Even if you’re are working to a tight budget you are still going to want to make sure that you recruit the best people with the rights skills and talents to fit with your business. Obviously having a large budget for recruitment would be ideal and would mean a little less work however it’s not always possible to secure these funds but having a large budget isn’t everything when it comes to recruitment. Often working to a tight budget can have a positive effect on the recruitment process as it leads to you spending more wisely and being a little savvier. Have a look at some of these budget-friendly recruitment methods to help when you’re recruiting on a budget.
Employee referrals
Employee referrals can be an excellent way of recruiting for low cost especially if you’re happy to employ relatives or friends of your existing employees. Often you will find companies who are more than happy to take recommendations from, well-established employees internally as they don’t want to tarnish their own name and therefore only make good references. Good people only recommend good people so try speaking with your top employees to see if they know anyone who is interested. You will quite often find that your employees don’t seek any payment in return but it may be worthwhile offering a little incentive.
Word Of Mouth
It will always help to have an excellent rewards or benefits package that will attract which attract fresh talent through word of mouth. Word-of-mouth recruitment is often seen the same as employee referrals however it is slightly different. Types of word of mouth recruitment include:
- Employee word of mouth- where they talk up your company to potential new recruits
- Recommendations from partners or other close working businesses.
- Where people have spoken about your business as an employee at recruitment fairs, conferences or on online recruitment pages.
Role sharing
Think about whether recruitment is actually what you’re looking for at this moment in time. If you’re on a really tight budget you could maybe consider role sharing as a solution instead of recruitment. It may be the case that you are able to have one person incorporating two different roles especially if the role you’re replacing doesn’t require full-time hours. Of course, you have got to consult your existing employee to see if it’s something they would consider taking on. You will probably gather a better idea from them as to if you actually need the new recruit. Bear in mind some employees may take on too much just to try and stay in the good books so it may be a good idea just to do this on a temporary basis to start with. Whether you decide to recruit for a role or role share internally it’s a good idea to create a candidate profile, it will lead to a smooth recruitment process and ensure you are recruiting the best person for the role.
Internal advertising
A large proportion of job roles can be and are successfully filled by internal candidates. Have a think and see if you can establish if you already have someone within the company who would suit the role, maybe there is someone who would be looking for a promotion and a step up in the career ladder. Training someone from within can save costs and make the transition easier especially if they are already familiar with the ins and outs of the business.
Aptitude tests make better and faster recruiting and hiring at a reduced time and cost.
Recruiting at professional events.
Another option for you to try is looking at the opportunities there are from visiting places such as national, local and online Job Events, trade shows, award dinners and seminars where you will be able to head pick and potentially recruit people who are already skilled within the same industry. This approach can be seen as very exclusive and makes the targeted individual feel admired, flattered and very special indeed. You can even ask your own employees to put the word out that you’re recruiting for certain roles and to speak about your business benefits.
Social networks and Blogging
There has been a massive growth of marketing via social networking sites and this can also be used for subtle but cost effective recruitment.
The majority of your employees will already be on one of the social networking sites such as Facebook or Instagram and they can be encouraged to make group connections and provide names of potential recruits, they could also use it to share links to jobs profiles that you are currently recruiting for, hitting a target audience that you may otherwise not be hitting. You may also want to consider looking at sources such as Indeed or Linkedin where you not only advertise for jobs you can headhunt for people that would be ideal and send them a positive email/correspondence saying that you would like to interview them for a position that you feel would be ideal and offer them a brilliant incentive to do so.
Sometimes low-cost recruitment methods work better than if you were to have a large budget so give some of these a try and let us know how you got on in the comments section below.
