EMPLOYERS in the UK waste about £18billion a year on recruitment yet many display a relaxed attitude to hiring members of staff.

The cost of recruiting and training a new member of staff is casually estimated at several thousand pounds - some put the cost at nearly a year's salary - with other ancillary costs including the hiring of expensive temps to fill a gap and the loss of productivity while a new employee gets up to speed.

A recent study found that more than a fifth of staff involved in recruitment had no formal training and only marginally more than a quarter had a recognised human-resources qualification.

This lack of expertise increased the risk of unfair or ineffective recruitment, resulting in lost revenue or accusations of discrimination. On top of this, a quarter of employers admit that their assessment methods are unreliable.

Against this background a Scots recruitment boss is taking his 20 years interviewing expertise to businesses throughout the country in a bid to solve some of Scotland¹s hiring and firing issues.

Ian Campbell, Managing Director of Dunfermline-headquartered Avenue Scotland, said that recruiting the best person for the job was often left to people who had no real interest, or experience in it, and unsurprisingly the net result was a dissatisfied employee or employer, or both, and the necessity to go through the same costly process shortly afterwards.

He said: "Companies think nothing of checking out the merchandise properly when they are investing £50,000 in a piece of machinery but they don¹t use tried and tested principles when they are recruiting staff.

"People are a company¹s most important asset yet they are hired and fired indiscriminantly by employers who often don't know how to interview, train or retain staff.

"Yet if they apply the correct interview and selection procedures they will not only save themselves considerable sums of money over the longer term, they will have better and happier employees and a stronger and more efficient business."

Interviewing a potential new employee is one of the most critical elements in the ongoing success of any business yet only a minority of those conducting the interviews have had any form of training or development.

Mr Campbell said: "The reality is that it is petty prejudices such as this which costs industry so much. If simple guidelines, and an interview scoring system, are adhered to, we can tackle this problem at source, and match up the right person with the right job."

"Why do we allow untrained personnel to interview potential employees who will have a major impact on business performance, profitability and a company¹s reputation.

"It doesn't matter how good the candidates are. If you do not provide adequate training on interview techniques and implement a clear company policy on interview processes then you are playing Russian Roulette with your recruitment decisions.

"We all know that when we employ an exceptional employee we enjoy a cascade of benefits. Inherent problems seem to disappear, productivity and employee morale increases and the whole company is given a massive boost."

ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) says that most jobs are filled through interviews.

The interview has two main purposes - to find out if the candidate is suitable for the job, and to give the candidate information about the job and the organisation. Every candidate should be offered the same opportunities to give the best presentation of themselves, to demonstrate their suitability and to ask questions of the interviewer.

A structured interview designed to discover all relevant information and assess the competencies of the applicant is an efficient method of focusing on the match between job and candidate. It also means that there is a consistent form to the interviews, particularly important if there are a number of candidates to be seen.

Unstructured interviews are very poor for recruiting the right person. The structured interview is most likely to be effective in obtaining specific information against a set of clearly defined criteria. However, not every manager is skilled at interviewing, and may not be able to judge efficiently the applicant's skills and competencies. Ideally all interviewers should receive training, including the equal opportunities aspects of recruitment and the relevant legislation.

Mr Campbell is now advising businesses throughout the country on the basics of interview and selection and is rolling out a number of roadshows throughout the country - beginning at the Apex Hotel in Dundee in November.

Mr Campbell founded Avenue Scotland in 1993 after a successful career in recruitment in Europe. It is now one of the country¹s top recruitment firms, with a client list of more than 2,000 firms and a database of over 20,000 potential candidates.