How to become an exceptional

recruitment manager
Contents

Introduction to management........................................................................................................................ 2

Management diagnostic................................................................................................................................ 4

Building high-performance teams................................................................................................................. 16

Performance management.......................................................................................................................... 23

Managing performance through process..................................................................................................... 45

 introduction to management
Before reading this document, take a moment to ask yourself, “Do I really want to become a manager of
people?” That may be a strange question to be asked at the start of a management training manual, but
it’s important to know that there are two routes to management within our business - managing people or
managing accounts - and both have equal merit.

The world of sport is littered with top sports people who failed when they turned their hand to manage-
ment. Why? Because being a peak performer isn’t the key requirement to becoming a top manager. Clearly,
you can gain a measure of respect from your staff by virtue of being very successful yourself as a recruiter.
However, when recruiters get asked about the traits of poor managers they have encountered in their ca-
reers, those traits tend to include things such as:

Traits of poor managers

- Doesn’t listen to opinions

- Talks at you, doesn’t involve
- Seems to be a ‘know it all’, doesn’t value other people’s opinions
- Untrustworthy
- Doesn’t explain things clearly
- Seems to be on a power trip
- Claims the glory for themselves when things go well
- Shifts blame to someone else when things go wrong
- Watches things happen – doesn’t hold people to account
- Not supportive
- Doesn’t lead by example
- Doesn’t teach staff new things
- Always seems to be catching people doing things wrong
- Tells staff what to do rather than involving them in idea creation
- Perceived to be critical
- Has favourites and treats some people unfairly
- Doesn’t praise people
- Shoots from the hip and gets angry before uncovering facts

Of course, you’ll be able to add one or two more traits of poor managers to the above but after looking at
the list would you agree that everything on is linked to communication?

The fact of the matter is…

“The soft stuff of management, is the hard stuff of management”.

Top managers develop finely tuned people skills over and above the skills they use as a recruiter. They are
patient and empathetic, they are good listeners and - because they have advanced understanding of the
small things that irritate people - they avoid those things and reduce the risk of de-motivation.

Make no mistake, galvanising and leading a team of people to achieve greater performance as a team than
they might be able to achieve individually is extremely rewarding. It’s a fantastic life skill for the rest of your
career - but it is not for everyone. Or, for some people it’s not right at this stage of their career but it might
be something to revisit in the next few years.
MANAGEMENT DIAGNOSTIC
Regardless of whether you are a manager now or if you are planning to become a manager at some point in
the future, you will find this management diagnostic useful to either increase your understanding of man-
agement or to pinpoint specific areas that you need to improve.

Please assess your performance level in each area below on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being outstanding.
There are 5 sections to complete in this managerial self-assessment.
Please remember, you will only gain from this exercise if you are totally honest with your self-assessment.

Section 1: Individual Traits

Open & Approachable

Your staff would say that you are open and that you happily share your time to help with both work and
personal issues. You are perceived to be a very good listener and you do not appear hurried when staff ask
for your help.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Stress Tolerance

You consistently demonstrate stability of performance under pressure. You make controlled responses in
stressful situations and you are never seen to panic.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Care for staff welfare

You genuinely care about staff welfare. You are organised to remember the little things that matter e.g.
birthdays, interests, holidays, family. You invest your own time in getting to know what drives your staff –
both personally and for business - even though this might mean after-work activity.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Praise & recognition

You try to “catch people doing things right.” You proactively praise people both as a motivational tool and
an example to others of positive workplace behaviours.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Respect for diversity

You value diversity in the workplace and you are intolerant of racist, sexist or bigoted behaviour.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Integrity

You firmly believe that a healthy bottom line can be achieved ethically. You not only claim to have integrity,
but every single person in the company would say that you have integrity if they were asked.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Attention to Detail

You are a quality driven person and you show attention to detail in all areas no matter how small.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Independence

You take actions based on sound convictions rather than on a desire to please others. You are prepared to
challenge others and you have the courage to stand up for your belief in what is right.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Openness to Change

You proactively embrace and champion change within the business. You are adept at anticipating staff con-
cerns regarding change and inspiring them on the correct path.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Problem solving

