Studies show that SMEs spend an average of £125,347 a year on failed recruitment. That is a significant amount of money for a business to lose. And yet, you cannot run a business efficiently without the right talent. So, in the end, you still need to find people who are the right fit no matter how long it takes. And there are several strategies you can use to do so:
1. Contact those people who qualified for previous interviews
If you had previous interviews and your company shortlisted several candidates, now is the time to relook that list. Research shows that only 2% of candidates make it to the interview stage. What that means is that those who have been through previous interviews you held are the cream of the crop. While you may not have chosen them before, it never hurts to give them a chance when you have a labour shortage in your organization.
Because you have already interviewed the candidates beforehand, you will have a good idea of the value they will bring to your company. And you would not need to spend any money on advertising jobs. All you have to do is contact the names in your database and see what they think about the offer. But be prepared for rejection. The candidates, in question, may have gotten other jobs elsewhere.
2. Implement employee referral programs
It would be best to implement a referral program to motivate employees in recommending people who they think could fit the job. Ask your current employees if they know someone who has the qualifications to fill the talent gaps in your company. To encourage your employees to help you find the right talent, you need to offer incentives. These may include cash, gift vouchers, travel perks, or additional vacation days. Think of the incentives you have to offer as an investment to ensure that you spend less time and energy finding the right people to hire.
3. Hire professional recruiters
Some companies exist solely to help businesses of all sizes to find the right talent. Consider hiring an HR consultancy firm in the UK that can help you recruit the people you need to continue operating your business efficiently. Consultancy firms that do not actively recruit often have close connections to professional recruitment firms that do. And they can, therefore, enable you to access professional recruitment services easily.
Professional recruiters specialise in finding the right talent, therefore freeing you to concentrate on your core business operations. They also have more people in their database of possible candidates for you to choose from. Furthermore, successful recruiters have databases that are 85% filled with engaged candidates, which means they are more interested in job opportunities.
4. Advertise on dedicated job boards
In this digital era, we have plenty of online job boards that enable individuals and organisations to advertise jobs online. These include sites like Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, CareerBuilder, Indeed, etc. Because these job boards are meant for job searches, people who visit them are actively looking.
However, many of them charge for advertisements and the competition for attention from potential employees is quite high. You also need to ensure that your job description is clear, concise, optimised for search, and attractive. Otherwise, you may not even be able to attract views.
Conclusion
Finding the right talent for your UK organization is not only time consuming but can be costly. However, if you use strategies like hiring the services of an HR consultancy company to help you define your needs, you may be able to reduce the work that goes into it. Be smart and do whatever it takes to attract the right talent to move your organisation forward.