Networking is becoming more popular than ever and the reason for that is ‘it works’. It may not always be a great way to win clients in the short term, but if you’re looking to grow your recruitment business in the long term, networking is a great way to build important and useful relationships, enhance your image as the ‘go-to’ person for recruitment in your specific sector and ultimately build your client base and grow your business. If you’re new to networking, or think you could be doing it better, here are our 6 principles of great networking.

1. Understand that networking is about sowing seeds, not sales

One of the fundamental mistakes recruiters new to networking make is to think that networking is about sales. It’s not. Networking is about sowing seeds and building relationships with potential clients and other business professionals. So much business is done by referral these days, it’s vital that you come across as a professional business networker and understand the ‘rules’ of networking.

2. Have a plan

The first step towards being successful at networking is to have a well thought out plan. Most networking events will have a list of attendees that you can look at before you go, so do your research. Pick out 2-3 people that you would like to speak to and have a look on the internet. Utilising social networks such as LinkedIn you will know what they look like (occasionally people don’t post a picture, which is valuable information in itself) and gain some prior knowledge of them which could be vital in making the right impression.

 3. Make a good first impression

Did you know that people form an opinion of you within the first ten seconds of meeting you? It’s vital therefore that when networking, you enter the room smart, well-dressed and confident. With a proud posture, firm handshake and making eye contact, you’ll have people warming to you before you have even spoken to them.

Next, remember people like to talk about themselves, so ensure that you ask them a little about themselves and this doesn’t mean you have to dive in and ask them about their business straight away!. Also ‘reciprocity’ comes into play here. As you show your interest in them, others will reciprocate and then ask you about yourself.

 4. Use open ended questions

There’s nothing worse when networking than asking questions that always require a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Have some open ended questions prepared, as these will help carry the conversation and provide everyone involved with important information simultaneously. Networking is about conversation, so the better the conversation, the more opportunities are unearthed!
Note: Networking isn’t about pitching people who you have just met. This is the fastest way to turn people off!

5. Utilise business cards

Remember your business cards and avoid throwing them at just anyone, you’ll come across as desperate. If you’ve had a meaningful conversation and there warrants some further contact, then swap business cards. Make a quick note of the context of the meeting on the back of the card so you know exactly where to pick up the conversation when you next speak. If you network a lot, it’s easy to forget later down the line just who was who.

6. Follow up

It’s good to get into the habit of doing this in 24 hours of the event. Whether it is simply a follow up saying it was nice to meet them or a contact to arrange a further meeting, you will immediately differentiate yourself from the majority of other networks who do not do this. Whether you do it by email or telephone is up to you and depends on the person and situation.

We’d love to hear how effective you find networking. What advice would you give newcomers?

Till next time,

Cheryl

Are you a good decision maker? If not, it’s something that you can be proactive about changing. You can improve your ability by simply avoiding some of the most common mistakes that recruiters make when making decisions. Below we take a look at five of the most common.

Assumption

If you’re recruiting for a long term client it can be easy to start assuming what they want, rather than actually asking them and acting on it. Just because you know there business well and are almost certain of what they will require in a candidate, never, ever assume and always ask them. As well as saving you time in the long-run by preventing you interviewing unsuitable candidates, it’s this sort of attention to detail that probably won you the business in the first place, so don’t let other agencies get another bite at the cherry by letting your service slide.

Not utilising enough information

If you’re faced with decisions that need to be made quickly, it can be far too easy to go ahead without taking the time to gather enough information to make a good, informed decision. Be honest with yourself and assess whether you have enough. If not, put the decision on hold for a short time to give you chance to gather the information needed. This will lead to a slower decision, but a slight delay is much better than a wrong decision.

Taking too long

When a client is recruiting for a new member of staff, it means that their team is under resourced, and that means that as well as not operating as effectively as it could be, each day they are without that team member they are losing money. Of course the final decision as to who they will employ will be down to them, but you are there to screen candidates and present them with a handful of highly suitable candidates. Recruitment is all about speed of response, so avoid taking too long to decide who to put forward. At the same time, don’t be too hasty and cut corners, which could be disastrous for both you and the client.

