How to Maximise the Productivity of Your Remote and WFH Recruiters
The recruitment world has changed—and whether your team is hybrid, remote-first, or fully virtual, one thing hasn’t: performance still matters. But without the buzz of an office, the whiteboards, and the shoulder taps, the Mars Bar incentives, how do you keep productivity high without becoming a recruitment micromanager?With so much tech and data, it's easy for procrastination and "admin-first" mentality to sneak in - and phone and face time with candidates and client suffers - and pipelines are not robust enough.But as a leader of a recruitment team or firm, I bet you're still waiting for the memo on how to manage your teams to max productivity...Here’s are some thoughts on recruitment leaders can set up their remote / hybrid teams for success—with clarity, connection, and commercial focus.1. Shift the Focus to Outcomes, Not HoursThe most productive recruiters aren’t always the ones who log on early or appear busy all day—they’re the ones who deliver results. Set expectations around outcomes: interviews booked, candidates submitted, jobs filled. Productivity isn’t about presenteeism; it’s about performance.You can call these KPIs, or simply "brilliant basics" - call them what you need to but, be clear on your goals and expectations. 2. Run Daily Huddles to Set the PaceA short 10–15 minute morning huddle can align the team around daily goals, hot jobs, and potential roadblocks. It keeps activity visible and creates a sense of shared momentum, even across screens. Don't scrimp on these kick offs / cool downs - they are vital to help your team (and you) stay connected.3. Use Dashboards to Drive ConversationsLive dashboards in your CRM (like Bullhorn) are powerful tools—but only if used constructively. Track key KPIs / Analytics / deliverables like CVs sent, interviews scheduled, and pipeline activity. Ensure that your tech can easily track these goals to ensure that your CRM/ATS is a single source of truth.4. Coach in the MomentFeedback shouldn't wait for end-of-week reviews. If a recruiter is struggling with outreach, sourcing, or conversion—jump on a quick call or screen-share. Remote doesn’t have to mean distant.5. Over-Communicate (Yes, Really)In an office, information travels quickly. Remotely, you need to be intentional. Encourage regular Slack / MS Teams / Zoom etc... updates, team chats, even voice notes. It’s not about overloading people—it’s about keeping everyone in the loop and engaged.6. Structure the Day for SuccessHelp recruiters design their day with clear time blocks: sourcing, BD, admin, follow-up. Get these diarised and transparent. Without the natural rhythm of an office, distractions creep in. Time-blocking restores focus.7. Celebrate the Small WinsThat candidate who finally returned the call? The new job lead from an old client? Shout it out! Wins matter more than ever when working remotely—recognition drives motivation and retention.We recommend, for example, an MS Teams channel devoted to team / people successes. And ensure that the team feel empowered to shout out each other's successes.8. Check In (Not Just Check On)Don’t just ask for numbers. It's too easy, when managing people remotely, to focus on the work outputs - as a leader you need to be better / different. Ask how they’re doing. Engage in what makes them tick. Remote work can feel isolating, for both you an them, especially in high-pressure sales environments. Regular check-ins help uncover hidden blockers—and show that you care.9. Give Them the Right Tools (and Training)Make sure your recruiters and resourcers have access to the tools they need—video calling platforms, up-to-date CRM access, and workflow automation. Then layer in continuous training so they can use the tools confidently and commercially. This is especially important if you have AI / Automation tools. Training on the why, as well as the how, can be empowering and drive change quicker. Simply turning them on with minimal training risks "buy-out".10. Keep the Culture AliveFrom monthly leaderboards to virtual quizzes and Friday wrap-ups, make space for team bonding. How about a weekly quiz, using Kahoot or MS Teams, and each week a different team member runs it? High-performing teams thrive on connection—don’t let geography erode your culture.Final Thought: Set the Standard, Then Drive ItRemote recruitment teams thrive when there’s clarity and consistency.Create a simple “how we work” playbook—when check-ins happen, how KPIs are tracked, what good looks like.Then empower your recruiters to own their day, backed by your coaching and tools.The market won’t wait—and neither should your recruitment team. Productivity is a habit, and with the right leadership, remote recruiters can be a super-powerful asset.Want help building a remote recruitment process or smarter Bullhorn workflows? Let’s talk. I offer free consultations to help leaders like you unlock better performance—wherever your team logs in from.BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
