Recruitment workflow and the CRM: Where the lines blur

By Tim Parker, Managing Director, Yu Talent

Within any modern recruitment business the CRM now plays a pivotal role in your day to day workflow. However, The workflow of your business and the workflow of your CRM are in fact still separate entities.  It's just that the lines between them are now so blurred that it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.

This in itself is not a bad thing. The better the CRM fit for your business, the greater the blurring of these lines. It demonstrates a higher level of flow and business integration.

There is a subtle problem that can arise here though.

The danger is that you can be lulled into a false sense of security that the CRM will now enforce work flow discipline and make everything run like clockwork.

Responsibility

Everyone is still responsible for following the your business process and workflow.  Assuming you have the right CRM in place it will oil the wheels of your business. It cannot, however, enforce the discipline to make you use it effectively, no more than your car can stop you driving into a ditch.

Your car requires you to apply the brakes. Your CRM requires you to put the right information in, and get the right efficiencies out.

Mandatory fields

It can be tempting therefore, to turn to mandatory fields in your CRM as the solution, but there are problems with this.  We've kept mandatory fields to an absolute minimum but some mandatory fields are of course still essential e.g. defining a contact as a candidate or client, to ensure the correct system architecture is maintained. Thereafter though, they become less necessary for the CRM architecture and more about personal preference.

Here is where problems can arise with your work flow. One price is agility, but a greater price is data integrity.

Why important doesn't need to be 'mandatory'

One of the problems with relying on an excess of mandatory fields is that it slows people down when they haven't got the relevant information to hand. Even worse, in itself it can create bad data.

If you have too many mandatory fields on a contact record then your consultants will do one of two things if they don't have all the information needed.  They either won't create the record, or will input irrelevant information (e.g. an '*') to get the incomplete record to save. This creates the 'rubbish in' data scenario you wanted to avoid in the first place.  Even worse, it creates a false sense of security regarding data integrity.

However, the biggest problem of relying upon your CRM for enforcing everything, is the absolution of responsibility.

Think of it this way - should a consultant obtain and attach signed terms & conditions because the CRM says so, or because they realise the ramifications of not having signed terms?

If they don't fully appreciate this and the system is relied upon for enforcement, then the risk doesn't go away. It actually increases.

Here's a brief example; when it comes to adding a placement, the consultant who is guided by the CRM may still tick a box to say they have signed terms when they actually don't, to ensure a placement goes through. They genuinely believe this will be ok because they will chase it up the following week, but then they forget.  Meanwhile, another consultant who understands the ramifications flags the issue to their manager, is guided how to approach the conversation with the client and signed terms are returned.

So how do you make 'important' become 'self mandatory'?

I certainly don't want to stray into the area of preaching here but speaking as a former recruitment manager, a little positive encouragement goes a long way. Like any other management technique positive re-enforcement is your best friend, and the stick is best left in the cupboard. It is best to work with your team to help them understand the benefits to them of following both your business work flow, and the value of adding the correct data into your CRM. 

If they raise objections, it's very much worth listening to their reasons. Through listening to your team you may find some of your business processes are unnecessarily elongated. As a result, your entire work flow will can become faster and smoother.

Rely on mandatory fields alone and you increase the risk, not lessen it.  But critically, you miss the opportunity to engage the team and initiate a feedback loop that makes you all work leaner and smarter.

The death of cold calling?

by Tim Parker, Sales & Marketing Manager at yu:talent

When I started in my first recruitment job, CVs were still sent by fax and our database system was a plastic box full of cards with client details written on them.  Considering what I now do for a living, this seems a bit like saying we didn't have indoor plumbing.

When making sales calls we would write notes on the back of the cards, rather than logging them within a CRM system.  It seems (and was) so antiquated looking back. How things have moved on...

Or have they?  The tech may have moved on considerably, but are we still clinging to one particular antiquated practice?  I have been wrestling for some time with the very notion of cold calling and its place in modern recruitment.  I know that cold calling as a core element of the consultants job still remains widespread,  but many businesses have left it behind altogether, or talk about more of an 'organic' sales process.  So do we find ourselves in a transitional period, with cold calling set to die out altogether?

