It’s not surprising that corporate recruiting budgets are at risk – everyone is being tasked to do more with fewer resources. Even if your recruiting budget has remained stable, the challenges remain the same: it’s expensive and time-consuming to recruit the right talent and keep your employment brand top of mind with qualified candidates.
In an environment where every penny counts and performance matters, organizations need to optimize resources to increase efficiencies and drive better results. What can you do to ensure you’re taking the most cost-effective approach to recruiting and getting in front of the right talent?
Gain access to better analytics – Everyone agrees that information is power, but recruiting data is typically stored in disparate systems, making it hard to access, and therefore, challenging to make informed decisions. With organizations sourcing talent through a variety of means – headhunters, social networks, job boards, etc. – it is critical to gain visibility into where organizations are spending and where they are getting the best results. A system that aggregates sources improves the ability to evaluate each channel’s effectiveness and understand its value. Then, organizations can better gauge if third-party recruitment firms are returning on investment or if the company is spending too much on job boards relative to the number of qualified candidates. With data-driven insight, organizations can adjust the recruitment strategy and ensure it aligns with business requirements.
Put candidates in control – A candidate-maintained community reduces the burden on HR professionals to keep the database up-to-date. A single-instance, cloud-based system that enables candidates to create a profile detailing their background and career preferences creates efficiencies for candidates as well as recruiters. Candidates can maintain a single profile, apply to multiple positions, and stay engaged with your firm. For organizations, this system provides access to accurate data and creates a reusable talent pipeline – helping firms achieve hiring successes both today and tomorrow.
Capitalize on connections – Networks are increasingly valuable, but it is candidates’ extended networks that deliver exponential return. Social media enables organizations and candidates to continue to have employment conversations, especially when jobs are shareable on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social platforms. Besides benefiting from a third-party endorsement, networking also helps the organization get in front of more people, widening its talent pool.
Put functionality at recruiters’ fingertips – While a candidate-maintained community, social promotion, and participation at campus recruiting events can help organizations increase exposure and generate more applicants, they can also create a significant burden for recruiters who must search through hundreds or thousands of resumes to find the right match. Organizations that use a system with matching technology can filter out talent mismatch and get to those right-fit candidates, faster.
Find systems that can do more – When you have fewer resources to manage your recruiting efforts, having a system that allows you to do more for less can help you maximize your existing resources. Whether that’s powering the ability to source from multiple destinations, proactively search for candidates, quickly sort and filter down to the most relevant talent or build relationships with top candidates – a system that provides more tools to manage sourcing and recruiting enables organizations to maintain performance and reach talent goals even when recruiting budgets are reduced.
Regardless of any changes to budget, taking an efficient and effective approach to talent acquisition ensures that investments are made in the right channels and that recruiters are not wasting time on average or below-average candidates. When organizations have the tools and technology to get to the right talent faster, it helps reduce recruiting spend and frees resources to focus on more value-added activities.
What are you doing to ensure you’re getting the biggest bang for your recruiting dollars?