Not looking at the bigger picture

Are you prepared to sacrifice short-term wins for long-term gains? As a recruitment consultant, you will be presented with decisions that bring this issue to the fore. If for example, your client is desperate for a new member of staff, have you ever been tempted to recommend someone just to fill the vacancy, even if they’re not suitable for the role? Being honest with your client and explaining that things may take a little longer may not be great for your figures in the short term, but your client will appreciate your honesty and you’ll gain in the long-term.

Not taking personal responsibility

When that client congratulates you on the standard of candidates you’ve supplied them with, you’re happy to take personal responsibility aren’t you? But what when they’re not happy? If you’re tempted to shift the blame elsewhere, don’t. Your clients are business professionals and any hint that you’re not the type to take personal responsibility could lose you their business. People make bad decisions sometimes, it’s a fact. Admit them, learn from them and use the experience to provide an even better service than before.

What mistakes do you think it is important to avoid when making decisions? We’d love to hear your views.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Life in recruitment is tough. Even those recruiters who have years of experience, are big billers and are at the top of their game will have times where they receive a series of knock backs, fail to fill vacancies or lose valuable clients to competitors. The reason that they are as good as they are however is that they accept that recruitment is not a job that you will have 100% success all of the time. They also acknowledge that it is crucial to have strategies to help deal with those times confidence is low, enabling them to come out fighting, securing new clients and placing candidates. Here are three strategies to help you get through those inevitable roller coaster times as a recruiter.

Revisit clients and candidates

Are you a poor recruiter? Of course you’re not! You’ve probably got hundreds (maybe thousands) of happy clients and candidates that you’ve helped in the past. Why not give some of them a call? There’s nothing better than calling that client who you have never let down for a quick chat just to see how they are doing. As well as being excellent customer service, it can be a great way of uncovering a new vacancy as well as being an instant reminder of the fact that you have been successful in the past and that you will be again

Get organised and plan

With recruitment being such a fast paced environment, failure is often nothing to do with a lack of skills, desire or knowledge, it can simply be down to a lack of focus. With client visits, candidate interviews, business development calls and candidate screening all vying for your attention, often you can end up trying to do all of them at once and not doing justice to any of them. That’s where planning and organisation come in. Plan your day the night before. Write down what visits and interviews you have and also put aside some dedicated time for business development. Plan who you are going to call and what you want out of each call. Some, you may be at the point of getting a vacancy,  but for others it may just be a case of finding out who the hiring manager is, if there is a PSL or asking to get a client visit.

Attack

In recruitment, fortune favours the brave. Clients aren’t going to be beating down your door and vacancies aren’t going to fill themselves. Now that you’ve reminded yourself that you’re a good recruiter, have organised yourself and worked out a plan of action, it’s time to attack! Whatever area you work in, and in whichever sector you recruit in, there will be hundreds other consultants out there all chasing the same vacancies as you and talking to the same candidates as you. There are no shortcuts in recruitment, so get on the phone and start getting those vacancies. With your new focussed approach, you’ll soon find yourself picking up vacancies and filling them with fantastic candidates. It won’t be long before your confidence will be back better than ever.

How do you deal with the inevitable setbacks that recruitment throws at you? We’d love to hear in our comments section below.

Till next time,

Cheryl

Are you a task orientated recruiter or a relationship orientated recruiter? Working out which one you are is crucial not just for your effectiveness as a recruiter, but also for your own career development. Let’s start with some definitions:

– Task orientated people focus almost exclusively on completing the task at hand (the transaction)

– Relationship orientated people focus on the bigger picture and where the task sits in the larger relationship with the client

If you find yourself simply focusing on the end result (filling a vacancy) you’re task orientated. If you find yourself focusing on the end result AND the steps you take to get there, then you’re relationship orientated. You may not see the importance of this differentiation, but if you want to get to the top of your company and be the best recruiter you can be, then it’s important that if you’re task orientated, you start developing as a relationship orientated recruiter.

