Mulled wine, mince pies and SPAM: Why SPAM is made for Christmas

Closing the office gives everyone a chance to hit the reset button. Your team should take some time out, but you shouldn’t switch off entirely. That period between Christmas and New Year is a golden opportunity to work onyour business, while you’re not busy working in it.

It’s never been a better time to be in recruitment. Get your model right, and you will achieve double-digit growth year on year. So while it’s important to spend time with family and friends at Christmas, don’t neglect your business. 

As well as gorging on mince pies and mulled wine, get stuck into some SPAM. Take a good look at your agency to make sure you have the right Story, a robust Plan for the year ahead, Alignment within the business and a dashboard to help you Measure success.

Let me explain what I mean…

Story

To succeed in any industry, you need a vision. So make sure your story is on point as you head into 2019. Just because it was this year, doesn’t mean it’s fit for purpose next year. Times change, and you need to move with them.

• Where is the market heading? 
• What are your clients’ pain points? 
• Does your brand and service reflect these? 

Recruitment is dead as a word. Nowadays, it’s all about delivering a solution to the customer that’s compelling and easy to buy. Delivering the right product or service in the right way. 

Is your story still relevant as you look ahead to 2019 - and even 2020? If not, reconsider what you’re selling.

Plan

Once you’ve hit the sweet spot with your Story, you can develop a Plan to scale. There’s no reason you can’t achieve 50-100% growth every year in a recruitment business of 50 people or less. You just need a plan with the right financials behind it. 

How will you get from A to B? 

Be realistic. It’s pointless setting targets unless you understand how your team are currently delivering and where improvements can be made. Look at conversion rates, how long it takes to get someone fully productive, cost per desk, and expenditure versus ROI. Forecast out your improvements so you have a blueprint for growth and a plan to avoid overtrading. 

At the same time, make sure the growth strategy is ambitious enough to really motivate you. If it’s not inspiring, it will be difficult to become that ball of energy for everyone else. Set challenging targets based on realistic figures and you have a recipe for success.

Alignment

As well as motivating yourself, you need to incentivise your team. This is where Alignment comes in. Ask yourself honestly:

• Am I paying people enough?
• Is the work rewarding?
• Am I a motivational leader?

You might be telling the world a great Story and have big Plans for growth, but they need to inspire others to join the journey. Changes such as restructuring commission and improving the work environment can go a long way to helping you achieve your overall goals.

Measurement

The end of the year is often treated as an autopsy. Businesses assess their performance, and look at what they could have done better so they avoid the same mistakes next year. But what if you could avoid them in the first place? To do this, you need a framework for Measurement.

Having a dashboard enables you to see problems before they arise. It allows you to predict the future. If you can see day-to-day whether quotas are being met individually and within the team, you can quickly nip issues in the bud and ask: ‘what are we doing about it?’

Your dashboard could include the number of A jobs per head, conversion rates, or commission. Set these quotas now so that you have foresight on performance throughout the year - and even month. You’ll know at any point in time whether you’re on track to hit targets.

SPAM’s good, don’t you think? The final thing to do is plan your AGM. A kick-off meeting in January is crucial to bringing this all together. Everyone will return to the office starting on zero with fresh ideas and energy. It’s your role to get them buzzed up with an action plan and ask: ‘who’s with me?’’

If you want your team to thrive in January, put the time in now. You’ll notice the difference in the New Year…

Have a great Christmas. Gary