How Recruitment Leaders Can Grow Despite the Disruption
Recruitment leaders! You want to do more with less. You need less costs, more profit, less data, more placements, less systems, more process.You need to ensure your recruiters, systems, and processes are super effective and drive a sustainable recruitment business. This podcast has some game changing insights for rec leaders who want to scale.Top Recruitment Insights for Recruitment Leaders Who Want to GrowAs a recruitment leader, you want to know how to get more out of your existing staff and reduce the need to hire. The stats show that 1/3 of recruiters quit due to lack of training and it costs a whopping £$€14,000 to replace just one recruiter!In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I spoke with Alex Evans from Talint. He is the Managing Director at Talint Partners. Alex is passionate about the recruitment industry and how recruitment leaders can grow their businesses.We looked at the constant disruption that recruitment leaders and their recruiters have had in recent years. Why we feel that this will be a continuous disruption. And, more importantly, what we feel needs to happen to build resilient and effective recruitment businesses, able to tackle this disruption and the disruptions that will affect recruitment in the future.We talked about:AliensAssertion of control by the individual and how this affects recruitment businesses.Candidate shortage??? Is there one? And if there is or is not, what do we do about it?Digital transformation in Recruitment – what does it really mean and how can it actually help the 3Cs – candidates, clients, colleagues? As well as cash flow.How do recruitment leaders get more from their people, data, and systems?Alex shared some ideas and data from their insight report about what recruiters’ clients actually want – and it’s not hard for the average recruitment business to deliver. We talked a lot about people and how they drive (or drain) a recruitment business:Why did 1/3 of recruiters leave in 2019?How much does it cost to replace a recruiter if they leave?How do you get more from your people?What do we need to do to be ready for the next disruption in Recruitment?Listen to Alex Evans on our Recruitment Leaders' PodcastThanks, Alex for being such a great guest on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast. Find out more about Talint's Staffing Leader network and enter the TIARA Recruitment Awards. Help Your Recruiters to Bill MoreYour coolest tool is the recruiter, but when they drown in dirty data, ineffective recruitment processes, and expensive recruitment systems, recruitment becomes slow, risky, and costly. Continuous training and effective use of systems boosts productivity by 30-40% and sales by 29%.Our online recruitment high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters and resourcers source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines. We aim to save every recruiter and resourcer at least 1 hour per day (6 working weeks a year)- more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Forget Candidate Experience! What About Recruiter Experience?
Recruitment leaders - before Covid, was this you and your business?Too much data, not enough information…Too many applications, not enough candidates…Too many leads, not enough invoices…Too many systems, not enough process…Whether you have a team who have been, or are still on, furlough… Whether they are all back to work, in the office, or working from home…How can you get your recruitment team, and recruitment business, back on track?And do you even want to go back to what you had before?You likely want to:Increase productivityCreate more accountabilityImprove the recruiter experienceAnd you want to create a flexible and sustainable recruitment business to prepare you for the disruption that lies ahead. Your technology and team have never been more important. How can you use it and them to improve your recruiter experience, and thus your recruitment business?Watch My Speedy 20min RecExpo Seminar on Recruitment TrainingTalking of Recruiters Being Happier...Could you save your recruiters 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, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT 7 DAYS FOR FREEREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Recruitment Leaders! How Can You Enable Sales During this Crisis?