Why become more relationship orientated?

Recruitment is all about people, and it’s vital that you understand that people make businesses, not transactions. Recruitment is also one of the most competitive industries in the country, and it’s important that you differentiate yourself from the competition. One of the best ways of doing this is be a relationship builder and provide real value, unlike many of the cut price recruiters that simply place bodies into jobs.

How to become more relationship orientated

Ask questions

When you get a brief from the client, don’t just rush off and start searching for candidates. Take the time to understand the job spec and ask lots of questions so you can focus on what really matters to the client. This sort of attention to detail will mark you out as a professional who wants to do their best for the client.

Provide updates

Communication is key in recruitment, so simply providing your client with a selection of great candidates isn’t enough. You need to be updating them regularly up to this point. The idea is to give the client a fantastic service and charge them a handsome fee. Regular updates will assure them they are getting value for their money and ensure they come back to you in the future.

Follow-up

Once you’ve placed the candidate, the transaction is done. Do you move on to your next vacancy? Of course you do, and remember to follow-up with both the client and candidate. The client will appreciate the after-sales service you are giving them, and you never know, you may have another vacancy for you to work on. Talking to the candidate is useful too. You can iron out any concerns they may have and ensure they are happy in their job. Depending on the role and sector, always keep in mind that your candidate may one day be a client, so developing these relationships is always useful.

Once you’ve made the move to being a recruiter who is more focussed on relationships, you’ll find yourself working much more effectively, winning more clients and retaining the ones you have.

Till next time,

Cheryl

This article previously appeared in Global recruiter.

As a member of APSCO I receive the latest data on trends within our industry. As a Rec 2 Rec owner the latest Recruitment index figures caught my attention.

Many companies are reporting an increase in net fees while others are thinking of mergers, acquisitions and opening new offices abroad.

A positive financial glow is bathing us all; in theory, provided we can attract talent into our respective organisations. And that is where the issue seems to lay.

According to APSCo and Deloitte 59% of recruitment business owners see their main challenge this year to be attracting great recruiters that will fuel their own growth.

Yet why? The talent is out there and willing to move to your organisation. This was confirmed in the latest LinkedIn recruiting trends report. Interesting fact for you that only 15% of those surveyed said they would not consider a move. It’s an easy calculation to work out that 85% will.

All that’s required is for you to meet ‘their’ needs.

Having worked in the Rec to Rec industry for a long time I have spoken to thousands of recruiters and they haven’t changed that much over the years.

The challenging question for you and your recruitment organisation is how are you performing against the ‘must have’ criteria that high billers are looking for?

In my experience these are the four key areas that always make a difference.

Do you have a structured attraction strategy to communicate your brand?

The first thing recruiters do when we tell them about different opportunities is pull out their mobile phone and start searching. They are checking you out.

– What level are you playing at?

– Are you moving with the times; upbeat and a ‘nice’ place to work?

– Any pictures of the team or a ‘feel’ for what it might be like to work with you?

– Are you active on social media; so they can experience how you communicate?

Tick these boxes and you are past first base. Sorry to say for today’s modern recruiter the old saying of; “don’t judge a book by its cover”, isn’t true, they do and unfortunately quickly.

What are you providing to support them?

Money and the ability to excel is important. Make sure your salary and commission structure is comparable to the market. Reward performance and make it fair.

Complicated incentives that will never be achieved aren’t going to hit the mark. Instead make sure they know exactly how they can progress up through the 30-40% to 50% commission band and beyond; remember big billers are still out there.

Here is where your support comes in. Show specifically how you will help them smash their billings. Give them the latest software, databases and marketing support. Because if you don’t I guarantee they will find it elsewhere.

Do you have a career development programme? A real one.

The more I am in this game the more I appreciate that all human beings, deep down, want to be successful, get on and have a happy life. That might be buying the latest designer suit, or blowing their partner or parents away with that surprise weekend or wedding.

Make sure they know what they have to do in your organisation to get on. Be transparent. Let them be mentored by one of your stars. Most of all be consistent.

