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Recruiters, recruitment leaders, recruitment marketers – I normally have a rule of creating an “interest generating statement” at the top of all of my recruitment blogs… but to be honest I have no idea how to start a blog about ME with something that may interest you! Apart from, perhaps, the lessons I have learned about recruitment and business.
I’m celebrating my 10th year as a business owner / consultant / Mum. It was a weird start. In 2008 coming back from mat leave to no job (during a recession).
Having a 6 month old baby on my lap whilst signing up to Companies House, getting a logo designed, thinking of a business name – perspective was created!
It’s Been a Varied Recruitment Journey
Starting a business and swearing to never work in recruitment again… well that worked! Within 1 year, I’m exclusively back in the recruitment “zone”.
Telling my husband (and from 2009, business partner) that social media is pointless in recruitment, and asking him why he feels that having a training product in Recruitment CRM is a good idea.
Dammit – why is he always right?
Ten Valuable Recruitment and Business Lessons
Celebrating my 10th year has taught me some valuable lessons – and in no specific order:
Partnerships and advocates are key: Volcanic, Adapt, Bullhorn, UK Recruiter, APSCo, Broadbean, Greg Savage, Only Marketing Jobs, Cube19, Recruitment International, Undercover Recruiter (and more) have been beyond a help in getting my business to be recognised as an impartial leader in recruiter success training, CRM adoption, and recruitment marketer success.
Having a Whippet in the office has been a massive help! He’s actually the MD (Managing Dog!)
Hiring on values, not CV – a massive lesson that I took a little too long to learn! The team I have now impresses me every day!
Not being afraid to build my product around my clients‘ needs. Again, thanks to them for being such great advocates of what we do, and pushing us to grow and develop products (Awards Marketing/ Adverts Training / Digital Marketing Mentoring) which we felt were already covered by other suppliers, but turns out that the Barclay Jones “spin” was much-needed!
My experience of recruitment, although nearly 20 years, has been varied, energetic, passionate – but on the whole the first few “formative years” of “boiler room” style recruitment has set me up to empathise and own problems which recruitment leaders often feel isolated by.
Data is still the life blood of a business – it was in 2000 – albeit in a different format. 2019… let’s hope recruiters really begin to “sell it” again.
There is not enough “talent” and passion in our space – or at least enough than I can hire to help me drive forward the businesses of my clients. Hence we are going “online” in 2019 – bringing a platform to help recruiters and their leaders and marketers have more access to my team and I. BUT this will simply complement crucial face to face coaching and mentoring to boost the online world we’re creating. My team are awesome offline and online!
Winning awards – hard work but bloody worth it. Don’t let any negative Nick tell you that being an influencer, being the best, demonstrating your values / approach / skills is not important – it’s the reason we do what we do… surely?
The market still suffers from a lack of respect for itself – this is reflected in lower fees and a lack of real marketing to help candidates and clients understand the value recruiters add. I’m on a mission to change that!
Passion sells – I’ve not run out of energy for the sector. I’m known for a “no shit” approach – which to be fair masks a genuine love for the industry and a “you can do better” with my clients. Paul said once:
Lisa knows her stuff – she is not scared to challenge what we do. She is clearly passionate and won’t accept anything less than great.
And a final lesson – and this is a message to all budding recruitment leaders. BEFORE you name your business – abbreviate the name and really think about what it may mean to others… Barclay Jones – the website for that abbreviation is NOT going to get a backlink in this blog! ‘-)
Here’s to year 11, a few more half marathons, more time at the Brownlee Track, more love for the industry and a happy team and client / partner community, copious amount of gin! Oh! and a new website, learning portal, content writing product, more staff… and another year of telling people:
Yes! this is actually my natural hair colour!
(It really is!)
