Money Saving Tips on Recruitment
June 15, 2009 – 12:15 pm
The economic recession is affecting companies worldwide. While there are some that are shutting down completely, others are facing the crunch and are implementing cost cutting and money saving strategies across the board.
One of the prudent cost cutting areas for an average business is the recruitment process. Now, you may ask that why should one hire during recession? On the contrary, recession is the best time to hire. It’s like shopping when there is a sale! You would get the best talent at the best prices. A lot of companies are hiring even at this ‘recession’ phase and are using ‘economic recession’ as an opportunity for acquiring better talent. After all, business is all about working smart and making the most of all situations.
How does a recruitment process usually work? Most medium and small corporates tie up with recruitment agencies which short list suitable candidates. The corporate pays fees and commission to these recruitment agencies and this sum can be huge and unnecessary.
You can save a considerable amount of money on your recruitment process by following these money saving tips
- Avoid as many intermediaries as possible. Let your HR team do the sourcing of candidates themselves rather than paying the outsourcing agency. After all, the recruitment agency is going through the job search sites which your HR team can also do.
- Use alternative and innovative methods for recruitment. These may include employee referral program, blogging, networking sites, effective advertising and others. According to the survey conducted by AIM group, employee referral is the most effective way of sourcing candidates, followed by job search sites.
- It is important to select the right job search site for maximum effectiveness. Apart from targeting the most popular sites, also consider local and niche online job search portals.
- Choose a site which lets you post jobs for free.
- Look out for sites that offer innovative tools such as one time coding for bulk job postings, so that you don’t have to post each one manually every time.
- Choose a site that offers effective costing such as pay per click, where you pay only for the number of times a candidate has clicked on your job posting.
- Business networking sites are ranked number 3 for effective recruitment with least spending. Be active in professional and business networking sites and use them smartly for sourcing candidates. According to the survey, the recruitment through business and professional networking sites has gone up by nearly 55% in 2008.
- Use your advertisements for recruiting. A lot of companies are now merging their advertising campaigns and recruitment requirements and are thus saving effectively.
- Based on your requirement and your business model, choose a combination of the above alternatives for best results.
- Track the results. See which channel is giving you the best outcome and strategize accordingly.
Building an effective recruitment strategy may take a while. But once you have evaluated the various options and have created a strategy, you can save millions on your recruitment process.