Have a specific process and clear path that leads from; trainee, consultant, senior consultant, billing manager and then director level, if appropriate.

Manager’s matter

One of the main reasons employees leave organisations is because of their poor relationship with their manager.

The truth? A great billing manager can make the difference between success and failure.

We have heard some horror stories over the years. Managers never speaking to consultants. One manager emailed instructions and feedback; that was it! No face to face meetings.

Never being patted on the back for a job well done or any coaching support about what to do to excel and be praised. Then the crazy one about managers who never say thank you; ever.

Finally a story that sums it all up. I recently met a long established client of ours. He was most concerned and said he wondered how we were still in business. He assumed rec 2 recs were finding it tough.

I had placed 15 recruiters with him and none had left. I told him the truth that he was an easy company to recruit for; why?

He ticked all the boxes above and more.

He had a transparent commission structure, everybody had an induction process and a development plan. The managers were outstanding, highly trained and decent human beings that cheered on their team. They had access to all the software and tools they would ever need. It had an outstanding culture.

Is this making sense? I hope so because it is common sense.

Best wishes,

Cheryl Wing

M.D. GSR2R- London’s Award Winning Rec To Rec Company

Recruitment is one of the most competitive industries, so it is vital that you get off to a flying start to ensure your success. Below we discuss four of the classic mistakes that new consultants make. Avoid these and you’ll be on your way to becoming a big biller.

Avoiding the phone

The most fundamental mistake any trainee recruitment consultant can make. So many trainees come into the industry with a completely false view of what life as a recruitment consultant is, thinking of it as some sort of careers advisor placing people in their dream jobs and getting paid lots of money as a result. The truth is rather different.

Yes you are required to be an expert in recruitment and yes you will be aiming to place fantastic candidates into great employers. But all of this is underpinned by one thing. Sales. If you haven’t got the clients, then you’ve got no business. A large amount of every successful consultant’s day is spent on the telephone doing business development and securing vacancies to work on. There are thousands of other consultants out there doing exactly the same thing so you need to be tough enough to pick up the phone time-after-time and speak to people. If you cannot do that, then recruitment is not for you.

Working the wrong jobs

Some jobs will always be easier to fill than others. Yet despite knowing this, some recruitment consultants will still invest their time and energy working on a vacancy despite it being clear that nothing will ever result from it. That time would have been much better spent developing new business with vacancies that are much more straightforward to fill.

You need to make sure that your vacancies are as qualified as possible. That means they should fulfil all of the following criteria:

– Is there an actual vacancy that has been signed off by the hiring manager? You’ll be surprised how many consultants work on vacancies that when it comes down to it, don’t actually exist.

– Have they agreed your terms and fees? There’s nothing worse than the company pulling out at the last minute because they reject your fees.

– Are their expectations realistic? E.g. are they asking for too much for the salary they are paying? Does that calibre of candidate exist?

– Are they using you exclusively or are they using other agencies as well? If it’s the latter, you’ll probably be best focussing elsewhere.

– Is the company credit worthy? It’s no good doing all the hard work and finding out that the company are poor payers

You may find it scary walking away from a vacancy that doesn’t fulfil all of these criteria. But in the long run, you’ll reap the rewards. You’ll have more time to develop good vacancies for good clients and you’ll find your billings increase too.

Relying too much on the client’s job description

A classic mistake that so many recruiters make; even experienced ones. It’s natural at first to think that as the client knows their business better than you do, then their job spec is bound to be far better than anything you can come up with. Besides, it saves vital time!

What this train of thought misses out is that the client is an expert in their industry, NOT recruitment. That’s your job! So you should be taking the important factors from their job description and rewriting it into a format that will entice the right kind of candidates into applying. It will make your job easier too.

Your job description should be focussed on appealing to the narrow group of people who are suitable for the role and it should not be appealing to just anyone. You don’t want to be inundated with CVs from completely unsuitable candidates.

