7 cost effective ways of recruiting great staff

1. Build an Employee Referral Programme – Offer your employees an incentive for referring their friends. Incentives could include money, extra holiday, theatre tickets, vouchers or a donation to charity. It’s a cost effective way to find and hire new employees. Referrals from staff can often provide good quality candidates with relevant knowledge and experience at no cost. Stay in touch with your staff on upcoming job opportunities using the company intranet, newsletter or staff meetings.

2. Use Your Web Site – Your corporate site is your primary recruitment tool. Candidates in today’s recruitment market expect to engage with an interesting and interactive website. They want to see what the workplace is like, what employees have to say about their company, information about live vacancies, training initiatives and career development opportunities. Make sure the website has a full page dedicated to career opportunities and keep this up to date. You could make use of recruitment ‘blogs’ from employees about working for the company or describing their typical day.

3. Network With Professionals and Candidates – A professional association will help you tap industry peers for their recommendations. Pay for employees to participate in and network in industry groups, conferences and trade shows. Use career fairs to get to know potential candidates and gather business cards from other companies in your sector. Virtual career fairs are a great way of meeting potential candidates without leaving the office.

4. Make Use of Job Boards – Job boards can reach a wide audience quickly and some have a database of candidates that you can search. They are much cheaper than advertising in a newspaper and you can find the same candidates that agencies have for no fee. The top UK job boards are Totaljobs, Monster, Reed and Jobsite

5. Make the Most of Social Media – The last eighteen months has seen a massive increase in people using social media – social networks, blogs and forums. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all offer rich pools of qualified active and passive candidates. You should join industry specific blogs or user groups and devote time each week to expanding your network. Create a group for your company on Facebook and list your latest jobs. My Company’s Hiring (http://apps.facebook.com/job_listings/) is a Facebook application where you can enter current jobs in your company and they will be displayed on your company page.

6. Managed Online Recruitment – Up to 70% less expensive then a recruitment agency, managed online recruitment is a highly cost effective option reducing the cost per hire, it is almost resource free leaving your staff time to concentrate on their core daily tasks and results in receiving a number of highly relevant candidate CV’s from which to interview and hire from. Online managed recruitment uses a combination of web advertising, email marketing, CV searching and candidate screening. Try www.onlineresourcing.co.uk or www.Easywebrecruitment.com

7. Build Your Recruitment Brand – An effective recruitment brand can help you reduce recruitment costs as candidates will look for you rather than the other way round and can improve the quality of hire as success stories attract the best candidates. An effective recruitment brand should communicate your company’s mission, culture, and spirit. You can better position yourself by holding focus groups with employees and prospective employees to understand their perceptions. Build brand awareness by sponsoring a local community event and creating a buzz from it or holding open days at your offices and inviting high profile speakers.

What are your tips for cost effective ways to recruit great staff?