to the nature of the industry. It is established fact that different nature of industry offer different kinds of opportunities for skilled and relevant staff availability. Lastly, we need to give a special care to the organizational culture and cultural diversity.