Four ways to reduce recruitment costs
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FOUR WAYS TO REDUCE RECRUITMENT COSTS
Navigating budget cuts can be challenging for recruitment teams. It can feel like there are expectations to spend less but deliver the same results – especially in the current economic climate. But, by opting to outsource parts, or all of your recruitment process, you can tap into expertise and insights that would otherwise be beyond your budget.
Outsourcing can help you save time and money at every stage of your recruitment process. From knowing which sourcing strategy will get you the best return, to benchmarking salaries globally to enable you to get the skills you need, at the right cost.
1. Reduce internal recruiting costs with redeployment
Redundancy is a word that strikes fear into the heart of a business. As one of the most traumatic events for some employees, redundancy is among the worst jobs for HR teams to manage. When viewed as a cost-saving exercise, redundancy poses particular difficulties.
Sensitive handling of redundant employees and those remaining can help counter the negative effects. Effective redeployment is just one such method that can help ease the impact.
However, redeployment can be tricky to handle in addition to your day-to-day role. Having a team that are a step removed from the inner workings of your organisation can help to smooth the process.
It’s for this reason that one of our largest banking clients turned to Hays. This particular client needed help to manage the redeployment of their existing employees who were at threat of redundancy.
Following an in-depth review of the existing resourcing process, our team chose to focus on redeployment. After identifying an employee who was at risk of redundancy, the team would arrange an interview. During this interview we would establish their:
- Skills
- Preferences
- Desired location
- Current benefits package
The employee then became part of an internal talent pool. This meant that our client would contact the at-risk employee about suitable job openings, before approaching external talent.
Key result: Save thousands in redundancy costs
We kept in touch with each individual following a period of redundancies. We ensured regular communication, providing advice, guidance and coaching to ease the transition.
Over 24 months, we redeployed 1,800 people. The last 65 of these redeployments resulted in savings of £2 million in redundancy costs.
2. Choose one Master Vendor to maximise value
A local government body recently made the decision to consolidate their recruitment in a master vendor arrangement. Their goal was to reduce expenditure while also reducing the strain on in-house staff.
Following a competitive tender exercise, the client chose Hays as their partner. Our role was to consolidate all permanent and temporary recruitment.
Initially this client conducted separate tenders for Professional, Administrative and IT disciplines. However, the client quickly realised that by choosing Hays for all three skill sets, they could get more value for their money.
Hays took responsibility for all temporary recruitment and external permanent recruitment campaigns not delivered in-house. In total, we were managing £70 million in contingent worker spend per year. A Hays team was present on-site throughout to ensure HR processes were working as they should. The on-site team also took care of all line manager relationships. This approach ensured that the time to hire, quality of hires, and number of hires was of a high standard.
Key result: Source up to 95% of hires directly
Choosing one master vendor has led to a direct source rate of 95%. This is in addition to a three-day turnaround for submissions from applications. Most importantly costs savings have been significant, delivering in excess of £4 million in year one.
3. Create talent networks that double as cash reservoirs
Many first-time Managed Service Programme (MSP) buyers turn to Hays asking to help manage their increasing contractor spend. Often, MSP buyers are seeking the following factors:
- Visibility
- Control
- Reduction in risk
- Better quality candidates
- Cost savings
An Australian energy pioneer found themselves in this very situation due to an expanding contractor population. This company gave Hays the responsibility for end-to-end management of all direct and third-party supplier sourcing.
At go-live, the temporary workforce was 180 strong, reaching 550 at its peak. To meet the 24-hour response time and reduce costs, we began managing talent networks by:
- Identifying candidates with relevant skills and cultural alignment
- Rolling out social media initiatives
- Leveraging candidates from permanent recruitment campaigns and career sites
- Pre-screening candidates to ensure they meet skill set and cultural requirements
- Ensuring regular contact with the talent pool, providing an opportunity to update candidate records
Key result: Reduce recruitment costs on contract employees
Cost savings of approximately $1.8 million achieved during the initial transfer of contractors alone.
4. Consolidate your suppliers to reduce costs
The more often you need to use a service, the more aware you become of how different suppliers can meet your needs. And recruitment is no exception.
One Hays client is a world leading supplier of mail and logistics services. This company employs over 500,000 people across more than 200 countries. However, this client also has a large number of recruitment suppliers to match.
The amount of recruitment suppliers was causing the logistics and communications giant a problem. The logistics company was experiencing high administrative costs, a lack of transparency and excessively high direct and indirect costs.
In a bid to streamline processes and reduce annual expenditure, an MSP offered a neat solution. This single MSP bundled, organised, coordinated, ordered and billed all 150 existing non-strategic suppliers and vendors.
Key result: Simplify recruitment with one supplier
Bundling non-strategic services has reduced the number of suppliers and achieved long-term stability.
The mail and logistics group enjoys faster access to specialists when it comes to the procurement of services. They also benefit from a better overview of current developments in the market.
If you’d like to learn how we can help you to reduce your costs without compromising your employer brand, contact us today.
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