Recruitment Leaders! It’s likely that with Covid you have had to be more innovative than ever, in order just to stand still. Recruiters being proactive, following business process, increasing their activity, and having a strong sales pipeline is more important than ever. Take note of what Mckinsey says:During the current crisis, businesses have worked faster and better than they dreamed possible just a few months ago. Maintaining that sense of possibility will be an enduring source of competitive advantage.APSCo Insights Webinar - Back to Business DevelopmentI chaired an APSCo webinar with:Adam Dale, SourceBreakerRicky Wheeler, Cube19Darren Westall, PaigerLloyd Moore, Advisorlink memberWe discussed what strategies and tactics do you need to develop during a time when change is constant? And when your staff, clients, and candidates are remote – “selling” seems harder than ever.You need to enable sales. Gatherers need to be hunters. Account Managers likely need to develop new pipelines. Managers need to be able to review activity and need the tools to manage remote workers.We discussed:What does enablement mean to sales and recruitment?Things have shifted - how has, and how will, the role of a recruiter change?What needs to happen to the sales culture to enable sales?How can we enable sales to be more effective marketers, to generate and convert more leads?Enable them through technology and automationEnable them through training when perhaps they have no time or resourceEnable sales managers / leaders to monitor / control / be able to monitor productivityThe Covid crisis has created an opportunity to rethink, reskill, and revitalise how recruitment and sales are delivered. This is a great webinar to gain some practical tactics and ideas for how to compete in the new market.Watch HereCould 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, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate leads, and colleagues (3Cs).TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Kevin Green: Recruitment Leaders Against Recession and Coronavirus Podcast
As a recruitment leader you're likely having to make some drastic decisions for drastic times. For those of us who have been through a recession, including my clients, we know that this is different. There's more to think about, more government help, more variables, more questions than answers - and there is no rule book for this. This is why I'm delighted that this Recruitment Leaders' Podcast has a guy called Kevin!Kevin Green ran the REC for 10 years, and has perspective on recession, how to run a profitable recruitment agency, and how to be a sane recruitment leader.He has evolved as HR Director at Royal Mail – to the Chief Exec of the REC – to now a Non-Executive / Strategy Director / Public Speaker for recruitment firms and “mere mortal” non-recruitment businesses with his What's Next Consultancy. He has also written a book called Competitive People Strategy.Coronavirus and Recruitment Leaders Staying SaneAs part of my Recruitment Leaders’ podcast, I grabbed some airtime with Kevin and discussed 4 things about the recession, how the Coronavirus is affecting recruitment, and recruitment leaders staying sane.I asked him:What are the differences for recruitment leaders, in the 2008 recession and this 2020 recession? And how will this affect us in 2021 and beyond?How will the agency recruitment market change as a result of this recession and the Coronavirus?Are there ANY positives about what is happening right now?What specifically do you need to do to manage your business through this time? And what should you do for yourself?This is indeed a massively painful time for recruiters and their leaders. Listen you this 30- minute recruitment leaders podcast – give yourself that time to think about where you are, what you want, and how you’ll get it. It's a fascinating listen, with some very useful takeaways and a pep talk for recruitment leaders who need an ear.Listen to Kevin Green on our Recruitment Leaders' PodcastListen and subscribe to the rest of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leader Podcast Series or find us on iTunes!HIIT Us, Recruiters!Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines.We'd love you to try Recruitment HIIT free.TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Is this the Fix for Talent-Short Recruiters? Recruitment Leaders' Podcast
Every recruitment leader needs more staff – or at least they want their existing staff to be loyal, effective and successful. This recruitment podcast is a great listen to help you spend a little time creating a strategy for fixing your talent shortage. No recruiters? No fees? ...No business! Here’s a fix!This Is Must-listen for Recruitment Leaders Who Need to Attract and Retain StaffIn this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I spoke to Ann Swain, Founder of APSCo, about their initiative, Women in Recruitment, something that will fix over 70% of Recruitment Leaders’ issues this year (and beyond…)We talked about what Women in Recruitment is. What does Women in Recruitment do, and what’s in it for recruiters?Recruitment leaders have a lot to benefit from understanding how a focus on diversity and inclusion in their recruitment business can fix a lot of problems (namely recruiting and retaining the best recruiters!) and help them create more profitable, successful businesses.We talked about some key issues that can affect / help the talent shortage in most recruitment businesses:Why there is a talent shortage within the recruitment industryWomen in Recruitment: WIIFR (what’s