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Calculating True ROI

We want every BaSo campaign we conduct to create value. Real, identifiable, quantifiable value. The value is obvious when the SourceSimple campaign provides the candidate who is hired. However market statistics state that this is a fairly rare occurrence — according to data gathered over the last 10+ years, about 10-15% of positions are filled by applicants and database resumes. The rest come from internal moves, referrals, and external recruiters.

When we created the SourceSimple service, we took that statistic to heart. If our campaigns will only find the right candidate 15% of the time, is there a way to make SourceSimple consistently valuable to our clients? We decided there was: it’s all about necessity and pricepoints.

Both internal and third party recruiters already know that BaSo campaigns are a critical part of every search. Imagine spending 40 hours working on a passive candidate search, tracking down the names and numbers, making the telephone calls, asking prospects for resumes… only to discover that the ideal candidate had already uploaded a resume into a database. You could have saved a week worth of effort by searching the database first. BaSo campaigns quickly cut to the chase, and are highly instrumental in informing the rest of your search strategy.

Most recruiters know this already, and incorporate BaSo campaigns into their sourcing strategies. A thorough BaSo campaign at the beginning of a search will take 4-6 hours of searching, and about an hour of advertising. Follow up takes about an hour each day. Assuming the BaSo campaign doesn’t find the right candidate, which will happen 85% of the time, recruiters now begin the work of networking, passive candidate searching, and candidate development… in other words, the “hard” stuff, the stuff they get paid the big bucks to do. However, without the BaSo campaign at the beginning, recruiters would never know what “low hanging fruit” is available. The BaSo campaign is a necessity.

BaSo campaigns are usually pretty expensive.

* First, calculate time: a 10-day BaSo campaigns soaks up about 6 hours on the first day, and about 1 hour per day in followup for the next 9 days, for a grand total of 15 hours of work.

Next calculate the face value of that time: 15 hours multipled by $30 per hour (considerably more for experienced recruiters) is $450.

* Then calculate the opportunity cost of that time: 15 hours spent not marketing to clients or candidates, not talking to hiring managers and prospects, etc. It’s more difficult to tie a concrete figure to this cost, but that doesn’t make it less real.

* Finally, calculate the cost of your sourcing resources: $500 in advertising fees, plus $1,000 per month in candidate database fees.

Adding up the cost reveals a pretty high number. It’s a fair estimate that a solid BaSo campaign will cost $750 or considerably more, depending on the value of your time.

If you use SourceSimple, you know exactly how much your BaSo campaign will cost… and you know it’ll cost a tiny fraction of the $750 required for a BaSo campaign on your own. When SourceSimple finds the right candidate for you, the value is absolutely enormous — when SourceSimple DOESN’T find the right candidate, you still saved hundreds of dollars.

Whichever way the SourceSimple campaigns ends, our clients walk away in a better position than they would be otherwise.