Recruiting new staff is an expensive outlay for any business, and the costs of actually advertising for the roles is just a small part, so it is crucial that a business does this in the most effectual way possible.

Of course one of the main reasons for recruiting, apart from expansion, is that a member of your staff has decided to leave. obviously one of the best ways to avoid recruitment costs altogether is to keep staff turnover down to a minimum. Salary is not the best way to achieve this, despite popular beliefs, it is much better to invest in a robust and effective continuous professional development plan for staff, allow progression wherever possible and make sure that workers feel estimed. Team building events and investing in staff development will really make a difference here in a way that pay increases rarely do. Another way to keep hold of staff is to be flexible in your demands. Allowing part time working, flexi time and unpaid leave can all help to hold on to a important staff member who is struggling with other commitments. It may also be possible to let some staff Work From Home depending on their role and this is becoming easier with the enhancement of technology.

Of course you will never be able to eliminate the need for recruitment altogether, especially if your business is expanding and developing in new areas. So keeping the costs of that recruitment down is important. Plan your recruitment strategy well, make sure that all areas of the business are contacted to establish the whole company’s recruitment requests and address them all in one go. Having one drive is far more cost effective than many smaller campaigns. You will get a better price from a recruitment consultant if they are assisting you on one large campaign and choose one who has a strong Internet Business as they are likely to be more cost effective than a smaller, high street business.

There is also the option to promote your vacancies yourself. You can do this on the internet on one of the many Online Jobs sites and you can of course select the more conventional approach of a newspaper advert. Often a direct campaign online works very well if it is viewed by people looking for jobs as they are pleased to see the actual employer visible. So many jobs these days are placed on recruitment consultants sites and the job seeker has trouble evaluating the role without spending a lot of time with the company. It sometimes seems that there are “generic” jobs on these sites just there to make sure the job seeker makes contact with the recruitment consultant. So as long as you can ensure that your online ad is available for people searching for a new role it can often be a very useful way of recruiting.

The final point is to make sure the right choice in personnel is made. An individual who is over qualified for a position, or who has ambitions that cannot be fulfilled within your business will be an expensive choice. While they may do a great job at first they will probably move on to another organization as soon as it suits them, leaving you with the whole process to face again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under Business and Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.