When staff confront you with a problem, you invite their proposed solution first. You are comfortable not
knowing the answer to every problem and you are happy to admit when that is the case. You are prepared
to invite team input to resolve problematic client or candidate issues.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Mistakes

You foster an environment where it’s safe to make a mistake. As a result, staff own up when a mistake is
made and you are able to help them learn and resolve the problem.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Section 2: Management Skills

Planning and Organising

You always plan your own working week in advance and you ensure that your staff do likewise on a daily/
weekly basis.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Activity targets

You understand the value of KPIs. You agree realistic activity targets with your staff. You measure and re-
view activity targets each week.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Performance management

Missed targets are dealt with promptly. You coach staff to improve and set out clear constructive expecta-
tions. You never fail to check that agreed, expected outcomes have been fulfilled.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Consequences for under-performance

You appreciate the need for 1-to-1 reviews when staff under-achieve against realistic activity and financial
targets. You are non-accusatory at these meetings and you are skilled at asking questions to assess the root
cause of under-performance. You gain commitment at these meetings to agreed action that will improve
their performance – and you always review those agreed actions at the next meeting.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Management Control

You appreciate the need for internal checks and controls over processes, people and agreed tasks, and ac-
tions. You adhere to the management mantra “inspect what you expect.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Criticism

You create a culture of “constructive feedback” as opposed to “constructive criticism.” You appreciate that
some people react badly to criticism in front of their peers and you are mindful of the need to have a 1-to-1
where necessary.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Delegation

You are an effective delegator. Following delegation, either you or your staff member confirms agreed
tasks/deadlines by email to ensure that the delegated task has been communicated effectively.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Leadership

Your staff would say that you motivate, enable and inspire others to succeed. You have a clear vision of
what is required and you act as a positive role model.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

People Development

You develop the skills and competencies of your staff through training, coaching, personal example and
inspiring your staff in the value of business/sales books, podcasts, the web and videos.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Internal recruitment

You proactively and consistently seek out potential new employees for the business via networking,
name-gathering and questioning. You inspire the involvement of your team so that they help with this.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Target clients

You proactively manage the development of target clients. You hold target client meetings and you ensure
that staff are accountable for bringing ideas/information to those meetings.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Organisational Sensitivity

You demonstrate the capacity to perceive the impact and implications of decisions and activities on others
parts of the organisation.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Meetings

All meetings have a focused agenda and agreed timeframe. You chair these meetings effectively, ensuring
that most people contribute. Meetings are minuted in bullet-point format and agreed actions/deadlines are
emailed to attendees. Meetings do not start or end later than their allocated time.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Section 3: Decision Making Skills

Judgement

You demonstrate ability to evaluate data and courses of action and to reach logical decisions. Your staff
would say that you have an unbiased, rational approach.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

SWOT Analysis

You understand and use SWOT analysis to help make important decisions.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Decisiveness

You do not procrastinate. If you are unsure about a course of action you consult a senior member of staff.
You do not leave difficult decisions lingering.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Creativity

You demonstrate the ability to bring fresh ideas – including good ideas from our competitors - to the busi-
ness.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Staff “buy-in”

You deeply understand the value of involving staff in certain decisions. You regularly seek out their input
and ideas and you can provide recent examples of the benefit of this approach.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Numerical Analysis

You have the ability to analyse, organise and present numerical data, eg financial and statistical to aid the
decision making process.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Commercial Awareness

You understand the key business issues that affect the profitability and growth of the company. You abhor
waste. Both you and your staff can cite examples of where wasteful activities/expenditure have been eradi-
ated as a result of your team efforts.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Strategic Perspective

You demonstrate the ability to take account of a wide range of longer-term issues and opportunities. You
are business-minded and if you have good reason to believe the Company could invest in more lucrative
areas, you bring this to the attention of the Board.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Section 4: Interpersonal Skills

Listening

You demonstrate the ability to pick out important information in oral communication. Your questioning and
general reactions indicate ‘active’ listening.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Communication

You understand that, as a leader, inappropriate or ill-though-through words and actions can damage morale.
You think before you speak and you are skilled at ensuring your words/actions cannot be misinterpreted.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Written Communication