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The Sales-Led Recruitment Marketing Challenge
Now more than ever, recruitment marketers need to deliver real value. But where does marketing fit in to the new muddled landscape? And how are they prepared for the new normal?Recruitment Leaders and Recruitment Marketers! Do I have a high energy recruitment sales and marketing webinar for you! Your sales and recruitment teams don't care if you have event fatigue - they need leads (and you need to generate them).Your candidates and clients assume if they don't hear from that you don't care, and will go elsewhere.Treat your brain to a high energy 45-min workout - Simon and I have some tips and tricks to help you create a 90-day sales and marketing plan to keep your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) attracted, engaged, converted, and retained.Plus, I share some of my tips from the Recruitment Marketing Academy I run for marketers who want to be the "biggest billers" in their recruitment business.Recruitment Marketing Being Accountable and ValuableWith COVID creating either distraction, furlough, or redundancy, recruitment agencies are focused on lead generation and conversion. A recent survey of recruitment marketing professionals asked the following questions:What were your plans to improve prior to COVID lockdown?What are your biggest challenges during lockdown?Where do you see the biggest wins for you in the next few months?Where do you feel you need additional training / knowledge?Join myself and Simon Lewis from Members Only for an engaging session as we lift the lid on answers to the above recruitment sales and marketing questions, helping to understand the role of the recruitment marketer moving forward and how we can make ourselves truly accountable and VALUED.Watch My Sales and Marketing Webinar HereREAD ABOUT OUR MARKETING TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS MARKETING TRAINING
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Lisa Jones
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4 Things to Help Recruiters Bill More Sales During and After Covid
Recruitment Leaders, before Covid, was your tech delivering profit? Or, did you have the feeling that you were over investing in tech? Did you suffer:Too much data, not enough information?Too many applicants, not enough candidates?Too many jobs, not enough placements?Too many systems, not enough process?I recently spoke at Rec2020 and the topic was: Recruitment Technology – The Future and Making it Work for You – and the take away was:you need to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption in your business – now is the time!But with the current climate, frustrations, and "new normal" changing every day, how do you do this? We answered these four questions...1. Recruitment Tech! All The Gear, No Idea?Perhaps, due to:Massively distracting market conditionsStaff returning from furlough, and possible not firing on all cylinders (fair enough!)Recruiters drowning in candidates applying for jobs that they can’t doRecTec supplier invoices needing paying…you now feel that you were “over investing” in recruitment tech. What did it actually do to help you through this period, and what will it do in the coming months?For example, my team reviewed a 25-person recruitment business with a tech stack costing £200k+. (This excluded their Bullhorn CRM, which ironically, they were not using effectively.) The business wanted to be more effective at attracting, sourcing, engaging, converting, retaining. But they had great tech, data, and passionate recruiters…2. The Problem Between the Chair and the Keyboard? (Recruiters?)Did you have PIBKAC before Covid, and do you want it now and in the future?Ask yourself:How was your business performing before Covid? Did you:Have a team of highly trained, super-engaged recruiters, delivering super-happy candidates to clients who couldn’t cope without you?Have a fully monetised set of systems, data, and processesAnd a marketing department generating awesome leads that your sales team could convert?Or were your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) not being as effective as you’d like, and you seemed to be buying more and more tech just to stay the same?Perhaps you also suffered from a high attrition rate (average before Covid = 43%). Note that 2/3 of people who quit their jobs in 2019 stated “lack of training” as their reason for leaving. Perhaps you’d used up your business growth budget on salaries (who) and tech (what) and neglected the training (how)? Perhaps you thought "automation" would fix everything?3. Is Recruitment Automation the Goal?Recruitment automation has become a real turn on for some in the industry (including myself!) Systems like Herefish are really kicking butt and doing things to the recruitment process that fixes a lot of the issues outlined above. It’s a great time saver and processes speeder-upper!But - in our march to “automate” we’ve forgotten a step...Systems can only automate processes, if the processes (or at least the sentiment) exist.Humans are still pretty viable (understatement) in the recruitment agency world. The key is to understand where and how they deliver their marketing, sales and recruitment, so you can delegate some of it to a system, then leave the recruiter to do the bit only they can do.But in an industry that is drowning in data and systems, it suffers a lack of process. And there is a distinct lack of systems and process training for recruiters which compounds the problem.Look at your processes:Can they be automated? What’s possible (and plausible)?What isn't being done consistently, forgotten, or what would you like to do that will improve candidate/client experience and free up consultant time for more valuable activities?What needs automating so that your staff can work from home, and you can lead / manage them more effectively?How can you create time for recruiters to develop stronger relationships with clients and candidates (hence stronger pipelines)?4. How Do You Generate the Buy-In for Using Recruitment Technology Effectively?You need buy-in for this for effective rectec adoption. So, gain an understanding of two things (thanks Andy):How will recruitment tech drive an increase in performanceHow will it solve a business-critical issue (eg. Covid) which will enable point 1Often recruiters need more time to manage the sales process. (They likely have enough data and systems). Ask yourself:If I could save each of my recruiters 1 hour a day (hence 30 days a year) how much more could they bill?What could they do with that hour?Through the Bullhorn, Adapt, and other recruitment training my team delivers, we aim to give recruiters back 1 hour a day. Case study:A recruiter who has a £100,000k target.They’re full time and take 20 days hols a year.My team trains them to use their tech more effectively and saves them 1 hour a day.This generates 30 days extra time per year.This equates to a potential pipeline of an extra £12,500You have 10 staff? This means £125,000. What’s the commission for you and your team on that figure?And how much does it cost to train recruiters to generate that level of fee? (not as much!)That’s a simple way of measuring performance improvements and generating buy-in from all levels of the business.Recruitment Leaders, You Need… 1, 2, 3You need to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption in your business – now is the time!Look at your tech stack– is it delivering value to you, or just the people you bought it from?Look at your processes - are they clear enough for remote workers to adopt, managers to manage, and where possible, to automate?Admit that your staff are extremely unlikely to ask for help in the current market. It is too risky to admit a lack of skill? Be the leader and get them trained.If the rest of 2020 is about linking your systems, data, processes and people, imagine what 2021 could be like!Watch the Rec2020 Webinar HereHIIT Us, Recruiters!Could you save an hour a day, and make an extra £18,750 a year (or £187,500 if there are 10 of you?)Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines with Adapt, Bullhorn, LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digital and Email Marketing. We aim to save every recruiter at least 1 hour per day - more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
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