Recruitment companies need to stop the “blanket bombing” of job boards when sourcing candidates, according to a senior figure from a website design company.

James Saunders, managing director of 4mat, which has designed websites for Eden Brown and Badenoch and Clark among others, told Recruiter that inefficient sourcing by recruiters is a waste of money.

“The cost of finding a candidate, on average, when you combine the cost of advertising and time spent, is £150 per candidate.

“We believe that, if recruitment agencies are more selective, that cost can be as low as £5.

“If recruiters invested in their own websites rather than trawling the job boards, it would be much more cost-effective. Intelligent client branding on their own sites, for example, is a much better way of doing things,” said Saunders.