You express ideas clearly in writing, in good grammatical form, in such a way as to be clearly understood.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Fairness and consistency

You treat all individuals with respect. None of your staff would say that you have a “favourite” staff mem-
ber. You respond sensitively to differences and you encourage others to do likewise.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Teamwork

You enthusiastically participate in any business activity to which you are involved. You are an effective con-
tributor even when working on something of no direct personal interest.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Confrontation

You do not avoid difficult or uncomfortable situations with ether your staff, candidates or clients. You proac-
tively sort out problems rather than letting them fester.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Networking

You demonstrate willingness and ability to mix easily with other people. You build relationships and estab-
lish useful contacts for the business at all levels (not just sales).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Section 5: Motivational Behaviours

Initiative

You actively influence events rather than passively accepting. You see opportunities and act on them. You
originate action.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Resilience

You demonstrate resilience when faced with adversity. Your staff view you as a leader in times of trouble.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Drive

You work extremely hard and always achieve team/personal targets.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Quality Standards

You set high goals or standards of performance for yourself, others and the organisation. You are dissatis-
fied with average performance. You often lead by example.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Commitment

You believe in your own job or role and its value to the organisation. You often go the extra mile for the
company even though may not always be in your own self interest.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score
Customer Services

You exceed customer expectations by displaying a total commitment to identifying and providing solutions
of the highest possible standards aimed at addressing customer needs.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Employee Engagement

You deeply understand the term ‘employee engagement’. You not only manage your own behaviour to
enhance employee engagement, you also understand how to apply employee engagement factors to drive
improvements in performance.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Score

Areas of management that I’d particularly like help with are:

So, as you will appreciate having done the diagnostic, there is more to managing than first meets the eye.
As you might expect, top managers never stop learning. They read management books, follow thought
leaders on the web, learn from management training videos and continually strive to improve.

When was the last time you read a management book or watched a management training video?

You can start that process now by watching the management training videos on our training portal or by
going on Amazon to buy a management book. Alternatively, find a thought leader on YouTube and follow
them.

There are many definitions of management on the web, but here’s one that succinctly summarises that it’s
your job to get the most out of your team with the resources at your disposal.

“Deciding what to do & then getting it done through the effective use of resources”.

Hopefully, after undertaking the diagnostic, your mind has been opened to some of the softer skills need-
ed to become a top manager but in addition to the diagnostic, here is a quick summary of some of the key
skills you’ll need to master:

• Managing and billing

• Business development through yourself and your team
• Time management
• Motivation
• Delegation
• Effective use of KPIs
• Decision making and problem solving
• Team building and consistently getting the most out of your team
• Planning
• Goal setting, targets and figure analysis
• Effective one-to-ones
• Coaching and training
• Internal recruitment
• Appraisals
• Dealing with underperformers
• Leadership
• Using process to increase consistency
 Building high-performance
teams
At the time of writing this manual, 36,700,000 results appear on Google for the search term, ‘Our people
are our greatest asset.’

Perhaps you’ve had the same thought? After all, what is a recruitment company unless it has exceptional
people? Take a look at the photograph below.

Presumably, the company that employed the roadworker to mark the white lines down the side of this road
had a good recruitment selection process? Presumably, they also believed that the roadworker was the
right person for the job when they hired them? Presumably, the roadworker thought that the company was
right for him/her too?

So after starting his/her job, why couldn’t the roadworker be bothered to move the small branch that you
see in the photograph? Why did they not care enough about their job?
What do you think could have disengaged them? Might it have included small things like…?

• The way that their manager spoke with them this morning?
• A sense of injustice? Perhaps they felt that their manager was treating them unfairly in comparison
to a colleague?
• A broken promise? For example, perhaps they believed from a previous conversation with their
manager, that they were going to get a pay rise only to find out that wasn’t the case?

Of course, we don’t know the answer to the question. However, would you concur that people sometimes
show their dissatisfaction to perceived injustices by putting in less effort? And would you concur that in
extreme circumstances people sometimes even resort to sabotage, ‘in order to get their own back’? Below
is an incredibly powerful quote from Ken Blanchard’s book, The Heart of a Leader.

