You can easily cut recruitment costs.
Cut recruitment costs in 2017
While recruitment is an essential part of every company’s day-to-day operations, fuelling the firm with the right talent to take it forward, many organisations spend far to much on the exercise in general. Companies that have cut recruitment costs in the past usually find that with a few small tweaks, a large difference can be made in this expenditure.
How to recruit for less
Depending on the size of the company and the extent of their recruitment needs, savings of up to 60% can be achieved by changing the company’s processes and strategy around finding the best skills. Recruitment costs can be slashed drastically by using resources such as an ATS (applicant tracking system) software application.
Regretting of applicants is also easier with an ATS, meaning more time to spend with candidates that you are really interested in. Keeping your own database for future recruitment decreases the overall spend, as some positions as placed without ever having to advertise or use a recruitment firm.
But most of all, recruiting for less means looking at which positions you have to (or expect to) fill and how you plan to find the right people for the job. Some roles may require the skills of a headhunter, while others may only need a free online classifieds advertisement to attract the right person.
Advertising the position can be done for way less
One of the main contributors in a recruitment budget is the advertising of positions, so to cut recruitment costs, one could start here. Most advertising is done online nowadays, however even for offline advertising, there are always clever ways to avoid forking out large sums of money to get noticed. If you are hiring programmers for example, instead of focusing on job boards, perhaps look into websites frequented by developers or sponsoring developer meetups in the city (amazingly, these meetups are super cheap to sponsor with maximum results).
Often no need for recruitment agencies
The other large cost is usually recruitment agency fees. While I do see recruitment companies as worthwhile for certain positions, for others they are not – the company can easily find the skills themselves. When you think about it, instead of paying a 15% fee on annual compensation, could you have found the same candidates for less? The answer is often yes, and as a company or HR professional, you should be asking recruiters for this information for every position: “Explain how you find these candidates currently and what you do to find skills that we cannot.” If the recruiter uses all the same methods you do, perhaps you should do the work yourself for less and cut recruitment costs simultaneously.
One can also enquire with recruitment firms if they are open to other forms of recruitment fee structure. For example, shortlisting could be possible as a service, reducing your fee while moving some of the process onto your company’s shoulders. This part is mostly what you can handle anyway, while the recruiter doesn’t sit with all the risk of a placement being made.
Whatever the operations and needs of your company, if you are hiring staff, you can cut the costs associated with finding and hiring the talent you require. Taking on some of the work yourself often reduces fees drastically, while the use of technology can not only lower expenses, but greatly improve the efficiency of your recruitment operations.
