It’s a well-known fact in the UK that we are seeing a recruitment boom. From Linkedin to the media and news headlines, it has been heralded as the big talent reshuffle, the great resignation, or even the national candidate shortage. But no matter what the title, the facts are real and vacancies are at an all-time high, with certain sectors facing a very real shortage of candidates. At last count, the nation had over 1,147,000 live vacancies and out of the main 18 industry sectors, 15 were at record level highs for open vacancies.
With companies needing to fill multiple roles, many have decided to directly fill these roles themselves. The initial benefits of this are clear and instant, why pay an agency fee potentially in the thousands to recruit when you can post an ad and hire yourself? It seems simple enough but for many, we have spoken with, the hidden costs of direct recruitment don’t take long to come to the forefront and test companies’ patience and budgets.
The initial outlay of advertising a role, is usually one that the hiring manager is most consciously aware of and will have decided upon comparison with an agency fee, is the better choice. Ranging from a few hundred pounds for a week’s advert to nearly a thousand depending on where you’re posting your vacancies, the budget can hugely vary, but from this point on direct recruitment will silently start costing more and more in the background, in addition to those advertising fees.
For the majority of companies that are exploring direct recruitment, the role of searching and hiring falls to the hiring manager. This is the direct manager who is looking to increase their team, usually with sign off and interview involvement from senior management. Nearly always, this role filling will be in addition to their normal job expectations and workloads often start to clash not long after the applications begin to come in.
With a high candidate shortage, candidates are in demand and so replying to them as soon as possible is the most courteous thing to do to help maintain a positive reputation in a brand’s hiring processes. For many hiring managers, the strain of reviewing applications, declining those unsuitable and screening the potential ones, all in a well mannered time frame will often take its toll on their day to day workload very quickly.
Many we speak to, let us know it wasn’t long before productivity in either their recruitment or day to day work pressures began to slip as the juggle of both was not possible in the same working day. Even more so once the realisation of the time required in organising multiple first, second and third stage interviews and coordinating diaries hits.
Time to hire has grown massively over the last three years. In 2019, the average time from application to being offered a role was 27.3 days, today in 2022 according to the latest study from LinkedIn, the time to hire varies from sector to sector but has increased by a minimum of 6 days.
With administration now being the fastest at 33 days, rising to 48 and 49 days for Research and Engineering. For those not recruiting, these numbers may not mean too much but if you put these days into comparison against the lost time and productivity lost of a hiring manager as explained above, this can have a real impact on a business.
The time to hire will also have an impact on the cost of the open vacancy. Unless the role being hired for is a brand new position, it will mean a vacant current position in the business, one that needs an employee in place for productivity and business to run smoothly. The entire time a role sits vacant and unfilled, it is costing the business money, time and energy.
Not just sales roles with missing reps, it can cost regardless of the sector as it pulls talent from elsewhere in a business, causing them increased pressure, a distraction from their daily tasks as they cover the needs of the vacant role and can often push current employees to feel overwhelmed and inundated with workloads as they support the vacant role’s needs for the business. Potentially if a vacant role is left too long, it can even lead to more vacancies as those covering its duties feel overworked and under pressure and begin to look elsewhere.
Whilst immediately on paper, using a recruitment consultancy, direct recruitment personnel or RPO service appears more costly, the savings in the long term recruitment process are clear. How much do you value the time of your staff and their workloads is a huge question we recommend companies review before undertaking a direct recruitment project themselves. Can the business afford to lose its mid or high-level management’s attention and work output for the next 49 days?
Not just in financial gain, a recruiter, trained in matching the best talent for your role and business can deliver a whole wealth of benefits alongside handling the nitty-gritty parts of recruitment.
Working with a dedicated recruitment team like those here at Noble Futures, means the candidates presented to you for the role aren’t just those who immediately applied. Our experienced consultants will always search for a role, spending many hours approaching and talking with potential candidates they feel could be the perfect match for your business. At Noble Futures, we will screen every candidate that we present and only introduce those we feel could be a good match for the business, meaning the number of applicants you need to review are really only the ones suitable for the role. At Noble Futures we appreciate your time is needed in your role and so we will handle all the time-consuming elements of interview arrangements and even conduct recorded first stage interviews if requested. With every role we fill, this service will be on hand for all clients from the first stage to the offer.
If you’d like to speak with one of the Noble Futures consultants on how a recruitment consultancy can support you in your recruitment, or understand further how direct recruitment may look for your business, we would love to help.
Call: 0161 820 3510
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