Why your Business needs a Recruitment Plan

A 2021 CIPD Resourcing survey reported that just 30% of organisations report that their CEO has had talent management, including talent attraction, as a key priority over the last 12 months. This represents a substantial fall compared with 2020 at 48%, and 2017 at 54%.

Clearly, the immediate challenges of the pandemic demanded a different focus and attention. As the economy improves and recruitment and talent management budgets also fare better, it will be important for organisations to place greater focus on these key areas to help support their post-pandemic recovery. If you don’t have a recruitment plan, then you don’t have a proactive strategy for hiring new employees.

All companies planning to recruit in the coming months, need to have job descriptions mapped out and a clear roadmap of how your plan will achieve organisational objectives. With the aftermath of the effects of the pandemic on business, that’s a critical feature of future recruitment planning. The bottom line is that your recruitment plan has to align with company growth plans.

Creating a Resource Pool

There are core benefits of having an up-to-date recruitment plan moving into 2023. With a recruitment plan, you have a process to work with your talent pipeline. You can see the disconnects where talent may be light and plan out role launches well in advance. It can also help to create a resource pool of potential candidates from resumes you’ve seen for later-in-the-year hires. A strong network of candidates is necessary for any future-thinking recruitment team!

Planning helps to Determine the Right Candidates

With a clear idea for which roles you’ll be hiring, you can begin determining the requirements for each job opening.
What are the characteristics and skills that you want job candidates to have? What will their daily responsibilities be? And their goals? You’re giving yourself the time to compare characteristics of your better performers, and prepare a benchmark to strengthen, not dilute your workforce capability.

Building a Budget – don’t miss unexpected or hidden costs!

It’s easy to miss out the true cost of recruitment, and in 2022, there is likely to be more movement between roles, internally and externally, than in 2021. With many companies across different sectors embracing the influx of latest technological advancements, connectivity to new technology will feature more in recruitment. Factor in recruiting technology costs, such as an applicant tracking system, social media tools should have a clear budget.

Generation Z, with a social conscious, will also look at branding, so you need to factor in employer branding costs, and the time involved in crafting the right profiles to reach the right people. According to the REC, companies that create a strong employer brand attract up to 50% more qualified candidates; employer branding can also reduce cost-per-hire by 50%.
In-house salaries and the benefits of the recruitment team should feature within the overall recruitment plan costs as well as agency fees, and any tools you use in the process. The right recruitment plan will have considered any hidden, unconsidered costs.

Flexibility Changes

With the government plans to modernise the way employees work, the consultation process is exploring a range of flexible working methods such as job-sharing, flexitime and compressed, annualised, and staggered hours. This is designed to allow employees to balance work and life. It also ensures that people who are under-represented in Britain’s workforce, such as new parents or disabled people, have access to more opportunities.

A forward-thinking recruitment plan needs to be able to allow for the flexibility for workers and link into departmental plans for coverage during times when workers take time off or change working patterns. The impact of not considering this could mean lack of workers to cover roles, or extra burden being placed upon workers. It’s an area you cannot afford to disregard.

If you have any queries relating the planning ahead for the new year, get in contact by calling 01782 338787 or check out our employer resource pages.