Business owners say that they are spending too much time dealing with the recruitment process and agencies and are potentially missing out on good candidates as their process takes too long, according to data released by recruitment firm TalentPuzzle.

Over 70% of the respondents admitted that because of lack of time they were limiting their recruitment pool and missing out on potentially good candidates.

The survey also revealed that 86% of companies said that if they were able to more effectively source the best recruitment agencies it would result in less hassle and improve the quality of their hires.

"Currently employers are caught in a catch 22 situation when it comes to recruitment. Employers recognise the importance of recruiting the right people, however many simply don't have the time to properly devote to recruitment," said Virginia Raemy, CEO of TalentPuzzle.

"Ultimately, they can be dealing with dozens of agencies for a single advertised position, which means multiple contracts, multiple fees and multiple negotiations all of which can be very time-consuming."