Recruitment costs within an organisation can be expensive.

Over and above the essential outcome that a really good person is employed, it is important for managers and business owners to have a clear understanding of what they are paying for and whether they are receiving value for money. To understand what is the best and most effective recruitment approach is an important question for every business to answer before they start on the recruitment journey.

There are a number of different recruitment approaches.

1. The traditional approach is where the business develops the job description and person profile, writes its own advertisements, places the ads, screens the applications and applicants, interviews, short lists and then reference checks the preferred candidate. This approach relies completely on in-house expertise in the recruitment field and works best where you have an internal HR resource.
2. The recruitment agency approach which more or less hands the front-end of the complete assignment over to the recruitment agency and relies on them to find the “right person”, to reference check and “guarantee” the selected candidate. The view taken here is that recruitment is extremely time consuming, the recruitment agencies are the experts and the tedious screening work is contracted out. Some recruitment agencies potentially have a data base of suitable candidates ready for interview which can help to speed up the process. This can be a good option for saving time, but is usually the most expensive.
3. The head hunting approach which is where an agency is contracted to go out, find and target a specific individual for a role. This is mostly used to fill more senior roles and can be effective where you have a very specific need.
4. The 50/50 shared recruitment approach consists of a combination of some of the work being done by the organisation itself and some by an HR/Recruitment specialist who is available to assist with both some of the time consuming work and work requiring specific recruitment expertise. This approach can flex in and out and can be adjusted to suit your budget.
5. Then there is word of mouth, friends, networking and social media which are more opportunistic than planned, and sit over and above a planned approach. They can be effectively used to recruit good employees and should be used in addition to other approaches.

Across all of these approaches are different pricing models ranging from in-house cost absorption to percentage of annual remuneration fees to fixed price options to hourly rates.

Which approach is the best and most cost effective option for your organisation?

This depends to a great extent on the size of the organisation, the expertise and time they have at their disposal as well as the budget they have. The non-negotiable in all of this is that the best person who is an excellent candidate and who fits the organisation’s requirements and culture is the one who actually is employed. Of course, what managers and business owners are looking for is the employment of the ideal candidate for least cost.

Are the two mutually exclusive?

Not necessarily.

It depends, to a great extent, on the quality of the person employed. If they prove to be an asset then the cost is usually justified. If they prove to be less than that then the cost rears its head and is well remembered. Based on this it could then be argued that cost is not a factor, but of course we know that cost always is.

So, what is the best approach for you?

Realistically, if you are attracting and employing good candidates into your business, then you are likely to continue with the approach that you currently take. However if you have some budgetary pressure or feel that costs are too high, time available to you has changed, the resourcing available is different, or you have had some recruitment disappointments, then you may wish to consider a change of approach. Consideration of all the options makes good business sense.

Each approach has its merits so it is worth thinking carefully about what might work best for you and also be the most cost effective.

Positive People have over 21 years of experience working with businesses in a flexible way to best serve their HR and recruitment needs, and would be pleased to help and discuss your needs and recruitment strategy. Give us a call the next time you have a recruitment need.