The business I work for is looking for an interim sales director to cover a maternity leave. Any suggestions about how to recruit someone quickly without incurring huge costs?

It depends on what you define as "huge costs".

The cheapest and quickest option is of course to temporarily promote an existing senior member of staff into the role. This comes with a whole range of difficulties that I probably don't need to go into!

The quickest and easiest way is to use a recruitment agency- they will take care of the billing and initial screen. Unfortunately this will bring in greater costs due to the agency daily or total bill.

A slower way is to actually advertise yourself, however this can still be expensive and you will have to at least conduct the initial screen.

What I would be asking the business is what their priorities are for the candidate? While they may want them cheap, it will be more expensive to hire the wrong person in the sense of urgency over cost. I would reinforce to them that quality staff, particularly in the highest level of position in a sales team can make all the difference in moral and motivation.

Recruitment agecies do not have to be high in cost. Should you compare the cost shown on invoice with any costs you could incur by not having the right person in place at the right time the right recruitment agency can actually save you money in the long run. Many recruitment agencies offer a variety of options for recruiting staff including charging a contract fee which is usually a percentage of the yearly salary pro rota depending on length of contract. This can work out cheaper compared with an interim fee which adds a percentage on top of the hourly rate. Although, as with any option there are pros and cons to both of these.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like more information about our recruitment services.

Thanks,

Christine