Taking candidates on face value

As a trainee recruiter, you’ll soon find that taking candidates on face value is a big mistake to make. It’s easy to get drawn in and decide to trust your ‘gut’ instinct but this is something you should never do when placing a candidate. Referencing candidates and doing background checks on social media are crucial.

You’ll find that some of the people you believed 100% live a completely different life to what they told you and their CVs are just fiction. Ask for evidence of EVERYTHING, you owe it to your client as this is what you are being paid to do.

Whether you are a trainee or more experienced recruitment consultant, avoid these four mistakes and you will reap the rewards in terms of billing. What were your biggest mistakes when you first entered recruitment and what advice would you give new entrants to the industry? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Until next time,

Cheryl

In recruitment, we are always striving to improve how we attract candidates and clients, but one area that many consultants forget to improve is their screening process. In terms of pre-employment checks such as assessing someone’s eligibility to work in the UK the consultant is bound by law, but in terms of CV and interview screening for example, a good consultant should be consistently striving to make it as efficient as possible. Here are three ways to improve your screening process.

CV screening

Specialist recruiters in niche markets may have a relatively small number of CVs to screen whereas recruiters in more general employment areas may have to deal with hundreds of applications for a single vacancy. Either way, it is important to have an effective process in place to ensure that you can sort the star candidates from the ‘also ran’s’.

Every job is unique and should be treated as such, but you should know from the discussions with your client that amongst the criteria that they have specified, which are the ones that are non-negotiable. For example, you may have three key criteria to work with:

– Degree educated in a particular subject

– Recent, relevant experience in a similar role with a minimum time g. 6, 12, 18 months

– A professional qualification

Instead of looking at each CV subjectively, you can now look at each one in terms of these three key points, and you’ll be left with three groups of people. Those that don’t meet any of the criteria, those that meet two and those that meet all three. If you’re still left with lots of candidates, it’s a case of repeating the process with what the client sees as the next set of key skills and attributes they need in a candidate.

Interview screening

The interview is the next phase of the screening process and one where you can not only find out more about them, but one where you can drill down into areas of their CV that need clarifying.

Don’t go into an interview without having clearly defined objectives and questions that you want answers to. You need to have a set of questions that each and every candidate is required to answer. That way, you can score each answer and the candidates can be compared equally. A good way is to group your questions under the following headings:

– Technical — does the candidate have the necessary skills, training and education?

– Experience — have they worked in a similar role before? Have they managed staff or budgets successfully before?

– Personal — what makes them different from other candidates?

This last point is perhaps the most important. This is the question that gives the candidate their chance to shine. If interviews are too prescriptive, you don’t get an all-round view of the candidate. An open-ended question such as this lets them open up and you could very well find things out about the candidate that may not otherwise have been revealed.

Social Screening

If you’re not screening your clients socially, then you should be. Searching for them on a variety of social media networks should be an integral part of your recruitment process and look for different things on each different network:

– Linkedin: Are they using it? If so, do they come across as professional? Are they members of industry groups and do they participate?

– Twitter: Do their tweets show an understanding of the medium they are using? Are they posting anything that is unprofessional, offensive or illegal?

– Facebook: What does their Facebook profile say about them? Do they come across as someone who is suitable to be a representative of your company?

Social screening is an illuminating insight into your candidate’s life and can help reveal a lot about what drives them and what is important to them in their career and life in general.

When was the last time you looked at your candidate screening processes? Do you find having an efficient and effective process saves you valuable time and money?

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time,

Chery

In our previous blog “How to demonstrate you are one of their future leaders”, we looked at what you need to do if you want to demonstrate your potential as a manager. However, as we mentioned in that article, the first step is to be the best consultant you can be, so we thought we’d take a look at how to stand out as a top talent in your company. Here are four key areas to focus on. Master these and you’ll be ready to begin your journey to the top tiers of management.

Understand the importance of your sales #candidate and #client pipeline

To be recognised as a top performer your company, ultimately it means being a top biller. That means understanding the importance of your sales pipeline. The best consultants are always developing new business. Even when under pressure dealing with other things, they still find the time every day to bring in new clients and grow existing ones. Start taking days off here and there from business development and you’ll find that week’s down the line this will have a negative effect on what you are billing and will snowball.

