Does your 2020 budget include Recruitment Software?
Arindam Chandra
The process of budgeting in any organization is not only a critical task but a difficult one too. It requires a systematic thought process put in order to design the finances which are required to fulfill the organization's plans and objectives.
Before any budget is prepared, an organization must have a planned strategy for that particular financial year. And at most places, the HR department is responsible for providing employee data to the finance team who plan the whole budget.
The budgeting process for recruitment involves many “hard costs” such as:
- Job Site / Portal Access
- Staffing Firm / Agency Fees
- Temporary Staffing Fees
- Employee Referral program
- Skill Tests
- Medical Tests
- Background Verification
- Travel & Printing
- Branded giveaways
- Marketing & other costs
I have deliberately left out “Recruitment Software / Applicant Tracking System” from the list above to highlight what an organization will face if it is left out, despite spending on the above categories.
Poor Productivity of Recruiters
Impact Level: Extreme
There’s no escape from this one. If a recruiter lacks the tools to automate hiring, he / she has to perform repetitive back-end activities manually such as updating candidate trackers / spreadsheets, sending emails to candidates, reminding hiring managers and interviewers for their feedback etc.
This also means recruiters are spending less time in talking to prospective candidates which impacts the quality, predictability and time to hire.
Poor Productivity of Hiring Managers
Impact Level: Very High
Hiring managers are often the most senior people in the organization. And hence there is a huge premium on their time. If they are spending a lot of time interviewing multiple candidates, it is a serious cost issue for the organization.
Without recruiting software, you can’t expose bottlenecks; you can’t spot inefficiencies and opportunities hidden within your hiring process which can reduce the cost drain.
Poor Employer Branding
Impact Level: Very High
There is a saying “Like Attracts Like”. If you would like to attract great quality candidates but you are not able to position yourself as a great quality employer, you have a challenge. Great employers always use the right people and the right HR tools for the purpose in hand.
Discerning candidates expect recruiters to personalize their engagement with them; they expect regular and timely updates at different stages of the hiring process. Since this is practically impossible without recruiting software, it ultimately impacts the quality of talent.
Poor Talent Pool
Impact Level: High
If you are spending on access to job boards, employee referral programs, branded career sites or social media for candidate sourcing every year but not having a central repository of top talent or passive candidates which you can tap in an instant when you have open positions, a lot of your past investment is wasted.
Lack of a proper talent pool also means you are starting afresh every time. Without recruiting software, you can’t easily save potential candidates for a future role if they are not relevant for an immediate role.
Recruitment automation software helps you transform how you hire by using data to tweak your hiring process, optimize your recruiting spend and shorten the time from apply to hire.
Because of the above reasons, recruitment software has the potential to deliver a good ROI for most organizations but the level of ROI depends on the features of the software and how they mitigate the organization’s pain-points. For example, Expertite can help companies in improving their candidate engagement by >40%, increasing predictability by >30%, reducing time-to-fill by >25% and reducing costs by at least 10%.
So, is your budget for 2020 going to consider recruitment software?
If yes, click here to sign-up for your Free Trial of Expertite and check for yourself how Expertite can substantially improve the success of your recruitment in 2020.
Wish you a very Happy Recruiting Year 2020!