in it for recruiters?)What really motivates salespeople and recruiters?How are men and women being done a disservice in the workplace?What do millennials and Gen Z really want, and how can we deliver it?How do recruitment leaders fix the gap between employing and retaining staff?Does Ann think women are better salespeople than men?How do we help our staff perform to the best of their ability?What are the benefits to joining Women in Recruitment?Women in Recruitment isn’t just about ticking a box, feeling better, “doing the right thing”. There’s LOTs of commercial benefits – which if I’m honest, I feel I shouldn’t need to outline, but, I may as well.If the average recruitment business needs more staff, what do they need to do to hire and retain women?Do women make better sales people? (Contentious!)Recruitment awards and vendors often ask about diversity – what do you really need to say about your approach to “women in recruitment”.Listen to the podcast below.Listen and subscribe to the rest of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leader Podcast Series or find us on iTunes!HIIT Us, Recruiters!Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate leads, and colleagues (3Cs). TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
From Dustman to Recruitment Data Scientist… Some Seriously Great Advice for Recruitment Marketers
Recruitment Leaders and their marketers who need their marketing to be sales-led: about convertible leads, retained candidates, recruiter attraction, need to listen to this Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast.Today the focus of this Recruitment Leaders’ podcast is recruitment marketing driving sales. This is a crucial listen for recruitment leaders and their marketers – and recruiters who know that getting on the “right side” of marketing may be the key to their sales pipeline success!Recruitment Marketing, Data and Hacks for Recruiters!If we have learned anything from the last 24 months, cleaning up your data (because the government told you to) may not necessarily get you the financial benefits that your common sense tells you you should be getting from a clean database…I’m joined by someone who can bring data cleanliness and recruitment marketing to whole a new level. Starting as a dustman (who’d have known?) Segued into website build. Became the mighty Broadbean’s 3rdemployee. Then moved to Ebsta.Ricky Wheeler’s purpose at Cube19is to help recruiters generate growth from decisions based on real-time recruitment data.It’s all been about recruitment data (and the odd bit of “dirt”).We talked about two recruitment marketing topics:1. What Tips Can Ricky Give to Recruitment Marketers?What has Ricky learned about recruitment marketing from his vast experience in some high performing recruitment software businesses? He answered the following questions:What are Ricky’s “hacks” for successful recruitment marketing?How do marketers make their functions a profit, rather than a cost, centre?How does Ricky define a high-performance marketing team look like?How do marketers navigate the (what I call) the marketing “love-in” that I see online and at events, which really offer little value, but give generic “tips” on marketing, but often don’t really add any real substance to help the average recruitment marketer add real value to the recruiting workflow?How can recruitment events REALLY work? (when so many of them don’t work…)What do recruitment leaders and recruiters need to “do” with their marketer to get real value and how does the marketer interact with their leaders and internal clients to ensure that they deliver the 4Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues and cash!)2. What does Ricky think that Recruitment Marketers need to do with their data…… to help them become more effective?Which data does a recruitment marketer actually need?How do recruitment marketers actually help the sales funnel?How do personas actually help recruitment marketers with their content / SEO strategy?Where does recruitment CRM fit into a recruitment marketer toolkit?Which tools are critical to a recruitment marketer? And which is the most important recruitment marketing tool?Recruitment Leads / MQLs / SQLsWe discussed recruitment leads – and our tips for lead generation for recruitment leads, where recruitment CRM fits and how to manage the leads into successful conversion. It’s about MQLs (marketing qualified leads) enabling SQLs (sales qualified leads) … and our thoughts that if you’re waiting for automation to transform your business then you’re likely to stagnate your growth by not engaging data and humans in the best way.And what do recruitment leaders and their time-starved recruiters need to stop asking their recruitment marketers to do?We also talked about my concept of the “dashboard recruiter” – you can also hear more thoughts on this in my Mark Hodgkinson “Taming your Recruitment Data” Podcast.And read more about how I work with recruitment marketers to generate leads, candidates and recruiters on my Recruitment Marketing Mentoring Program.Listen to the podcast below.Listen and subscribe to the rest of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leader Podcast Series or find us on iTunes!I train and mentor recruitment marketers to deliver the 4Cs - candidates, clients, colleagues, and cash!HIIT Us, Recruiters!Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).TRY RECRUITMENT HIITBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS MARKETING TRAININGREAD ABOUT OUR MARKETING TRAINING
Are Hairdressers Putting Your Recruitment Business at Risk?
