The economic impact of Covid-19 means that businesses are exploring new efficiencies and ways of reducing their cost base.
While some sectors have frozen recruitment activities all together, some businesses in busier industries are growing and desperately need to hire new staff. Additionally, others need to replace key employees who have moved on after re-assessing their career options during lockdown.
However, whatever situation your company finds itself in, it’s important to be cautious with budgets moving forwards.
Luckily, there’s a number of actions you can take to reduce your recruitment costs. But before you do anything else, you should take stock and look at your data.
Pay close attention to your metrics. What’s your current recruitment spend, what’s your average cost per hire and which sources are delivering you with your best candidates?
From here, you can start to identify the best actions to take to reduce your spend. We recommend starting with the following:
1. Limit your use of recruitment agencies
One of the biggest drains on budget are recruitment agency fees, particularly if you use agencies regularly. The more you can recruit directly, the better. And with the candidate market (sadly) getting busier, now is a good time to begin the transition to direct sourcing.
However, if you’re concerned about lacking the internal resources to manage recruitment yourself, it’s worth partnering with a fixed-fee recruitment provider who can offer a similar style service to an agency for a much lower cost.
(You can also download our eBook, The In-House Direct Sourcing Guide, to find out more about the steps to take to bring recruitment in-house)
2. Re-assess your advertising suppliers
You should be reviewing your advertising suppliers on a regular basis anyway but if you’re not, now is the ideal time to audit the job boards you’re currently working with.
Review how much you’ve spent on advertising over the past 12-18 months and note which platforms have delivered you with the best quality and highest numbers of candidates. If there are any advertising platforms that are regularly not delivering the desired quality or quantity of candidates, it could be time to remove them from your mix.
Once you’ve narrowed your list down to the most effective sources, try and negotiate the best rates. Buying multiple advertising credits at once can be more cost-effective, however try to opt for suppliers where advertising credits have a longer shelf-life rather than expiring in a couple of months. After all, requirements can change very quickly.
Additionally, take full advantage of free platforms. If your company has a strong social media following, use those channels to share your vacancies regularly; it’s completely free and means your followers are more likely to share your opportunities, which will give you greater exposure.
3. Implement or promote your referrals scheme
If you already have an established employee referrals scheme in your business, now is the time to give it some extra internal promotion. Referrals tend to be a consistent source of high quality hires and referred candidates typically cost much less to recruit than a candidate hired via traditional methods.
Additionally, with more jobseekers on the market, there’s a stronger chance that your employees will be able to recommend someone for a new opportunity within your business.
If you’re yet to set up a referrals scheme but want to learn more, check out our blog post, How an Employee Referral Scheme Works – and Why it’s Worth it
4. Evaluate your technology options
How is your recruitment technology currently performing for you? How much does it cost you?
If your ATS contract is up for renewal within the next few months, it’s a good time to start exploring other options. For example, if your licence costs are high because you’re charged by the number of users, could you switch to a more cost-effective system that accommodates unlimited users?
It’s also worth considering suppliers who can offer additional benefits, such as discounted advertising. There are a lot of vendors out there so gather all the information you can before deciding on a supplier that works for you.
Looking to reduce your recruitment costs? Request a quote from Webrecruit and find out how our recruitment advertising and technology solutions can help to lower your spend.
