Buy cheap - Pay double

There is a great saying that I’m sure you have used before with ‘buy cheap – pay double’ and for those that haven’t heard it before, I guess it means, if you buy in cheap from the outset then in the long term you will end up paying double. It may be through lost business, staff replacements or simply not attracting or retaining the best staff in the first place before the competition does.

Many hiring managers still appear to be missing out, simply by not offering the correct market rate to prospective employees or by not working more closely alongside their chosen recruitment suppliers in what should be partnership relationship.

There appears on the face of it, to be a huge difference between organisations that are making significant headway and those that are still on the ropes in the current patchy economy. These companies are either under resourced or have no strategic manpower plans in place that will take them to the next level.

We understand how tough it’s been as we speak to individuals and organisations on a daily basis. The common factor is that winning the ‘war for talent’ has never been as important as it is in this economic climate.

The candidate marketplace, despite high unemployment levels, simply does not have an abundance of high quality prospective employees that can be plucked off the shelf. This under supply and increased demand is proving frustrating throughout the industry as it gets back on its feet. Not that it makes it any better but this is also the case in other related sales sectors across the UK.

So how is it that some hiring managers are appearing to be attract and retain a steady stream of good calibre staff?

Progressive organisations are doing this in a number of ways. Firstly they are working far more closely with their suppliers, in building up genuinely beneficial relationships and identifying the correct staffing levels and skill sets from the outset.

Secondly they are operating ‘ethically’ in the market place, and by this we mean with complete transparency in their dealings with suppliers and candidates. The relationship they are developing is simply more open and it moves the whole process forward.

This in turn leads to fewer problems in the procurement process and development issues are identified and resolved swiftly. Less fall out, faster turnaround from interview to job offer with quicker referencing leads to the correct appointment from the outset in the majority of the cases. Think of it as a chain, the longer it gets, the greater the chance of the deal not actually taking place.

Thirdly, these business operators and hiring managers are more open minded and approachable. They challenge how things are done and innovate. Through this they attract more potential employees from a variety of sources. This can be from referrals, social networking sites, online and off line advertising through to engaging a recruitment consultancy.

In short these progressive clients simply don’t want to miss out on an individual that could either make a positive difference to their organisation or, even worse, start with a competitor. In truth it should not matter where you source your employee, what matters is that you source the right person for your business needs at that time.

These clients also treat their suppliers, whether they are software, media, accountancy and even recruitment consultancies as an outsourced non-core competency. They engage with them and respect their relationship with them. This reaps hidden rewards not only of the supplier delivering more effectively, but also promoting the business/ clients name positively throughout the wider community improving the clients name further in passive staff attraction and retention.

One thing is for sure as we come out of all of these still challenging times for many of us, winning that ‘war for talent’ has never been more strategically important for the future of UK business as never before.