Many recruitment leaders I work with want their recruitment CRM to generate fees, but often recruiters are all too happy to jump back into spreadsheets, LinkedIn, notebooks and “going by memory” rather than use their CRM system properly. This blog is a quick 3minute read to create some perspective and give you some ideas for a “CRMFirst” strategy.The above results in a nightmare for recruitment leaders who are looking to grow their business, become “GDPR-proof” and become more profitable.It also results in a problem I call “Hairdresser Syndrome” – a term I’ve used for many years to describe a recruitment business that needs to get a grip on its processes and data to see real growth and ROI.Do You Have a Recruitment Firm, or an Office Full of Desks For Rent?I have been with my hairdresser for 8 years. He knows my taste in magazines, some of my secrets and all of my roots. A few years ago he was based in a large salon in the city, where he rented a chair.The rest of the salon staff barely knew I was there, and I didn’t really notice them either – zero interaction. Perhaps if I was lucky my hair would be washed by one of the juniors. I’d pay the girl at the till on the way out, but my hairdresser was my only real contact at the salon.One day he very quietly commented that he was opening his own salon, and would I like to move with him? I bit his hand off – why wouldn’t I? I had no relationship with the salon. They kept no details on me, perhaps they didn’t even know I existed. Would they miss my business?For me, he was the salon.Are Your Recruiters Hairdressers?Can you see any similarities between your recruitment business and my hair salon?They have exclusive relationships with the clients. Are you simply the “girl” taking my money at the till?Do they use stuff in your business, such as hair washers, tea makers, reception (IT, HR, Finance, Admin) that their fees contribute to, but that I am totally oblivious to?Are your consultants simply logging data at the point of sale to get the cash in but the juicy stuff which is about me, what I like, how I buy is in his/her head?If they left and took “clients” with them, would you know? And don’t forget you’ll only know what data they’ve taken and who’s migrated with them if they told you about these relationships in the first place.Even if you had the data on the client, would it be enough for you to continue the relationship going forward?Are your clients engaging with your business or the consultant? Are their loyalties to the brand or their perceived face of the brand, the consultant (the hairdresser)?I’m still seeing “30-second recruiters” who enter a candidate in the CRM just to place them and board the invoice. Recruitment consultants are tempted to brush off GDPR as a flash in the pan, carry on as usual and keep billing how they’ve always billed. That may work for them in the short term, but they’re missing out on opportunities to be more effective and profitable whilst putting the business at risk.CRMFirst and GDPR: Hairdresser Prevention for Recruitment Leaders2018 was the year of GDPR, and 2019 needs to be about CRMFirst (getting your candidates, clients and consultants addicted to your systems. It needs to be about data hygiene, recruiters building effective, retained relationships and recruitment firms focusing on growth, not just legislation.A CRMFirst (BullhornFirst / AdaptFirst) culture can create a valuable pool of great data that will put you ahead of your competition and create a hidden asset that your clients (and prospective clients!) want access to.Your recruitment CRM should be a USP – a unique selling point. Your recruitment software can be an addiction for your recruiters, your clients, candidates, and investors. All of which does the one job you bought it for – to make you more money.Swap the Salon Culture for CRMFirst Culture…Instilling a culture of data quality is challenging, but highly rewarding. Define the strategy, instil this into your culture and reduce the risk of bad data impacting the recruitment business.Get your recruitment consultants engaged with your system and train them on best practice so they understand why great recruitment process is profitable for them, as well as your business. Stop them from simply renting a desk.Once they can see and feel the benefits of following your processes (improving performance, profit, and ROI for themselves as well as the business) then your CRM can become a business growth tool, rather than an expensive data dump and potential GDPR risk.So, are you guilty of simply renting a chair to your consultants to allow them to grow a lovely portable client base, or do you do more to grow/protect your brand, relationships, and market share?HIIT Us, Recruiters!Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Attract and Engage the Best Recruiters to Grow Your Business
