Every organization has its own unique way of building out a business case. There will be documents and forums that differ from business to business, but whatever the process, it must ask and answer the right questions.

When it comes to recruitment and the decision to outsource or manage in-house, the same holds true. To get the right outcomes, the business case process and documentation must:

1. Capture what recruitment really costs, not just the obvious costs such as that of the talent team’s wages and the advertising costs of each role.

2. Map the process to find all hidden/underlying costs and to show where inefficiencies lie.

3. Prepare stakeholders so that they understand why you’re embarking on the business case in the first place and to ensure any general grievances or issues are addressed.

4. Establish the benchmark by measuring key indicators of just how successful the recruitment process currently is.

5. Demonstrate the timeline for savings to be delivered.

Also you need continually asking yourself the following central questions throughout the process:
- How do we deliver the most optimal talent acquisition service to Hiring Managers?
- How do we attract and retain the best applicants?
- How do we measure the value of talent acquisition to the business?

If you are in recruitment, not only must you learn to identify the total cost of recruitment, you must also learn to justify the potential investment and/or identify the potential savings from any proposed change. This might seem fundamental to the very idea of a business case, but identifying these elements takes significant effort—often far more than we first assume. Understanding the total cost of the recruitment process prior to confirming the scope of any potential outsourcing or insourcing move allows an organization to identify the greatest opportunities for savings and process enhancements.

To gain a true total cost of recruitment you must factor in the cost/spend related to:

- The existing Talent Acquisition Team
- Time spent by non-Talent Acquisition HR resources e.g. HR Business Partners, HR Admin, HR Systems
- The ATS deployed to support the recruitment process including licenses, maintenance, upgrades and enhancements
- Maintenance of web content, as it relates to advertising vacancies and brand
- Creation, design, maintenance and bounty payments for candidate referral programs
- Agency fees
- Creation of recruitment marketing creative and collateral, either via external partners or in-house
- Recruitment marketing, e.g. job-board licenses, press/online ads, events, fairs, sponsorship
- Hiring Manager time i.e. creation of vacancy, approval process, screening applications, scheduling interviews, interviews, offer negotiation and on-boarding
- Discreet resources or teams within the business that have been created to support the recruitment process i.e. recruitment champions, admin teams,Central Governance Teams
- Third-party assessment tools e.g. psychometric testing, behavioral analysis
- Background screening/reference checking and preparation of paperwork for onboarding
- Any communication with unsuccessful applicants

These tips and more are part of : Talent Acquisition: In-house or Outsource? - 6 Steps to a meaningful business case.  You can download this free ebook on how to evaluate your recruitment process here.