Talk to most corporate or agency recruiting leaders and you’ll likely hear the same thing regarding recruiting budgets for 2010…  Flat from 2009.  A majority of firms reduced their budgets in 2009, so the definition of flat is still down from 2 years ago.  While experts predict retention will be the #1 problem organizations face once the economy turns, this makes the budget situation an interesting dilemma.

Here are a variety of ways to make the most of your recruiting budget in 2010, and help position you for the predicted hiring increase:

• Self fund new initiatives. Assess your processes, identify breakdowns and unnecessary steps, and fix them.  With the savings or increased productivity, you should be in a position to fund new opportunities so you don’t find yourself behind your competition.

• Consider attendance at recruiting events. While most organizations plan ahead, some events and opportunities present themselves over the course of a year.  When you make one-off decisions, it can be easy to justify.  While there are some industries and jobs where an event (such as a career fair) might make sense. The truth (for most) is events have never made the top of the list for sourcing effectiveness. There may be reasons to attend (branding as an example). If that’s the case, have your Marketing Department fund the event. Be clear about why you want to be there, and what results you are striving to achieve.

• Capitalize on sourcing effectiveness. Which sources equate to the highest quality hire or ROI? Capitalize on the sources that make the top of your list and invest more into them by decreasing the resources dedicated (people and money) to the ones that don’t.  Take your alumni, boomerang, and referral programs to an unimaginable level.

• Leverage SEO, SEM, Social Media, and Blogs for recruiting. If unemployment wouldn’t have skyrocketed, many have predicted the overall traffic to job boards likely would have continued their multi-year decline in traffic.  There is enough evidence on using these “new” tactics for recruiting, some going back more than 5 years ago.  It’s time to take these mainstream, where the talent is. If you think of a .jobs domain when you hear SEO, or you think of LinkedIn when you hear recruiting with social media, think again…

• Campus Recruiting. Campus recruiting is evolving – and the number of organizations attending and hiring on campus declined substantially the past 12 months.  Take advantage of this competitive opportunity to recruit students and graduates, not just by visiting a career fair or hosting a pizza speaker series.

• Re-negotiate contracts. You’re not alone – vendors and suppliers are feeling pressure too.  Partner with them, get creative, and re-negotiate existing and new contracts.  Most are very open to this, as it beats the alternative of having you shop around more.

• Job Board Coupons. If all else fails, use coupons for your job boards.

Another opportunity that will surface as hiring volumes increase, is the reliance on contract recruiting and agency partners that companies have turned to in an effort to augment their internal capability.  If this isn’t managed closely, it could create even bigger and more expensive problems down the road.