Keeping Recruiting Costs "Down"

A thread over on ERE's Recruiting Leadership Forum asks the throngs Monday's question of the day, "How do you keep recruiting costs down?"

Naturally this begs a question: How many in recruiting really know and track the direct and indirect costs of talent acquisition?

How can you decrease what you don't know or track?

Comment by Steve Levy on September 26, 2008 at 9:42am: Many track costs by tracking as much data as possible. For instance, most recruiting organizations don't think to engage their CFO in discussions about metrics - so much for that strategic business partner line in HR!

Come to think of it, I'll bet most of the HR folks in financial services - think about the companies that we as taxpayers now own - view themselves as strategic business partners. Effective, weren't they???

But if you engage your CFO in talks about metrics - starting with asking them the simple question, "How do you measure the health and wellness of our company?" - then for some the light bulb will come on and they'll begin to see other types of data that fit into the recruiting performance equation. Better yet, ask the CFO another question - "Can you help me develop recruiting metrics that are in alignment with your metrics?"

Day one step should always focus on gathering historical business data right around the time you talk to your CFO. The data will deliver; it always does. And if you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

Now if only the Fed would think frugally...