 I happened to work in very large recruitment offices so saw a broad range of people focussed on their recruitment activity across multiple sectors.  Aside from those who were headhunting, the most successful people were not necessarily the ones hammering the phones from 10-12 and 2-4.  Those that were, definitely seemed to be in the minority.  Personally speaking, I definitely had success with cold calls, but proportionate to the time spent without success (i.e. not picking up a vacancy) was it the most effective use of my time in retrospect?  Although I could do it and never shied from hitting the phones, I can't say I ever particularly enjoyed cold calling.  I honestly believe very few people in recruitment do - regardless of how good they may be in all other aspects of the job.  (The willingness and capability issue furthermore complicates finding new recruitment talent in a market which is very scant on good all rounders - those who can both cold call and deliver a good 360 service). Critically, how many people would say they enjoy being cold called - in fact how many would term it more as 'hate' being cold called?  Considering that, how confident can we truly be that it is therefore the best way to start a new business relationship?

Of course, the most effective point at which to initiate the sales process is where a need has been identified and cold calling was traditionally the way to identify need.   The only reason to remove it therefore, is if it is no longer as efficient as an alternative.  As much as I am talking broadly across the industry, whether the above  is actually the case of course depends upon an individual business, based on their assessment of their activity and sector. 

However, I think the problem is that we still cling to the belief that as we are good recruitment/sales people we shouldn't be afraid of picking up the phone and hammering out the calls. But a good recruiter is also a good business person.   A good business person should only ever be focussed on the activity which is most likely to produce financial results as a direct consequence of their actions.  This is where I think we sometimes get the lines blurred a little when we look at activity, particularly in terms of KPIs and ratios. 

The ratios we see in the analysis of vacancies filled vs. interviews arranged, vs. candidate submissions, vs. jobs taken on all stack up. We can learn a lot about how well each stage of the process is being managed and where there may be coaching and training needs in the chain.  However, number of sales calls vs. number of jobs taken on doesn't always have a direct correlation. Yet the assumption often is that it does.  For example, 50 calls producing 5 new vacancies seems to create a ratio of 10 calls to 1 job.  Therefore the common logic follows (not unreasonably) that if you need a job on a day, you need to make 10 sales calls.  However, this tells us nothing of call quality. The reality is that those 5 jobs may have come from 5 quality calls made to warm contacts or they may have been called in from existing clients.  The remaining 45 or more, may have been scatter gun, poorly planned, or been so cold that they did very little to enhance the business or consultant profile.  Some may still have been warm calls to warm leads that weren't ready to convert at that particular moment.  However, the point is that the 10 to 1 ratio is in that case not a true reflection of what ACTUALLY generated 5 vacancies.  Identifying and replicating the activity that actually created the 5 vacancies is surely the best thing to do in practice.  The remaining time can then be put to doing more of the same, or be focussed on converting those jobs to placements, resulting in an increased placement ratio.

In a by-gone time, when there was less competition and frankly, the quality of cold calling in the industry was much higher, there is no disputing that cold calling had its place.  However, times have changed and there are other ways to identify need. We often talk of working smarter, not harder.  The question for me in light of the above is whether 20 hours of cold calling a week is still truly the smartest way to work?

5 steps to retaining your top billers in the current climate

By: Tim Parker, sales & marketing manager, yu:talent

For all service sector businesses the old adage of 'your people are your greatest asset' has never been truer.  Without your people, your business is just an empty office.  The recruitment industry, however, takes this to another level.  Individual high performers often become the focus of both attention and worry for the agency owner/manager as I can attest to personally.  They contribute greatly to the business and are rewarded accordingly  (or at least they should be).  As they say though, with great power comes great responsibility - but this responsibility is shared.  Your top biller is responsible for conducting themselves in an appropriate manner, one which is hopefully  inspirational too.  You are responsible for how you handle them and the power they wield.  However, the worry of losing them can sometimes cause us to weaken to unreasonable demands, and it is a worry compounded by the current market.  The amount of good recruitment talent actively looking on the market continues to contract as 2014 progresses, so enticing offers put in front of your star billers are likely to increase.

So how do you hang on to them?

Although big salary offers are tempting, it is rare that anyone will leave just for salary alone.  It might appear to be the salient cause when they wave an offer letter in front of you, but if they make the leap the causes are likely to lie much deeper.  Pre-emptively attacking these issues is where your attention should focus.

