Mary Cruse, of Silent Edge sales consultancy, based in Tunbridge Wells, says a strategic approach to recruitment can help you find the right person for the job.

Research by the Employment Policy Foundation indicates about a quarter of all newly-hired people leave their job within a year.

Further studies show almost half of new employees leave within 18 months. It gets worse. The cost of a poor recruitment decision (one in which the employee leaves within six months) has been estimated to be the equivalent of the person’s full annual salary. For many businesses, this is a mistake they cannot afford to make.

When there are so many candidates – an average of 23 for each role – how can you ensure that you make the right decision?

Perhaps the single most confounding factor in the recruitment equation is you, the recruiter; because the entire decision hinges on your subjective opinion.

You can know absolutely everything about the role, you can know your business like the back of your hand, but that does not guarantee that you hire the right person.

This is because subjectivity is a powerful determinant. It can trump all else in the recruitment process. After all, who wouldn't want to work with someone they admired and with whom they had a rapport?

To avoid costly mistakes, recruitment needs to be a strategic process.

Everyone likes a charmer, but that charismatic candidate won't seem so charming when they turn up at work without the skills, knowledge and behaviour. Investigate an applicant's capability before hiring them.

Many organisations use an assessment centre model to determine ability; and nine out of 10 companies using pre-hire evaluations consider them effective.

By testing candidates against best practice standards, employers will select candidates who are objectively the best suited for the role.

Keep in mind too that every business is different, and so a sheep-dip approach to candidate evaluation, in which everyone is assessed in the same way, is not ideal. That's why assessment criteria should be tailored to your company, industry and role.

Recruiting the right person for your organisation can seem like a daunting task. But there are ways that you can simplify the process and protect yourself and your business.

Recruitment doesn't have to be a leap of faith – with careful preparation, you can make that jump and still guarantee yourself a nice, soft landing.