With recruitment still being one of the fastest growing business sectors in the UK economy, most switched on recruitment companies are expanding their teams to capitalise on the need for more talent across the UK and global job market.
If this isn’t factored into your plans it needs to be otherwise you will be left behind as you won’t have the headcount resource to grow your volume of fees and placements.
All makes sense provided you;
- Recruit the ‘right’ new recruiters in the first place.
Currently I am working with a few hundred business owners and a significantly high percentage are recruiting as I write this. Many people who join our recruitment business owner training programmes have struggled with recruitment in the past. Normally because of three mistakes they make:
- They don’t utilise a planned process.
- They don’t use profiling tools.
- They don’t think through the consequences of hiring fast without looking at the facts.
Turn these 3 areas around and you will start to experience a totally different result in your recruiting efforts.
How do I know?
Because I have seen companies completely change their hiring results over the past 2 years when they have followed the three steps I have outlined below.
1. Using a planned recruitment process
Ironic isn’t it! You would think as recruiting pro’s we would all have this nailed; unfortunately not. The successful folks I am working with are following a structure and have a detailed campaign in place; be that advertising on LinkedIn or Facebook, using a skilled Rec2Rec or a specific referral campaign or process.
They have a detailed Job Profile that highlights a number of criteria that are ‘must’ haves for the role in question; be that a new recruit or for a senior recruiter role.
The entire process is professional and considered. Not a shoot from the hip scenario that still takes place in some recruitment organisations.
For example many of my students use the templates and questions I have designed that consistently work. As a free gift you can download them here.
Free Templates Click here.
2. Utilise the power of profiling tools
In addition they are ALL using personality profiling tools that help to uncover whether John or Jane do have the specific personality traits and profiles that mean they are capable of performing well in the role. These are so powerful and there are a number you can use from DISC through to Myers Briggs and others.
Recently one of my clients didn’t ‘believe’ the results that came back for one candidate and employed the lady in question anyway, let’s call her Fiona.
Fiona started off well then the initial enthusiasm and results stopped. Within three months my client had to make the decision to fire her. The issues all confirmed the evidence that the billing manager group and myself had pointed out from the profile results as a red flag that this particular individual might struggle.
All was not lost as my client learnt a practical lesson and has since gone on to recruit two new teams members who I am delighted to report are smashing it. One is three months in and has made two placements already at an 18% fee.
3. Hiring ‘thoughtfully’ not fast
I know it’s a clichéd saying that as business owners we should; “hire slow and fire fast”; however let’s explore this a little more.
You are building a business here that provides a great service and hopefully builds a legacy to sell for profit to a team member or outside investor.
Though you might be tempted to get a ‘bum on a seat and dialling’ as soon as possible, it is rarely a good idea; I know I have done it when I was a director of my own company and it was a less than rewarding experience.
A proven and better option is to have a good process and structure that enables you to say either, yes or no congruently to the fresh faced candidate sitting in front of you.
That way you are making a decision on the best option for both your organisation and the hopeful candidate you are interviewing.
Being a recruitment consultant that consistently delivers does take a certain skill set and a focused driven attitude. It will provide outstanding rewards for people who have the identified ‘skill and attitude’ set. Conversely it will be as miserable as hell for folks who take the job you offer because you weren’t totally sure, or were so keen to build your team you ‘thought’ it would work.
It won’t so please heed my sage advice gained from a lot of experience over the past 18 years.
What next?
Analyse your current process. What is working and what isn’t? I don’t want you to spend hours raking up the past and it would be a good use of time to review what the issues were with recruiters that you had to fire that were linked to their capability or attitude.
- Did you follow the process or not?
- Did you invest in proofing tools that could inform your decisions?
Then take action. You can download my free templates and then get going.
We do cover recruitment in detail on all our courses. If you are interested in attending get in contact here.
Warm regards
Nicky
High performing consultants are the lifeblood of any successful recruitment organisation. The challenge starts when your recruiters underperform. There is a solution and I cover it in-depth in my latest ebook; How to Convert Your under Performers to Consistent Billers in 14 Days or less. You can download it here.
