Since the “Great Recession” in ’08 we’ve seen enough declining charts and heard enough horror stories that in a lot of places layoffs and hiring freezes have become more common than a new face in the office. These are “cost cutting” measures, which make sense; the fewer people you have to pay the more money you’ll have at the end of the year. On the flip side, there will be fewer people to do the work your customers pay you for in the first place.

Everyone in America circa 2008.

For example; if you save $90K/year by not adding a new Sales Executive to your team, but the quota for that position in $400K/year, you’ve just shorted yourself $310K in revenue. And that’s just in year one. Sure, there’s a chance you could’ve hired a dud, but if you’ve got faith in your hiring practices or a good partner, you should be willing to play the numbers.

Granted, there are plenty of other departments where the math isn’t quite as clear, but whether you’re dragging your feet on hiring a new developer or adding more projects to an understaffed marketing department, the results are the same. Quality of work decreases and benchmarks get further and further apart. If you want to grow, you have to plan for that growth. You can only stretch your resources so far before the cost of that empty desk outweighs the savings.

Okay, this office is empty because it's clearly haunted, but my point still stands.

You can apply the same math to working with a recruiter. We’re not free, but neither is your HR department or your time. You’ll weigh our fees against the time it would take you to conduct the search and the benefits to your company. I think you might be surprised how often the numbers come down in our favor.

Cody Pierson is the Marketing Manager at Martyn Bassett Associates in Toronto, Ontario. He sits on the other side of the office, but that gives him a unique perspective on the recruiting business. If you follow@MBAI_team on Twitter you'll actually be following him and he'd love to hear from you.