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Recruiting Without a Budget - Tips on Low-Cost Hiring

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Recruiting Without a Budget - Tips on Low-Cost Hiring
Caroline Gleeson
4 minute read
Talent Acquisition

All companies want to hire the best people for their business. But hiring isn’t cheap, in fact, the average cost to hire someone in the US is $4,000 and takes on average 24 days (Glassdoor).

When you take into consideration all the internal & external costs involved in hiring, it isn’t surprising that the numbers add up. Some recruitment costs include; recruitment agencies, job boards, onboarding cost, hiring team costs to name but a few. 

Whether your recruitment budget has been affected due to the circumstances of Coronavirus or you’re a small SME looking to hire the top talent without spending a whole salary trying to find them, we have a number of tips that can help you do this effectively without losing quality. 

Tips on effective hiring with a small budget

Use what you have - internal hiring & talent pools

Career development is now a key factor in employee retention, with 93% of employees stating that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers (LinkedIn’s Workforce Learning Report). With the consequence of COVID-19, companies should consider the internal recruitment opportunities within their current workforce and the potential to upskill employees to fill roles lost or move them into newly created positions. This low-cost solution has the added benefit of keeping employees invested. The use of HR data and analytics is key here. 

HR now has the ability to capture beneficial data on their current employees including education, soft skills, career progression goals and L&D plans. This data can then be used to match potential jobs with current employees. There are of course considerations for this type of recruiting i.e. back-filling the position that would then be lost and the potential hard skills necessary to upskill the employee to the new role. HR departments should calculate the cost of hiring with the cost of upskilling and back-filling to assess the financial implications of this.

If recruiting sideways isn’t a viable option for you, a zero-cost solution is reassessing your talent pools. In light of the current situation or as time has passed, a candidate that may not have been right or a position that wasn’t suitable might now be available. 

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Phone a friend - Employee Referrals 

Employee referral schemes consistently prove to be a very worthwhile investment by all companies when it comes to hiring, particularly when budgets are tight. The only costs involved in referral schemes are the incentives and bonuses to the successful referrer. Though some companies may offer large sums of money, if budgets are tight, don’t underestimate the value of paid holiday days, contributions to elected charities or stock options.

The advantage of referrals is that they help you find quality candidates, faster. With employee referrals, you immediately have candidates more bought into your brand with knowledge on how you work and your values through conversations with their referee. It has been shown that referred employees stay on average 45% longer than those hired through job boards, at 20% (ERE). 

Additionally, it takes an average of 29 days to hire a referred candidate, as opposed to 55 days through a career site (JobVite). This then means you can reduce man-hours and in turn, cost spent on recruiting. 

Occupop blog - Referral calculation formula

Use niche job boards or community forums

Only being on one job channel is doing your candidate search a disservice as assuming where your top talent is and only using that channel will lead to missing out on key candidates. Utilise your recruitment data and discover the job channels that currently work you. If you still want to explore other avenues or you are still struggling to get the volume or quality and budget is a factor, you should consider niche job boards or forums. 

Many are low-cost or even free and the value in using them is in the name, they’re niche! They can give you lots of different more specific ways to search for talent; industry, skill set, location. These boards are particularly useful when you have highly specialised or hard-to-fill roles, with the added advantage of increased candidate quality. If an individual is looking for very specific roles on sites like these, there is a high chance that they have the skill set to match the role they are looking for. 

Some niche sites worth considering are: 

Occupop blog - Use niche job boards or community forum

Invest in employer brand & branding activities

Though it may take some initial investment i.e. employee testimonials or updating your website, the cost can be minimal and the return on investment is huge. Establishing and promoting an excellent employer brand will attract top talent, both passive and active, resulting in more applications through your careers page. 

We recently live-streamed a presentation on the importance of your employer brand and tips on creating low-cost branding activities that will help your brand and talent pool grow organically. Watch this here.   

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What is Occupop?

Occupop is a powerful hiring tool that connects people, creating strong teams and builds long-lasting relationships. Our dynamic features put the power in your hands, allowing you to easily engage with the best candidates and manage the entire process on one smart recruitment solution. Check out how it works here.

Summary Points

Whether your recruitment budget has been affected due to the circumstances of Coronavirus or you’re a small SME looking to hire the top talent without spending a whole salary trying to find them, we have a number of tips that can help you do this effectively without losing quality. 

  • Internal hiring & talent pools: review employee records and progression plans to assess if any current employees would be interest in moving roles, either upskilling into a new role or lateral into a different department. If that isn't an option, consider reviewing candidates that previously applied for positions.
  • Employee Referrals: The only costs involved in referral schemes are the incentives and bonuses to the successful referrer. Though some companies may offer large sums of money, if budgets are tight, don’t underestimate the value of paid holiday days, contributions to elected charities or stock options.
  • Use niche job boards & community forums: Many are low-cost or even free and the value in using them is in the name, they’re niche! They can give you lots of different more specific ways to search for talent; industry, skillset, location.
  • Invest in employer brand & branding activities: Though it may take some initial investment i.e. employee testimonials or updating your website, the cost can be minimal and the return on investment is huge. Establishing and promoting an excellent employer brand will attract top talent, both passive and active, resulting in more applications through your careers page. 
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