August 2024

In my last newsletter I wrote about the challenging market conditions that many recruitment agencies across Australia and New Zealand face at the start of the new Financial Year, and how vital it is that managers ensure their recruiters focus on the things that they can control and not blame the market, and avoid taking a 'let's wait and see' approach to things. I also shared some thoughts on the need for recruiters to dig deep and work harder (and smarter) to set themselves up for success now, and in the longer-term, which I want to add to in this edition.

More, more targeted and better quality activity

We all know that, in recruitment, activity leads to results; for a recruiter running a desk, there are specific tasks and activities that generate outcomes and contribute to success, and there's a certain level of activity required to achieve our ideal goals and targets (which also needs to be quality activity). In a tighter, or more challenging, market, it is more than likely that you'll have to do more, more targeted and better quality activity because what you did before is probably not going to be enough to help you achieve the same level of success.

What does that mean?

• Undertaking more BD calls (in a focused and strategic way, of course)
• Attending more meetings (with both existing and new clients)
• Working harder and faster to thoroughly package live jobs (and present the best and most suitable candidates)
• Making more candidate calls and conducting more candidate interviews (to find good quality people that you can submit to live roles or take to market)
• Being more thorough in qualifying job vacancies, taking in roles and registering candidates to ensure we're prioritising effectively and giving ourselves the best chance of making a placement
• Increasing the marketing activity (including calls, mailers, CV sends and social media posting) to ensure that your personal brand stands out and companies recognise you as the go to person for when a role is being released to agencies

As I said last time, when the going gets tough, the tough get going - it's time to raise the bar and up the ante.

Managing performance & driving activity

The opportunity for managers right now is to work more closely with their teams to help them increase the volume of activity and improve the quality so that they generate results and achieve success. This could be achieved by:

• Re-setting expectations about what good looks like in a challenging market and the level of activity the team needs to achieve to meet their targets
• Ensuring everyone knows what they need to deliver and is committed to achieving their goals and targets
• Reviewing activity more regularly and offering more support to those people that aren't achieving their targets or aren't getting results (whilst avoiding micro-managing or creating a culture of fear or it being all about the numbers)
• Directing the team's activity a bit more with a renewed focus on core hours and encouraging the teams to do certain tasks at certain times of the day eg 10am-12pm is dedicated to sales activity, we send out a client mailer every Tuesday and make follow-up calls on Wednesday...
• Bringing the team together to do activity eg let's all do BD for an hour each day between 10 and 11am (this helps to tackle people not picking up the phone because they're self-conscious being the only one and can create energy and enthusiasm because we're all in it together)
• Celebrating successes and recognising efforts - it's about keeping the team motivated, rewarding their hard work and thanking them for stepping up and doing what's been asked of them. Consider introducing competitions and incentives to motivate the team and help increase certain types of activities that will lead to success eg whoever completes the most meetings with new clients for the month wins a gift voucher...

Unless you have a highly-driven and self-disciplined team that knows exactly what to do and intrinsically gets on and does it consistently and without fail, as the manager you'll need to take a hands-on role in leading the team and helping to ensure they're delivering the activity and completing the tasks required.

All hands on deck - leading from the front

As the leader, it's vital to set the standard in terms of what you want to see from your people; if the team needs to do more activity, then you need to be the first one on the phone each day, actively participating in the 'power hour', making more cold calls to new companies, chasing job leads, booking and attending more sales meetings and generally showing the team how it's done. "Your behaviour breeds their behaviour."

Regardless of market conditions, in a sales environment it's important for managers to know what their team is doing and ensuring that they're working in a focused, targeted and strategic way, but in this type of market, it's critical. This includes making sure that:

• Teams have clear business plans in place with fee targets, placement/worker number goals and a strategy outlining how they're going to achieve them
• Individuals have detailed sales plans with clearly defined client contact call lists across both key clients and new target companies which forms the basis of their BD activity
• There is clarity around which current clients we want to retain and grow, clients open to working with us that we want to build with and new companies that we're going to target and prospect and win their business - and we're actively measuring our efforts in doing so
• Regular team kick-offs happen to ensure everyone is focused on the tasks at hand, set up for the week and committed to specific goals and outcomes, followed by weekly wrap-ups to check-in on commitments and celebrate successes
• Regular and meaningful 1:1 reviews take place where we analyse performance and plan for the weeks/month ahead, helping the team to feel supported and encouraging accountability

Implementing these practices and taking a more hands-on approach to leading and managing the team will help to ensure that everyone is focused and feels supported, which will enable them to concentrate on the key tasks and activities that will lead to success.

Changing market conditions may require a different set of skills and behaviours

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, for many recruiters, this is a new and very different market than anything they've experienced in their career so far. Right now, recruiters are facing lots of different challenges and issues that require different skills and behaviours for example:

• Having to sell more persuasively, both to clients and candidates
• Having to be more strategic and targeted with their activity in general to ensure they're getting outcomes from their efforts
• Having to work harder to overcome objections from clients about why they need agencies when there's "more people looking for work"
• Being more dominant in terms of asking for business and winning work
• Needing to work harder, faster and with more control to succeed and beat the competition when it comes to placing a great candidate or filling a live role

As a manager, your responsibility is to make sure that your team-members have the skills, knowledge and confidence to do their jobs and succeed. Investing in training and providing more coaching helps to ensure the team are performing at their peak and have what it takes to navigate the more challenging market conditions. This can include:

• Formally/informally
• Regularly/adhoc
• At-desk/off-desk
• On-the-job
• As a group or individually/small groups
• Done by you, a subject matter expert internally or by engaging with an external trainer or coach

It's about making sure the team know not just WHAT to do, but have the right skills, tools and techniques to know HOW to do it and to do it well.

Summary

I see an opportunity right now for recruitment managers to help support their teams in navigating the changing market conditions and providing more sales leadership, direction, coaching and support, which I believe individuals will be very open to and grateful for. Many people right now are floundering, unsure of what they need to do differently to adapt to the different market and getting demotivated because what they have always done is no longer generating the same results.

The market's changed, we have to change!

Managers that provide hands-on, supportive and directive leadership will undoubtedly see improved results from their teams and increased morale and engagement. We're all in it together and there are already silver linings showing - if we continue to focus on the things we can control and the tasks and activities that we know lead to success then we will be sure to outperform the competition and reap the rewards when the market bounces back!

Look after yourselves, and each other!

Best regards, MJ

PS. Please feel free to ask questions, share your views or suggest topics for the next newsletter in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you!