HireVue surveyed 900 hiring professionals and 2,319 candidates in the UK and found that almost 50% of businesses are cutting recruitment costs.
Despite this, 30% are actually increasing their tech budgets for tools that support the hiring process. These companies hope to streamline recruitment and fill vacancies more efficiently, saving time and resources overall.
Recruitment impacted by tighter budgets
Cost-conscious hiring strategies are being implemented across the country in a bid to minimise spending amid the cost-of-living crisis. With 87.6% of UK companies citing ‘rising costs’ as one of their primary concerns for 2024, and given that hiring is one of the most expensive processes within HR, it’s no wonder why.
At Factorial, we found that sourcing and recruiting one team member takes our recruiter an average of 34 days, 40 hours of which are spent reviewing CVs. What’s more, it costs the company €4000.
This is a sum that most companies can’t currently afford to lose, which is driving the search for tools and action plans that can minimise this figure.
Why is HR tech the exception?
Hiring teams are reducing overall spending, apart from in one area: HR tech. Tools such as Applicant Tracking Systems are viewed as an investment that, despite their upfront cost, actually cut costs in the long run. Here are a few ways they’re able to do so.
1. Time is money, and tech saves your team a lot of it
With an ATS, job posting isn’t a time-consuming task. It can be as simple as deciding where you want to post your job, and a few clicks later, the role is out there, attracting top talent across multiple platforms.
When candidates do come in, they’re all centralised in one single place. This means you can send messages to multiple candidates with one click.
Interviewing candidates also takes a fraction of the time as you can schedule interviews, rate candidates and collaborate with your hiring team using the same tool.
Graph based on statistics collected by Factorial.
2. Find better candidates that add more value
With an ATS, you can automatically filter CVs based on required skills and experience, so you only spend time reviewing the top matches. You can then rank these matches with smart filters to communicate the order of priority. This improves collaboration across hiring teams and ensures you choose the candidates that are agreed upon unanimously.
Recruitment tools that integrate with AI, like Factorial’s, can also summarise CVs and propose recommendations that enable recruiters and hiring teams to identify the best matches instantly.
Automating the process in this way can lead to hires better suited to the role and bring the most value to your business.
3. Retain your star players
A massive 80% of new hires who experience a poor onboarding plan to quit. The impact of this can’t be underestimated; according to research by Oxford Economics and Unum, the average cost of turnover per employee is £30,614.
Making a positive first impression is key here. Using HR tech ensures this by streamlining the onboarding journey and clarifying tasks for new hires. It centralises their required actions and notifies them of outstanding assignments so they can hit the ground running and perform to their fullest.
