Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Recruitment & retention

Employers to boost recruitment spemd

by Mark Crail 27 Mar 2007
by Mark Crail 27 Mar 2007

One in three organisations expects to increase its overall recruitment spend in the next six months, according to research published in Cranfield School of Management’s Recruitment Confidence Index.


In all, 84% of employers believe they will need to spend more or keep spending at current levels. Just one in six of the 557 senior managers questioned for the study expects its recruitment spending to fall by the summer.


But the study, produced in association with Personnel Today, also shows that a substantial number of organisations fail to evaluate the success of their overall recruitment process or of individual recruitment exercises.


The research suggests that most employers should have a good strategic grasp of recruitment, with two-thirds (66%) of managers reporting that the process is run centrally. A further one in four (23%) manages recruitment at branch or location level. Small numbers leave recruitment to individual managers (6%) or departments (5%).


The survey also shows some degree of centralisation of recruitment decisions, with senior managers involved in a decision to recruit in more than half (54%) of organisations, and in the selection of recruitment method in one-third (30%).


Although HR is involved in the decision to recruit in just one-third (32%) of organisations, it is more often involved in the choice of recruitment method (61%) and the section of advertising media (21%).


…but few know whether they get value for money


Two out of three organisations (66%) aim to evaluate the success of their overall recruitment process, the Recruitment Confidence Index research shows.


But fewer than half (49%) systematically evaluate the success of an individual recruitment exercise, and just one in five (19%) does so on a cost-per-hire basis – regarded as the true measure of value for money.


In evaluating the overall success of their recruitment process, employers typically look at measures such as the number of applications received that can be shortlisted (37%), the time taken to fill vacancies (35%), and the overall cost of recruitment (34%).


The most common measures used to evaluate an individual recruitment exercise are broadly similar, but in each instance are used by far fewer organisations.


The survey also found that about one-third (32%) of organisations have invested in a recruitment management system that could help them to track cost-per-hire, but just half (51%) of these are using their systems to produce statistics that work for individual recruitment methods.


Adam Wright, client services director at Konetic, which sponsored the research, said too many firms brought software and then changed their internal processes to match the way it works – creating friction within the organisation and a resistance to change.


…and most rely on previous experience


Employers are most likely to base their choice of recruitment method on their past experiences, the Recruitment Confidence Index survey shows.


More than nine out of 10 said first-hand experience of the success of any given method was either very important (49%) or important (43%) in deciding what to do next time. The ability of a particular method to target specific groups was cited as very important or important by 77%, as was the reach of the chosen method (75%).


Most organisations showed little interest in copying their competitors’ approach to recruitment, with just 36% citing this as very important or important in their decisions.


Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The report is available from Dr Emma Parry and is priced at £50. Tel: 01234 754 808. E-mail [email protected]


 

Mark Crail

Mark Crail worked on XpertHR from 2001 until 2020, most recently as content director. He led the salary survey and HR data benchmarking services, overseeing the collection and publication of pay data through the Job Pricing tool and its wider HR research programme which forms the core of XpertHR Benchmarking.

previous post
Builders provoke crisis with bogus self-employed status
next post
Flexible working: Caring for the carers

You may also like

Graduate jobs this summer ‘will be toughest since...

25 Jun 2025

Employers struggling with soaring candidate deception

25 Jun 2025

UK engineering and manufacturing firms face hiring struggles

23 Jun 2025

Aldi to hire for 1,000 new supermarket roles

23 Jun 2025

Only a third of recruiters receive high-quality job...

20 Jun 2025

Number of new nurses from abroad falls by...

18 Jun 2025

Capita rolls out ‘agentic AI’ to speed up...

13 Jun 2025

Redundancies boost candidate availability at fastest pace since...

13 Jun 2025

Healthdaq: Shaking up health and social care recruitment

11 Jun 2025

Hiring confidence drops due to ‘reset’ in market

10 Jun 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+