Does No-Cost Recruitment exist?

Does no-cost recruitment exist? Well, the short answer is No! And anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something! But there is a low-cost way you can protect your budget and still get the high-quality people you need.

Bernadette Eichner

Dec 16, 2020

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Essentially, recruitment has generally been managed two ways – you either do it yourself or you get someone to do it for you. In-house resourcing vs an external provider. Either way, there is time and money involved, so the idea that recruitment doesn’t come at a cost is a myth.

In this blog, we look at the advantages and disadvantages of both in-house recruitment and using an external provider, and explore a third way, a hybrid model where you and your recruiter work together, sharing the load and significantly reducing your costs.

The benefits (or not) of doing it yourself – ‘no-cost recruitment’

There is some value to doing the recruitment yourself – you can see the calibre of people applying, you can decide who you want to interview, and you can make quick decisions once you meet people you like.

It all sounds rather efficient and cost-effective but when you look more closely, the disadvantages may be greater than you think. It’s certainly not no-cost recruitment!

Time. Good recruitment takes time and requires a committed investment to do what is needed to get the very best person for the job. Most people already have a full-time job running their business or department. The casualty is that the recruitment process is compromised and a great hiring outcome cannot be guaranteed.

Cost. Just because you are an owner or employee of the company doesn’t mean your time doesn’t have any value. The usual result is that people spend less time on recruitment in favour of doing their actual job. However, spending less time on recruitment just means spending more time down the track if the hire is a poor one

Efficiency. It feels more efficient when we are doing something ourselves. After all, no-one can do it better than me. But none of us are experts at everything. Spending time on something we are not good at means unnecessary stress, poor process and slow-moving results. When we look more closely, doing it yourself may not be the smartest move and the perception that doing it yourself is “no-cost” recruitment is flawed.

Getting a professional recruiter to do it for you

Again, there are advantages and disadvantages here, depending on your budget. A professional recruiter will be able to quickly target and source appropriately skilled candidates, apply proven screening and interview methodologies and identify a small group of the best people for your consideration, much more quickly than you could do it yourself.

The downside for many businesses is the cost of a professional recruiter. The traditional recruitment model is a fee based on a percentage of the successful candidate’s remuneration package, defined usually as salary plus superannuation, but sometimes including the value of non-cash benefits such as car allowances, etc.

The fee percentage recruiters charge is anywhere between 10–30 per cent, dependent on the role, the recruiter’s reputation, or how desperately they want the business!

So, if the job you are trying to fill has a salary of say, $80K + super, you are looking at a placement fee upwards of $8,000.

Yes, professional recruiters offer guarantees of a free replacement if the candidate doesn’t work out for some reason in the first 90 days but a good hiring outcome shouldn’t need a free replacement.

A collaborative model may be the answer for you

A third approach, and one that is fast gaining popularity, is a hybrid option – one where you and your recruiter work together to get the right person in place quickly and cost-effectively. We call it Pay as You Go.

In this model, you still have an experienced professional recruiter with a solid track record of successful placements doing the work for you. But instead of providing an end-to-end solution without your input, they’ll work with you to speed up the process where you don’t need to be involved while facilitating your involvement at critical decision points along the way so you always feel in control.

And instead of charging a percentage of salary, you just pay an hourly rate for the number of hours you need the help, reducing your recruitment cost by up to 80% depending on how much involvement you wish to have. Pay only for what you need!

The advantages of this model are:

No loss of integrity or time

You still have a professional recruiter working for you and the time to market and placement is considerably reduced.

Reduced costs

By only using the recruiter’s skills and time where you need them, you reduce the overall cost significantly.

Maintain control

By working with the recruiter throughout the process you can stay across what’s happening without impacting your day too much.

Increased confidence

Because you’ve been part of the shortlist development you can proceed with interviews with the confidence you’ll be spending your time with only the best candidates.

While no-cost recruitment is a myth, low-cost recruitment is here to stay

Recruitment models tend to change slowly but when you strike a good one, it generally hangs around.

The truth is whether you do it yourself or get someone else to do it for you, successful recruitment takes time and costs money.

The best recruitment model is one where you can be involved as much or as little as you want, while maintaining some control over your budget and the types of candidates you are presented.