Recruitment training is often a good first step if you have an under performing recruiter. Before you head off to advertise or pick up the phone to bring someone new in, you need to find out a bit more about the situation. Likewise if you have a recruiter who is quite frankly a pain in the neck just hang back before you cut them out.
First let’s look back a bit to when the person was recruited. What was their induction and onboarding process like, were they given the correct training and support and what elements where included in their development plan?
I imagine a number of you might be looking quizzical at the word development plan or induction process. That’s fine as you will join many other recruitment business owners in a similar situation.
10X YOUR TEAM’S OUTPUT
“Your team does a lot of work – but they could do better. “
The truth is for recruiters to perform at their best they need to understand what they are doing and how specifically to recruit which includes some help, guidance and consistent recruitment consultant training. I know this sounds basic, yet so many recruitment companies do not have this in place… which means they have great people who are capable but simply are not performing. Also for experienced recruiters that you hire, they may have been excellent in their last position, however your company is different and they might now even be in a new sector – so they need your support to learn and get better results – don’t assume that they know what they are doing, just because they have experience.
When to Coach an Under Performer
1) Initially Check on Personal Circumstances
i.e. what’s happening at home, rocky relationship, is there anything else stopping them perform. This should always be a first step with any under performer.
2) The Classic Skill vs Will Matrix
needs to be considered. Many people are more than willing they just don’t yet have the skills and are often too scared to admit it. The good news is that you can change this by using your own skills to uncover the key areas that will bring about the biggest shift. If you want to find out how to coach better performance from your consultants, then it would be worth looking at a coaching workshop – we run one, if you’re interested go to call us on 08453194838.
3) Follow Up
Once this has been carried out youMUST follow up. Create a plan with the recruiter with milestones steps, guides, tutorials etc. Set a time frame and spend time with them and monitor and evaluate their progress. Unfortunately this is the bit that gets missed. It might on first glance appear time consuming, trust me it’s not and can bring you untold of benefits. Learning a new skill or honing an existing one takes time. You will know what is reasonable and fair. They might not get it in the first week, yet with consistent action and application on their part you should see steady progress. Depending on the level and complexity of what you are teaching it could happen in a matter of days.
10X YOUR TEAM’S OUTPUT
“Your team does a lot of work – but they could do better. “
When to Cut an Under Performer
So you have implemented the coaching and still there is no improvement. Let’s assume you have done the personal check and nothing has come to light. So what next? There is a saying that success leaves clues. Unfortunately so does poor performance.
1) Look back over time and their performance record. If you recruited in a top performer on paper, you check up that they were bone fide.
2) If nothing is springing out a performance improvement programme would be the next step. Putting it bluntly this is coaching on steroids. The overall outcome is to get an improved performance. Set them clear and specific activity and results goals weekly and if needs be daily. i.e. number of cv’s sent, 1st interviews, new jobs.
3) Review their activity regularly – if after 2 weeks there is no improvement on activity – then it may be time to look at the disciplinary route. Depending on the size of your recruitment business or team you may have an onsite HR person. If not there are many H.R people that you can contact for advice and guidance for a fee. If you do have your own HR person they are invaluable and will give you the guidance you need.
I hope you found this article useful.
If you want to learn how to set up your business, so that it stops under-performance once and for all, then join my free webinar
The 5 Secrets Our Clients Use to Build 7 & 8 Figure Recruitment Businesses