Is hiring the best recruiters for your business a key goal this year? It is for most of the recruitment leaders that I talk to. I was asked by APSCo to talk at their quarterly members meeting about how to attract and engage your own recruiters. Below are some of the tips I shared from my Internal Recruitment Workshops.Are You One of the 61% Of Recruitment Leaders?Recruitment leaders know that the key to growth in turnover and profit is having the right recruiters – and that means hiring the best recruiters out there. There’s a few recruitment stats knocking about which have made me stop and think:61% of recruitment leaders are worried about attracting their own talent this yearEvery recruitment leader I speak to:Wants their teams to be more effective, successful, inspired.They want them to have more phone and face time (critical sales tasks).They are all worried about the technology paralysis that is preventing this precious phone and face time.What Do These Hiring Stats Say About the Recruitment Sector?There are stats like80% of talent placed last year was already on your internal systems before you spent time (often 4 hours per day) sourcing from external systems such as LinkedIn.The recruiter demographic is getting younger – we assume that this demographic gets tech, but are finding out the hard way that this is not always the case. So, skills like digital marketing, CRM processes are becoming critical to the average recruitment consultant.What Do Deloitte and APSCo Say About the Recruitment Sector?The stats from APSCo and Deloitte’s annual study say it all:68% of leaders want access to new recruiters63% cited staff training as critical89% told APSCo that use of digital marketing was either very important or important86% said that they needed new technology to growBut still there is a lack of strategy around internal attraction. I run Internal Recruitment Digital Marketing Workshops to tackle attraction and engagement and focus on 4 areas.Attract (to Prevent Churn)Engage (to Increase Speed)Inspire (to Hire)Train (to Retain)I’ll talk about the first two in this blog and give some practical tips.1. Attract to Prevent Recruiter ChurnThe goal is NOT to attract – it’s to KEEP! I often find that the recruitment process is too heavy on the face time and not geared up to benefit from online.“70% of candidates come to your website before contacting you too – what does your website say?”Stats tell us that talent can spend around 2 hours engaging with you online BEFORE contacting you – do you have 2 hours of decent content about your culture, values, life chances?“72% of applicants want to know about your values and culture… what is it and where is it?”Or do you simply have a benefits list which include childcare vouchers and holidays (neither are benefits… they are rights…)Think about the online platforms that you are live on and use them to attract – yes an obvious statement, but recruiters are so keen to mend their clients’ shoes and recruit for them, that they are walking around bare-foot and ignoring their own recruiting strategies!Have a content plan aimed at attracting and hiring the best recruiters, not just a job advert and interview plan!Ensure managers’ LinkedIn profiles look like they are great to work for… Yes, innovate your adverts (we know a lot about this) but also create some engaging videos to help your ideal recruiters see and hear who and where they will be working (Health warning… dump the 2 minute talking heads, overly produced, serious, looking-like-you’re-going-to-a-wedding videos and get real).Pitch your business – don’t abdicate your employer brand to your marketing department and Rec2Rec firms – they are there to support you! Your goal in attracting is to attract people who won’t leave after 2 months as they made a mistake. You want them skipping into the interview, staring at their phone waiting for your call, being their best…Can you honestly say that your attraction strategy attracts the best and most engaged?Or does it attract recruiters who have you in a long list of prospects? If 61% of you are worried about your internal recruitment strategy, ask yourselves what % of your time you are spending proactively fixing the issue?2. Not so Fluffy Recruiter EngagementNow – this is a pretty fluffy word, which means many things to many recruiters. In my world, it’s pretty simple. What are you doing to get them to show their faces to you? They are unlikely to engage with you in a public place (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) – but Mailers?Mailers that you send to their private email address?Mailers that they can read on their mobile?Mailers that they can click on and if you have used a decent mailing system you can see who is clicking on what?You’d be crazy not to try this! And your internal recruiters would love to see the resulting call list from your campaign! Do you have a database of talent (ie. Recruiters) that you can mail about how to be a great recruiter, include tips for hitting target, demonstrate your culture, show your successes, survey their likes and hates, advertise your jobs and how much your clients love you?You should generate call lists from the ones who click onto your mailers. “Cold calls are great, warm calls are better! (Greg Savage told me this!)”There are other ways that you can engage. The marketing puritans out there would frown at my suggestion, but hey… I’m trying to be practical and fix a pretty significant issue.I’ll tackle my next 2 points: Inspire to Hire and Train to Retain in a later post.How about you try and tackle the first two points above and see how you get on?Is hiring the best recruiters to grow your recruitment business one of your goals?Read More About My Internal Recruitment Strategy WorkshopsHIIT Us, Recruiters!Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
How Can You Ensure your Recruitment CRM Change Project is a Success?
