To advertise or to use a recruitment bureau

The importance of effective recruitment can hardly be over‐emphasised. Errors can be offset, but at a cost, either by further recruitment, or by extra training and development. However, not only must recruitment be effective—it must also be efficient. This entails taking costs into account, although these are often difficult to control because budgets are notoriously difficult to set. However, given the amount of resources involved, it is surprising that not more attention has been paid by writers to the cost‐effectiveness of the process.