Recruitment – What’s the damage?

Why DIY recruitment could cost you time, money & your USP.

Last year Richard Branson wrote, in his LinkedIn piece How I Hire: “There is nothing more important for a business than hiring the right team.” And yet, according to a recent YouGov poll over half of SMEs believe their recruitment methods are not fit for purpose.

Virgin Atlantic’s Unique Selling Point (USP) is service rather than price. And according to their website: “We have high standards and to be honest it can be hard to get a job here. We all take pride in recruiting people that are right for the job and people who can really deliver what we’re looking for.”

It’s easy to forget, of course, that Branson set up his first commercial venture with a £300 loan from his mother; before starting a mail-order record business called ‘Virgin’, chosen because the early team knew little about business.

Branson knows a lot about recruitment from an SME perspective. And yet, many SMEs are convinced it is too costly and time consuming to find quality candidates.

According to a study conducted by Oxford Economics earlier this year, the average logistical cost of recruiting for the SME can cost over £5,000, looking something like this:

Advertising: £600 – although only half of the smallest firms said they advertised vacancies, compared to over 90% of big businesses.

Temporary cover: Just under £1,875 per worker (except many SMEs make do and share the love, we mean, work).

HR tasks: A couple of days costing from £832 upwards – although it’s questionable whether many SMEs have a dedicated HR officer at all; with current admin staff stepping into this role at the expense of their other duties.

Interviews: £720 per worker replaced – based on 2 senior bods preparing, conducting and reviewing. Not to mention assessments, like: psychometric profiling or literacy and numerical testing.

Induction and training: £500 upwards – although not a direct recruitment cost, has a big impact on initial outgoings, as well as lower productivity expected from the new staff member and their trainers.

Interestingly less than a third of SMEs use agencies compared to over 90% of big business – often preferring to recruit through personal networks. But with 1 in 5 recruits leaving within 6 months, for many businesses the cost of replacing a worker can be doubled, to £6,000, within a year.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

From whirlpool to talent pool

As a family business, running for nearly 50 years, Angel Human Resources understands the benefits of recruiting through personal networks. But our success lies in understanding that our employees are our USP. Knowing a person is right for the role is more important than knowing them personally, so we cast our recruitment net far and wide to harness the best industry talent.

And with the CIPD reporting that 82% of employers find it difficult to fill some posts, a smarter way to recruit includes having a talent pool on tap – reducing your recruitment gaps both in time and cost. At Angel we have a little black book of connections we can let you in on collected over our years in the business!

Go with the flow

It may seem counterintuitive to outsource your recruitment if you’re watching the pennies, but as we’ve demonstrated long-term, you’ll be saving yourself time and money of course, but also the stress which often accompanies filling a role efficiently.

You put out an ad, and maybe it succeeds in attracting a number of applications. In fact you may find yourself or your administrator swamped with CVs that’ll take hours to process. And then you’ve got to plan the interviews and assessment tasks, implement the interviews, invite candidates back a second time, perhaps.

And all this comes at the expense of not being able to concentrate on what you do best – run your business. Yes, your new recruit is vitally important, but if that’s the case, then perhaps it’s time to delegate your recruitment practices to the professionals – at Angel HR we have a 98% retention rate, we know our job, we can help you do yours.

Added to which we offer a single fixed fee and a no placement no pay guarantee – so there’s nothing to lose!