1) Review Bonus and Incentive Packages

While your top billers are likely to be money hungry, they will be more incentivised by what they can generate on top of their basic than the basic itself.  Otherwise, frankly they would not be top billers.  Review how competitive your bonus package is when compared to other packages in the market place.  Also review how easy it is for all your consultants to achieve bonus, or to understand the scheme itself.   They should be able to see direct reward immediately for work done - this will keep them motivated.  If consultants are contributing financially and seeing no reward, or a bad month kills their bonus possibility for the next two - they will quickly lose motivation.  You should also be able to explain the scheme in a few sentences without you or them glazing over.  This is also particularly important when it comes to recruiting new consultants too.

Furthermore, consider this; it is easy to mistake payment of bonuses and reward incentives for  'costs'.  Doing so will make it harder for you to swallow making changes that are more favourable to those who receive them.  The reality is though that while these are of course cash outgoings, they are only outgoings against income which otherwise would not have been generated.  Bonus packages are only a true cost when badly structured or ill thought out.

2) Understand their aspirations - and map a path for them

Some top billers want simply to remain as that.  They enjoy the kudos and the financial reward but may have little else on their agenda.  Others may have aspirations to develop and grow their careers in a different direction.  Whether done through a formal or informal mechanism make sure you are talking to all of your consultants about their aspirations and understand the path they wish to follow.  If you don't pave the way for that, someone else will.  This can be tough if you can see a top biller evolving in a direction that will lead to less direct revenue at first - such as management.  But longer term, you will reap the benefits.  After all, who do you want leading, inspiring and coaching one of your teams - someone who has excelled in their roles or someone who has been average?  If you don't pave the way and try to keep them tied to a pure billing role, you will lose them, their revenue and the untapped resource of their expertise altogether.

3) Review your working practices

Are you up to speed with the modern world or lagging behind?  Do you trust or micro-manage? Work life balance is a well worn phrase but only because it matters so much to so many - even a killer biller.  The fact is that you can perform well while having a personal life too.  If candidates need to be called out of ours is it absolutely necessary to tie your people to their desks to do that until 7 or 8 in the evening?  If you build a culture of trust with good rewards, you don't need to worry about someone leaving at a reasonable hour to go to the gym.  They can call those candidate afterwards from the comfort of their own home.  The rewards on offer will be their incentive to do so.  If another business offers an environment better suited to your star performer's lifestyle, don't be surprised if they slip away.

4) Review the technology and tools your team are using

Technology moves so quickly that what was fit for purpose even just 2 or 3 years ago may now be lagging behind the curve.  Review all the tech tools you have in place from your back office to your CRM.  Are they suited to the current market and present day?  Do they speed up the work of your consultants or slow them down?  The right tools should act like a second pair of hands improving their work rate, and improved work rate means more revenue for you, more bonus for them.  So taking a hit on changing tools could prove to be a small investment with a big return.  You may be surprised at how little making the required change can cost you though.

5) Talk to your people

If your consultants aren't speaking to you voluntary on the above, canvass their opinions.  In fact, if they are talking to you, don't assume they are telling you everything.  Create an environment that encourages feedback and ideas.  Not only will you get a great measure as to how people feel, they will also feel good about being consulted and listened to, especially when they can see their ideas being implemented.

An important point here though is to talk to everyone.  We may have been talking about retaining your top billers but don't talk to them alone.  Talk to your trainees, talk to those who may be doing ok but not excelling - they are the people who you need to grow into the top billers of tomorrow and their opinions are equally as important.  This is furthermore true of anyone else in the organisation who may not have a billing role. Everyone is important and great ideas can come from surprising places.

The offer letter in front of you

On a final note, if you do find yourself in a situation where one of your best consultants has given verbal notice and presented you with a counter offer letter outlining a juicy salary increase, keep the following in mind.  Whether you are inclined to immediately counter offer or see red and show them the door based on the sheer audacity, think before you act. 

Yes, losing them will be a loss and replacing them a cost indeed.  However, you need to evaluate what can really be done.  Make sure you talk through everything and get them to really open up as to why they are unhappy.  Can you truly resolve these things? Has too much water passed under the bridge? Are they seemingly happy with everything but the salary - in other words potentially testing you?  Really take all of this into consideration before matching with a counter offer. 