Recruitment CRM should be the FIRST system used to drive sales, source candidates, convert leads... but often, it's a dumb system, a data dump, "just another bit of recruitment kit" preventing phone and face time. Our clients agree with our mantra "CRMFirst" and want to ensure that their recruitment software is implemented to deliver the 4Cs - candidates, client, colleagues, and cash.Recruitment CRM - AKA the Sales-Prevention SoftwareMaybe you’ve had your Recruitment CRM for longer than you’ve had most of your employees and you’re hearing lots of the same moans and groans:it’s not workingit’s always crashingI can’t find any candidates in itmy 1980’s Atari felt more up to datethere is no management info because no one’s using it!The decision has been made to replace your recruitment CRM. You’ve spent 6 months sourcing a new one, another 6 months implementing it and would you believe it, 6 months later and you’re still hearing the same old moans and groans.How can you give BAU (business as usual) the best chance of success?Business as Usual Starts Before BAUIt may sound obvious, but many Recruitment CRM projects struggle at the embedding phase due to inadequate post go live planning. It’s not surprising. There is a HUGE amount to do during implementation and the project team are normally spread thin focusing on getting the new system in a fit state for go live.There are many strategies to planning and managing BAU (business as usual). My favourite is having a BAU project team involved mid-way through implementation. Their responsibility is to plan, support and manage the embedding of the CRM into business over the next 12 months. Their job is to make sure that your investment returns! (ROI)“That’s a big investment“, I hear you say. However, what is the cost of a disgruntled workforce being negative or the disruption of losing many people or the lost opportunities of your current and future clients? And with 2/3 of job leavers quitting due to lack of training, and the average 10 person recruiters wasting £100,000 per year on replacing leavers, something has to change.Investing in the BAU is almost more important that the implementation process itself; underestimate the BAU support requirements at your peril.Management are THE Key to Success CRM ChangeManagement don’t need to know how to use the CRM, right? WRONG!Management / Directors / Team Leaders all need to know exactly how everyone should be using the system so they can support and train their teams at go live and beyond.All too often, “Super Users” are trained to deliver this message but they tend to be sales administrators, busy consultants or new recruits. They don’t have the status within the business to try to invoke change or persuade the biggest billers why they should change their habits and behaviours!The adage of “Coming from the Top” really is true when you’re managing CRM Implementation Projects. These are not technology projects, they are Change Management Projects and the only people who can change the business are the leaders and managers of that business.It’s All About Communicating ExpectationsWhen a recruiter hears the following “We are going to change the CRM”, what they really hear is “Yippee, a new CRM. It’s just like upgrading my car; it will be shiny and faster and way better than what I had, oh and I know how to drive so it will be easy to adapt!”This can lead to my personal favourite user statement “The previous system was so much better/easier!”. No, the previous system which was built on highly suspect 1980’s technology that continuously failed and you always complained about, was more FAMILIAR. As a project team, you have to prepare users for change and this starts not at Go Live, but much earlier during the implementation phase.Key Rules when Implementing a New Recruitment CRMEnsure you tell everyone that CHANGE is coming and everyone needs to get on-board!The system will not be perfect from day 1, everyone needs to prepare to communicate issues and be ready for CHANGE!There will be BUGS (potentially a lot and for a lot longer that you’d like!) Live with them whilst the project team sorts them out!Get SLAs (service level agreements) in place – ensure you respond to EVERY issue and communicate an update or fix to the business (if it warrants it) or the individual on a pre-agreed timeframe.We work with Recruitment and IT leaders to deliver an ROI and sales-led recruitment technology strategy. Our mantra is “CRMFirst”!HIIT Us, Recruiters!Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREEREAD ABOUT HOW WE DELIVER RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGY STRATEGYBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
Recruitment HIIT
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