All companies are aware of this: recruitment is a vector of growth. It’s impossible to grow and reach your goals without a good human capital. But here’s the thing: finding the rare pearl when you’re a young company with no resources can be a real headache… In this article, we share our advice on how to optimize your recruitment budget and find the best talent at a lower cost.
What does “low budget” mean ?
Let’s be clear: quality recruitment requires a minimum investment. It requires, at the very least, having one or more people dedicated to recruiting talent.
In addition to this minimum requirement, fast-growing companies can afford “bonuses” such as access to paid job boards, Recruiter accounts on LinkedIn, and even massive advertising campaigns to promote current job openings.
Today, we’re going to look at the options available to a company that doesn’t have all these extras.
Analyze your needs to find the right alternatives
Behind each recruitment need, the famous analysis of the company’s needs must necessarily follow. Yes, it is impossible to find the ideal candidate without looking at the needs to be met within the company. Ask yourself what skills your company needs to grow and what it lacks!
Depending on the profiles you are looking for, certain strategies will be more relevant than others. For example, if you are looking for young sales people who are eager to learn and take on challenges, approaching certain large schools is the right thing to do in your situation!
💡 Remember: successful recruiting requires delivering the right message to the right person first and foremost. So choose your recruitment channels carefully.
Some examples of questions to ask yourself to refine your brief
- What are the reasons why the company is recruiting?
- And what are the stakes behind this job creation?
- What impact will the future recruit and his or her missions have on the product/service offered by the company and on its strategic objectives?
- What are the key skills required for this position? How are they essential for the company?
💡 In order to optimize your recruitment budget as much as possible, estimate your average cost per hire – especially the amount you cannot exceed. To determine this cost per hire, it is necessary to take into account the cost of certain tools (such as job boards), but also the hours of work required by recruiting managers to complete the recruitment, possible co-optation bonuses, etc.)
Recruiting on a small budget: the different options available
Recruiting talent on a small budget without compromising the quality of your hires… Mission impossible? Here are a few best practices that will help you improve the efficiency of your recruitments, without increasing your budget!
Encourage internal mobility
As we mentioned in a previous article dedicated to internal mobility, this recruitment lever has many advantages. This practice, which consists of developing the talents already present in the company, is doubly virtuous. On the one hand, it reduces recruitment costs (both in terms of promotion/distribution of the job offer and in terms of training/integration of talent). On the other hand, it helps to motivate and retain employees by responding to their desire and need for development.
💡 Obviously, this advice doesn’t apply to a small company with a small workforce. It’s mostly for medium and large companies that want to optimize their recruiting budget.
Set up a cooptation system
Increasingly present in companies, cooptation does not lack virtues. It must be said that this recruitment method allows you to optimize your costs… without skimping on the quality of the recruitments made!
In addition to saving time by reducing the amount of time needed for sourcing, co-option allows you to access qualified profiles… and by definition reliable – since they are recommended by the employees themselves. Indeed, who better than your talents to accurately determine the profiles that could flourish within your company? Remember that your employees know your challenges, your values… They are in the best position to judge the suitability of a potential candidate for your company.
According to a Jobvite study, the average time to hire through a referral is 29 days – compared to 39 days for a job board recruitment.
In addition, recruitment by co-option is beneficial to team cohesion! That’s right: by definition, we recommend people with whom we get along well.
Develop your employer brand
This approach is a long-term effort that pays off in the medium to long term, but that doesn’t take away from its benefits! With a good employer brand, a company can receive qualified applications without investing in recruitment campaigns or premium sourcing tools. It’s the talent that comes to you because of the brand image you exude as an employer!
💡 According to a LinkedIn study, companies that invest in their employer brand would see their recruitment costs drop by 43%.
To do so, do not hesitate to :
- Optimize your online presence, via your corporate social networks, your career page…
- Give a voice to your employees, to make them true ambassadors.
- Combine the two, by posting employee portraits on your social networks or your career page.
In general, optimizing your online presence will allow you to highlight the identity of your company, its raison d’être, its values, its mission, its vision…
Choose the right tools
It’s hard to think about “sourcing” without “tools”. Fortunately, free sourcing solutions exist! This is the case of some job boards, such as Indeed, Pôle Emploi, APEC or Google for Jobs, which are free.
However, be careful: investing in a specialized job board can be more profitable. Indeed, posting your job offers on a specialized platform when you are looking for a specific profile allows you to obtain more targeted applications… Which, consequently, saves time!
Another time-saving tip is to mention certain fundamental points at the beginning of the hiring process, such as the salary offered for the position, its possible constraints, the challenges to be met, the values sought in future recruits, the company culture, etc.
💡 Consider tracking your hires on a regular basis to improve your processes and remove unnecessary expenses. This will help you identify low performing tools, for example. Among the indicators you can monitor are, for example, the number of resumes received for each offer, the abandonment rate of applications, the turnover within the company…
Build partnerships with schools
Finally, if your objective is to recruit high-potential young talent (especially work-study students), make certain schools your long-term allies. To do this, don’t hesitate to contact the educational managers of the schools you are interested in. Tell them about your recruitment needs, submit ideas for educational events to be organized in their school…
⚠️ To remember
With a small budget, it is better to prefer a candidate’s potential and motivation to his/her experience. The ideal talent must share your vision. More than anything, he or she must be driven by the desire to grow your business and must have a genuine passion for the industry.
Optimize your recruitment budget with an ATS
Opting for a recruitment software like Jobaffinity can save your company’s recruiters valuable time! Our ATS simplifies your sourcing and application management. For example, it allows you to centralize your applications in one place and sort them with just a few clicks.
In addition, building a CV database of qualified candidates is particularly easy with our tool.