The options here will always be less than ideal, but bear in mind the wider impact of retaining them through a counter offer.  Yes you will keep them for now, but how long until they try it again? How has your relationship been with them over the last few months? Can you turn things around? How likely are they to brag to someone else in the team about what they did? Critically, how will that affect the morale of the rest of the team once word gets out?  Difficult questions to face but the answers may show that the minimum impact and cost actually lies in a different direction to counter offer. 

While there are no guarantees in life, prevention is still the best cure.  Implement the 5 steps above, keep reviewing them on a regular basis and act on the small seeds of discontent before they grow into a tangled forest you are hacking your way through for the rest of the year.

“Tim Parker is the Sales and Marketing manager for www.yutalent.com, a new Recruitment CRM aimed at Boutique Recruitment Agencies.”

Why compliance is killing your margin

Written by Tim Parker of Yu:talent

As any good recruitment manager knows, driving business profit is not just about generating fee income.  The control and management of costs is a delicate balancing act that differentiates an exceptional manager from the average.  Spend nothing and your business may wither on the vine; spend liberally and watch that fee income evaporate.

When it comes to advertising and other costs that appear on a P&L, control simply requires a measure of due diligence.  It is far harder though to manage the costs that don’t come with a black and white figure attached to them.  They exist in a number of areas but particularly when it comes to service delivery.

The cost of service delivery manifests itself in staff time and one of the greatest time drainers in recent years is compliance.  Sourcing and delivering the talent is one thing, but the amount of background checking and vetting has continued to grow, simultaneously coupled with an increase in pressure to reduce fee margins.  This is not just in the temp market but contract and perm too, though where the greatest pressure exists is arguably in the markets with highest volume and lowest fee value.  Many contract centre recruiters will tell you this, particularly those supplying to industries such as Financial Services.  This is of course understandable in many respects when supplying staff into high risk business areas.  Whether all the compliance processes are necessary or truly deliver the reduction in risk they are designed for is a different matter.

Regardless, the need to comply with compliance is not likely to reduce in the near future. So how can you best manage this?

Utilise your knowledge base

Use the people who have the best knowledge of the client and their processes.  This might at first seem obvious, but while you might be pushing for a consultant to deliver in a traditional sense, you might actually be taking them away from working on areas of the project where they would deliver more for you in terms of overall contract profitability.  

Deploy best skills in best areas

Leading directly on from the above, ensure everyone in the team is playing to their strengths and working within their greatest comfort zones.  If everyone is comfortable with what they are doing and enjoying it then you will achieve far greater productivity.  Admin intensive activities probably are best diverted to a member of support staff or a temp hired to support in delivering the project.  Do be wary though, that training someone new does not prove more costly in time and mistakes than leaving the responsibility with a more senior team member who is competent and happy with the task.

Define everyone’s roles

You may know who is best doing what, but ensure they do too.  Define everyone’s roles clearly to both the individual and the team.  Identify those who you believe are capable but may not believe that themselves.  Ensure they have the necessary encouragement and support to guarantee they will deliver to the level you believe them capable.  Be prepared to make adjustments and changes if unforeseen weaknesses emerge, but don’t chop and change erratically.  Be strategic so solving one staff problem does not create another with someone else.

Simplify, simplify, simplify

Bizarrely the act of trying to manage a complex set of processes dictated by a client can result in creating more and more processes internally.  This is not as illogical as it sounds.  In order to ensure that the clients processes are followed, having an internal set of checks and procedures is a logical safety net to guarantee that all is progressing as it should be. However, this can easily escalate out of control as it is easier to add more and more process than it is to be disciplined in adding only what is necessary.  Be strict in this regard.  The more you have in place, the more margin there is for error.  Aim for ‘minimum process delivery’ - the most minimal process chain possible that will still deliver the required result.

Use the technology available to you

In order to achieve ‘minimum process delivery’ use all the tools you have available to you.  Admit when you are unsure of what is available and again use team strength for ideas in areas where your knowledge is lacking.  Use your CRM/ATS system to its fullest extent in storing documents where they are easily accessed for checking.  It should be the core of the simplicity workflow.  If it is unable to deliver what you need fully then additional tech may bridge the gap, but beware that spreading the process into different tech areas can quickly undermine the simplicity flow if not done well.  If too many gaps exist, or you don’t use a CRM/ATS to manage your recruitment projects then it might be time to start looking.  If this is the case then carefully analyse exactly what you need the system to do for you before you go to market.