Impact of fuel costs on recruitment

For a while I have been thinking I ought to write something about how the rising cost of fuel (and people’s attitude to related environmental issues) is affecting recruiting.  Both from the perspective of the actual recruitment process and the impact it has on decision making for a candidate.  However, this morning I spotted a great blog post which does half the leg work for me.

It’s rather perfectly entitled "How does the rising cost of fuel affect recruitment?".  Mike at Advorto (providers of on-demand, recruitment management solutions..) looks at the actual cost of a commute and suggests a "fuel/distance weighting" (a bit like a London weighting).  In terms of how the current fuel cost situation is affecting the process, I seem to recall that Peter Gold has written a fair about this recently.  Here’s one worth a read "The interview is dead | Long live the interview".

I think the key points are that individuals and organisations are soon going to start considering if a particular journey is really necessary.  Recruiters will need to start being far more sure that they can get the business before going to pitches, candidates will want to feel they have been properly "pre-screened" before agreeing to attend an interview and I think its a good reason to upgrade the whole selection process to include online psychometrics and aptitude testing (which just happens to be something I offer!).  Companies who have a corporate social responsibility programme may also need to consider if recruiting a candidate with a 200 mile a week commute fits the image they are trying to create.