Everything that’s been happening with Brexit over the past couple of weeks has created a phase of uncertainty for the vast majority of us in the world of recruitment.

As much as we would all love to be able to look into our crystal balls and know with exact certainty what’s going to happen over the coming weeks, months and years, that’s not going to happen.   What I do believe in though, is that the results you are going to get in this changing market will be based on your mindset, more specifically, your perspective.

How you choose to react to the situation, if you choose to look for the opportunities or choose to focus on the problems.

We can never control a situation and certainly not control the outcome of something like this where there are so many moving parts and uncontrollable factors in it.  However, you can control how YOU react to a situation and there are certain things that you can make sure that you have in your businesses that will help you to really create certainty and thrive in a changing market.

Whether you are in the Leave or Remain camp, this is an opportunity to get your ship in order so that either you can make sure that you weather the storm, grow and flourish and come out the other end really strong, or simply use this opportunity as a wake up call to get your ship in order now so that you can maximize on the opportunities that are heading our way.

So here are some top tips that will really help you to get not only your recruitment business in tip-top working conditions, but will really help you to create some certainty and some security as things progress over the next weeks, months and years.


1. Become the Expert in Your Niche:

 

Niche Market

Not only know the niche inside out, but have a very clear idea of the service offering that you are providing to your clients in this niche. This is important because if you can provide a service that no one else in your space can provide because you know it so well, and if you’ve got a pot of really highly qualified, sort-after candidates in a niche where other people don’t, no matter what’s happening in the markets, clients will come to you.

Also, if you’ve the go to person in your niche, you will be right next to the action, you’ll know the players and what they are doing, which means you can be one step ahead of the market. This makes things a lot tighter and a lot easier for you to continue to do a top-level business as your competitors without these deep relationships fall by the wayside.

2. Make sure your team have a really clear idea of your service offering:

So that they know your unique selling points, your value add, your value proposition, so that when they are talking to companies, whether it’s new or existing business, they can provide a solution that is really congruent and stands out from your competition.

3. RPO or Retained:

A smart thing to do is to look at your key clients and see where you have got the opportunity to be placing multiple vacancies, and then offer them an RPO or a retained project deal.

It then means they have committed to you so you will be their first point of call as they hire and it gives you more control of the situation. Plus, it can save your clients a whole stack of time and money by having you there.

4. Have a Contract/Interim Offering

 

Make an offer

 

Whether it’s contract, interim, temp, in a uncertain market, companies like to have flexibility so that if they need to change things quickly then they can.

5. Know and understand your clients:

Get really close to your key clients and use what’s happening in the market at the moment to go meet them, sit down with them, to find out what their plans are.  Find out what their challenges are and where else you could be helping them. Now is a really brilliant time to concrete in relationships with your key clients.

6. Make yourself important to you clients:

You may look at offering other services as well as just recruitment. Whether it’s career guidance, interviewing skills training, hiring and onboarding process, so that you’re adding real value to them, and you become a true consultant.

7.  Team Dynamics:

Team Dynamics

Make sure you’ve got the right people in the right jobs. If you’ve got somebody who absolutely loves and thrives with business development, networking, going out into the market, creating new opportunities, but who is an absolute bombshell when it comes to resourcing candidates, delivery, follow-up, long-term customer service, then look at is who in your business you could pair them up with who is really good at that.

Also, look at any consultants who are working really hard, committed and motivated and struggling and pairing them with a strong consultant who is maybe placing less than 50% of their jobs so that they can then take up some of the slack on the jobs that are already coming through.

8. Strong and skilled management and support structure:

Whenever you’re dealing with uncertainty, it’s absolutely crucial that you have key people within your business that are what I call your champions for change. These are people that are focusing on the solution rather than the problem. These are people who can pick up morale, look for opportunities rather than problems, and can support your consultants through any moments of uncertainty.

9. Succession planning:

So you’ve always got a back up. Rather than having one person in a market, look at having two or three people in a market so that if for whatever reason one is away on holiday or decides to leave your business, then you haven’t got too much intellectual property in that one person’s head that walks out of the door

10. Monitor and measure activity:

Maesurement-centredexcellence

The only thing that you can manage in your business is activity. You can’t manage results. Be clear on your key performance indicators, the volume that is needed in order for you to hit your targets for your business.

So there you have it. They are some tips on how to be thriving in uncertainty within a changing economy. We hope that you find this article useful.

And keep your eyes peeled for our next instalment because we’re going be delivering some in-depth free training soon on these exact topics on how to really thrive and build a robust recruitment business in any uncertain market.

Would you like to know more ? Get in contact for a personal conversation here.

Warm regards
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