There’s nothing your billing managers and directors will like to see more than a consultant who relishes new business and is always on the phone or on client visits. It also serves as a great motivator to more junior members of the team.

Be organised

This runs parallel to understanding the importance of your pipeline. Recruitment is often like juggling. Every day as a recruiter is about managing multiple priorities.

– Business development,

– Candidate interviews and screening

– CVs management and analysis

Being organised is key and can stop you from becoming a ‘busy fool’. It will also make you more efficient which will give you more time to focus on business development and client retention, ensuring you are billing a healthy amount every month.

Play the long game

If you want to be marked out as top talent, then you need to prove that you are in it for the long game. The top billers aren’t necessarily the best salespeople. They are the best relationship builders who understand the power of nurturing a long lasting and fulfilling rapport with their clients.

The big billers have a key client list who they have such a good relationship with, they know they will come to them with every vacancy they have. This in turn gives them more time to chase new clients who they can then develop a fantastic relationship with and the cycle begins again.

Own your own development

It’s your career so it is up to you to own your own development. Taking a proactive approach to your own development will not only help you within your day-to-day role, but it is something that your employers will be impressed with when it comes down to your Personal Development Review. What form of development you take will depend upon the sector that you recruit in, but it is well worth looking at the courses run by Coursera (www.coursera.org) and eDx (www.edx.org). Both feature completely free distance learning courses from some of the world’s leading universities. You can also get a verified certificate on some courses.

Are you a top talent in your recruitment company? How do you go about getting recognised for this? Or are you a recruitment manager? What are you looking for when trying to find the next big billers in your business? We’d love to hear from you below.

Until next time,

Cheryl

If you’re looking to reach the top in recruitment, you must first be the best recruitment consultant you can. That means providing an unparalleled service to both your clients and candidates and becoming a top biller. However, recruitment is a competitive business and there will be other consultants demonstrating these skills and abilities, so it is up to you to differentiate yourself.

What are your company looking for in a leader?

You’ll know from being a recruitment consultant that two outwardly similar companies can be different places to work, each company having a unique ‘culture’ or ‘personality’. It also means that those individuals whose personalities and aspirations are most closely matched to those of the company are most likely to get ahead.

Take a look at who are in management positions in your organisation? What do they all have in common? You should see certain characteristics so it’s these that you should concentrate on developing. If these character traits aren’t really you and you don’t feel comfortable developing them, then maybe you should be looking at working at another company more suited to your leadership style.

Don’t be afraid to show your ambition

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley

You can be as ambitious as you like, but if you don’t vocalise this then how are people to know that you want to get to the top? Don’t go about it in an obnoxious and egotistical manner as that will only irritate people, but don’t be afraid of portraying a healthy amount of optimistic ambition as this marks you out as a positive, proactive member of the company. This is a good foundation on which to base your future leadership ambitions.

Become a leader NOW

You don’t have to wait until you are offered a management role to start showing your leadership qualities. There are lots of opportunities available even if you’re at the very start of your career.

– Ask for additional responsibility – Be proactive and ask for additional responsibility. As well as being a great opportunity for you to exhibit your skills, it shows that you’re not just focussed on taking a wage home at the end of the month, but that you care about the company and want to get on.

– Ask for training – In your development review, state your ambition to become a manager and talk about how you can achieve that. State your case clearly and hopefully you should be able to undertake some form of management training. If not, fund it yourself. That will really show dedication and commitment.

– Become a mentor – If you’ve been a consultant for some time, why not ask your manager if you could act as a mentor to some of the junior members of staff? As well as taking some of the burden off him or her, you’ll be seen as someone who has the greater good of the company at heart and understands the importance of bringing the next generation of talent through. When a managerial vacancy comes up, such experience will mark you out as a highly attractive candidate.

Are you a recruitment manager? How did you get there? What did you do to mark yourself out as a future leader in your earlier career? We’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Cheryl