Saving money is easy. Knowing what you can cut without damaging hiring is the harder bit.
There is one question coming up a lot at the moment:
“How can we spend less on recruitment next year?”
Understandable.
But it is definitely the wrong place to start.
Saving money is easy. Cut a job board. Reduce the budget. Drop a licence.
The harder question is:
What can we reduce without making hiring or placements worse?
Whether you recruit directly or recruit on behalf of clients, the starting point should be the same.
Look at what actually worked before deciding what to cut.
1. What actually delivered ROI this year?
Do not just look at applications or cost per application.
Ask:
- Which channels produced suitable candidates?
- Which produced interviews, hires or placements?
- Which roles and locations performed well?
- Which channels actually helped recruiters fill vacancies?
- Where did the budget genuinely contribute to revenue or hiring outcomes?
Cheap applications do not automatically mean cheap recruitment.
If the reporting still stops at application volume and CPA, it is worth looking further down the funnel. We covered this in more detail in You’ve Got the Apps. So Where Are the Hires?.
2. How has your recruitment team changed?
Your 2027 plan should reflect the team you have now, not the team you had 12 months ago.
Consider:
- Has the team grown or reduced?
- Have recruiters or consultants become stronger at sourcing?
- Have responsibilities changed?
- Is staff turnover affecting delivery?
- Do people actually have time to use the tools you are paying for?
Your recruitment strategy and your team’s capability should work together.
If the team has changed, the way you attract and source candidates may need to change with it.
3. What happened after the candidate applied?
Getting the application is only the beginning.
Look at what happened next:
- Were candidates suitable?
- Did they engage with recruiters?
- Did they reach interview?
- Did they become hires or placements?
- Did they stay engaged through the process?
- For direct employers, did those hires stay long enough to deliver value?
For staffing agencies, this should also mean understanding which channels genuinely contribute to placements and revenue, rather than simply generating candidate volume.
Volume without conversion is not ROI.
4. Are you relying too heavily on active candidates?
Job boards remain an important part of most recruitment strategies.
But they largely reach people who are already looking.
For harder-to-fill roles, consider how you will also reach people through:
- proactive sourcing
- paid social
- employer brand activity
- candidate communities
- your existing database
You cannot rely on the active market for every hiring problem.
And for staffing agencies, repeatedly buying access to the same active audience is not always the most efficient way to grow candidate supply.
This is where a broader channel strategy matters. In How to Build a Recruitment Marketing Strategy That Actually Works, we look at why the starting point should be the hiring problem, not the platform.
5. What does your brand look like to a candidate?
Employer brand is not just an in-house recruitment issue.
Candidates are judging employers, but they are also judging recruitment agencies.
They look at:
- your website
- your reviews
- your social channels
- the quality of your job adverts
- the information recruiters provide
- how quickly you respond
- whether your roles feel credible
For employers, this is about the employer proposition.
For agencies, it is also about whether candidates trust you enough to engage.
More advertising will not fix a poor candidate experience.
If the candidate arrives and is not convinced by what they see, increasing media spend will not solve the underlying problem. We explored this further in You Found the Candidate. Why Would They Choose You?.
6. Are you budgeting for passive attraction?
There is often a job board budget.
There is sometimes a sourcing budget.
But activity designed to reach people before they actively start job hunting can easily get missed.
Think about where these fit:
- paid social
- content
- remarketing
- database re-engagement
- employer or agency brand activity
The answer will be different by role, location and audience.
The important bit is that passive attraction is considered as part of the recruitment strategy, rather than treated as an optional extra once the job board budget has already been allocated.
7. Does the recruitment process need investment too?
Not every recruitment problem is a media problem.
Sometimes the better investment is:
- better screening
- ATS or CRM improvements
- automation
- recruiter training
- sourcing technology
- improved reporting
- better database usage
- a simpler application or registration process
More applications will not fix a broken process.
And for agencies, neither will another CV database if consultants are not properly using the one they already have.
8. Can you actually measure what is working?
If reporting stops at clicks and applications, 2027 is the year to improve it.
You should be trying to connect recruitment activity to:
- suitable candidates
- interviews
- hires or placements
- cost per hire or placement
- recruiter or consultant time
- revenue, where relevant
Perfect attribution is not always possible.
But you should know more than you did last year.
Without better measurement, it becomes very difficult to know what should stay, what should change and what can genuinely be cut.
9. Which roles genuinely need more investment?
Recruitment budget should not be spread evenly just because it is easier to manage.
Some roles may need:
- more budget
- a different channel
- shorter, more concentrated campaigns
- sourcing alongside advertising
- additional brand support
- more recruiter time
Others may need less.
For staffing agencies, some job families or client accounts may justify greater investment because they convert better or contribute more commercially.
Different problem. Different answer.
This is also why simply copying last year’s recruitment plan into a new spreadsheet rarely works. Planning Your 2027 Recruitment Strategy? Start With What 2026 Taught You looks at what should actually inform those decisions.
10. What actually happens if you cut the budget?
Before removing £20k, £50k or £100k from recruitment marketing, understand what the likely consequence is.
Could it mean:
- fewer suitable candidates?
- fewer hires or placements?
- longer time to fill?
- more consultant sourcing time?
- increased agency usage for direct employers?
- lower fill rates for staffing agencies?
- more pressure on recruiters?
- more unfilled vacancies?
If nobody knows, you are not really making a saving decision.
You are making a guess.
The aim is not to spend more
It is to spend better.
That might mean increasing investment in one area and cutting another.
It might mean keeping the budget flat but changing how it is used.
It might even mean spending less.
But the decision should come from evidence, not from applying the same percentage cut across every channel.
Use what 2026 taught you to build a better recruitment plan for 2027.
Want another pair of eyes on it?
Artfully helps clients review recruitment spend, channel performance, sourcing, brand activity, recruiter usage and hiring data before budgets are signed off.
Whether you recruit directly or operate as a staffing agency, the aim is the same:
Keep what works. Fix what can improve. Stop paying for what does not.
