Recession - a recruiter's dream?

21 July 2009

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Picture this. You have two candidates for a vacancy. Both are qualified and hold all the relevant skills. Sounds ideal doesn't it? But this is the picture many employers are facing at the moment, and it may not be as wonderful as it sounds.

With the largest reported quarterly increases in unemployment since 1981 and a total of 2.22 million unemployed throughout the UK*, many employers are finding themselves with an average of 22 applicants per vacancy.** Many of the candidates also hold both the essential and desirable criteria.

So, if you are bucking the redundancy trend and are in a position of recruiting, you probably already know the key to successful recruiting is locked in ensuring the most suitable candidate for the post is selected.

The difficulty often lies in uncovering the most suitable candidate from the applications. Many employers believe selecting the right candidate in this situation would be easy, however, we are now seeing a rise in employee dismissals with less than one year's service, which indicates many employers needing to correct a mistake made in recruitment.

Making a mistake in recruitment can be a costly error with average costs reaching £4,333 per employee** when taking into account, advertising, recruitment process, induction and training.

In order to avoid what should be a dream becoming a nightmare, you should carry out a comprehensive selection process, which includes:

a well written job description and person specification
competency based interviewing
a variety of relevant selection tests
obtaining references immediately upon offer

Employers could also invest in obtaining and updating the necessary skills to make recruitment and selection both easier and more cost effective.

* National Statistics Office
** Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development

About the author

This article was written by our partners at Qdos Consulting Ltd, who provide our 24-hour legal helpline and legal expenses insurance package.

For more help, download our sample job application form (including job description and person specification forms) and job interview process. They can easily be modified for use in your own business and are FREE to members of the FPB.

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Recession - a recruiter's dream?

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