It’s 2023, and let’s be honest, recruitment is a tough gig at present! The impacts of the pandemic, rising living costs, labour and skills shortages are all creating the perfect storm where the “Battle for Talent” is fiercer than ever. Whether you have seen an increase or reduction in your recruitment budget, it goes without saying that every penny or cent counts when maximising return-on-investment and filling your vacancies.
So, how can you utilise your recruitment budget to get the best results? Read on to find out more!
Where To Spend Your Budget
Looking at your hiring plan for the year ahead (which we all know can be subject to change last minute…), take a step back and look at the hiring needs ahead of you and work out which roles could be easier to fill, and which could be more difficult.
For example, you may know from experience that some roles may be easier to fill, or you may have a talent pool of candidates ready and raring to go for when a role is next available; with this in mind, is it best to invest heavily in roles you are likely to fill with minimal effort? The answer is likely to be no.
By saving some of your budget on easier to fill roles, this leaves you with extra spend for more difficult roles to fill, such as senior appointments, vocationally specific profiles, etc. Extra spend gives you the opportunity to cast your net wider than perhaps you would as standard, utilising additional job boards, social media platforms, or even more traditional recruitment agency services to give you the boost you need.
Your Time v Your Budget
Whilst not expressly part of your recruitment budget, don’t forget that yours and any hiring manager’s time is an important consideration. If you are inundated with tedious administration tasks that could be completed by other means, or your hiring managers are constantly interviewing candidates who are not of the right calibre, you could be wasting operational time and spend.
So, it’s important to take a step back and think about ways you could improve the efficiencies of your recruitment advertising and subsequent processes; could you outsource your recruitment advertising? Do you need to overhaul your inhouse recruitment processes to improve efficiency? Do you need to reconsider the recruitment software you are using? There are many more questions besides, but it is good to look at how you hire in a holistic manner.
Manage Your Budget
Managing and tracking your spend versus your budget will make you very popular with finance, but is there a more efficient way than using an Excel spreadsheet? The answer is yes!
When looking at which recruitment software to support your hiring efforts, it makes sense to select one which helps you manage your budgets by tracking spend against each vacancy, which in turn helps you calculate your return-on-investment (ROI), cost-per-candidate (CPC) and cost-per-hire (CPH). Knowing the efficacy of your recruitment advertising efforts at the click of a button will help keep your knowledge or what is and isn’t working up to date, helping you make the best decisions to fill your vacancies.
To Outsource, Or Not To Outsource
It can be tough deciding to outsource all or parts of your recruitment processes as the natural urge is to keep as much inhouse as possible. You may feel that outsourcing means you could lose control or oversight of your processes, whilst still knowing you are fundamentally accountable for the success of recruitment for your business.
So, when selecting a supplier, don’t let cost be the only deciding factor. Look at a potential supplier’s track record, portfolio of work and case studies. Ask how they will communicate with you and keep you abreast of developments, decisions and direction. Understand how their services, products and processes will secure the best results for you and your business. There is so much more to it than cost, and sometimes paying a bit more can pay dividends when it comes to getting a quality service with your roles filled.
