Kate Ross: Saving money in the right areas

With the general cautiousness in the market currently, it is easy to understand that businesses everywhere are cutting back on gratuitous spending.

Unfortunately, while "trimming the fat", it is often the case that vital corners are cut.

It's important for employers everywhere to understand the difference between "not spending money" and "saving money".

Over the years, people have often suggested to me that my job is easy. Like anything, recruitment can be easy, but only if you're good at it. We deal with clients, more often now than ever before, who have been given a directive to bring recruitment in-house.

This is done without full recognition being given to the process involved. The outcome can be, at best, time consuming and at worst, disastrous, with far reaching implications for the team, the company and the bottom line.

It is true that there are more candidates available and looking for work at present than there have been for many years. This means several hundred applications for some straightforward roles.

The result? Overloaded managers wading through inappropriate applications for hours on end trying to find the right person for the job. It is easy to write an advertisement and put it online - the hard part comes after that.

Being a successful recruiter is a multi faceted challenge - you have to know your market, be able to read a situation objectively, ask the right questions and definitely think outside the square.

So many things need to be taken into account.

The smallest part of recruiting is managing the process so every candidate is treated with respect and professionalism - not easy to do when you have no systems in place to deal with that process.

Consider the negative word-of-mouth marketing when over one hundred applicants email their CVs to you and never get a response. That is over one hundred potential customers who won't buy insurance from you, who won't rent a car from you, who won't utilise your services when they are next moving house or looking for a hairdresser.

I hear from candidates every day who have had this experience. In these tough economic times, customer service is everything.

Choosing where to spend money wisely in recruitment can be tricky.

Using an agency has costs involved and these can be an "extra" on a stretched budget.

Consider making use of an unbundled approach to your recruitment - work with your consultant so they do the hard parts, saving you time and energy in the long run. Use their expertise to help you to make good choices and to set up efficient processes so you can manage your recruitment efficiently and effectively.

If you are intent on "giving it a go", consider having your consultant work alongside you.

In most cases there will be no charge unless you hire a candidate presented by an agency and it gives you a back-up if your choice for the role falls through.

The reality in recruitment is that in working with such a huge variety of clients and candidates as we do, consultants become very good at spotting the right candidate straight away - when, for the untrained eye, it can be a lot more time consuming.

As always, time is money and you get what you pay for.