“If you want to know why your people are not performing well,
step up to the mirror and take a peek.”

If, at first glance Blanchard’s quote seems a little harsh, take a moment to think about how (with better
management skills) you will be able to influence the majority of behaviours that happen within your team.
As you will see shortly, there is far more to creating a positive work environment than setting sales compe-
titions. In fact, one of the most important ingredients of a positive work environment is you.

Let’s now take a look at the huge importance of Employee Engagement in order to ‘win the hearts and
minds’ of your staff so that they deliver more than you expect.

Setting the tone for your team

In his hugely influential book, The Extra Mile, author David McLeod surveyed over 600,000 employees
globally to find out what made them ‘go the extra mile and give extra discretionary effort to their job’. The
book includes groundbreaking research based upon statistical evidence such as:

‘Engaged employees perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave’.

We class the book as essential reading for any manager because it highlights the top 20 reasons why people
choose to give extra discretionary effort to their work (and only one of those top 20 reasons is money!).

We’ll show you some research from the Extra Mile in a moment but to get you thinking, 4 of the top 20
reasons include:

• “My manager cares about me”

• “I’m learning new things on a continual basis”
• “My ideas are valued”
• “I receive praise in the workplace”

If you are managing people right now, how many of the people that you manage would score you highly
against the above?
Accenture, the leading global management consultancy firm has this to say:

People join organisations, but they leave managers

“An engaging manager is at the heart of success in engaging the workforce. Accenture’s
internal research showed that 80% of the variation in engagement levels was down to the line
manager. As a result, employees’ most important relationship at work is with
their line manager.

People join organisations, but they leave managers.”

As we said earlier, ‘the soft stuff of management is the hard stuff of management’. The good news,
however, is all the skills that comprise being a good manager are learnable and can be incrementally
improved over time. Imagine completing the management diagnostic again in 12 months’ time having
focused upon improving some of your weaker areas throughout the year. It may take some time, but you
will improve your management and leadership capabilities by putting in personal effort to improve where
you need to the most.

How engaged are your staff?

Do they go the extra mile? Do they come to you with fresh ideas that improve business performance? Do
they arrive into work early full of energy and do they really care about filling every vacancy that they take?

Or, are they ‘just about doing enough?’ Are they even about to leave the company (because of you)? Are
they gossiping and complaining about you to other staff behind your back? If so why?

Usually, there are reasons why people don’t display positive behaviours in the workplace. These reasons
may not be obvious at first, but when you have a deeper understanding of employee engagement and a
deeper understanding of performance management you’ll find that people perform better and
management becomes easier for you.

Research from The Extra Mile, by David McLeod

Staff view on management capabilities and behaviours % mixed or unfavourable

Is taking steps to ensure the long-term success of my organisation 57%

Acts in the best interest of our customers 48%
Effectively represents my organisation to external groups 46%
Has communicated a clear vision for long-term success 47%
Act in a way that is consistent with our values 37%
Supports new ideas and new ways of doing things 44%
Makes an effort to be visible and accessible to employees 37%
Sincere interest in the satisfaction and well-being of employees 30%
Effectively communicates reasons for important business decisions 35%
Communicates openly and honestly to employees 28%
Is aware of the issues I faced in my day-to-day work 25%
Supports and promotes teamwork 57%
Recognises and appreciates good work 55%
Treat employees with trust and respect 53%
Hold people accountable for performance and goals 53%
Empowers and encourages people to take initiative 51%
Acts quickly if I asked for help solving a problem 49%
Encourages new ideas and new ways of doing things 48%
Communicate clearly and openly 47%
Provides performance goals that are challenging but achievable 44%
Ensures that employees have access to a variety of learning opportunities 45%
Shares valuable work experience or expertise that I can learn from 44%
Manages performance reviews fairly and effectively 43%
Gives me frequent feedback on my performance 41%
Inspires enthusiasm for work 37%
How they influence the financial performance of the organisation 33%
Understands what motivates me 35%
Effectively coaches and builds the strengths of employees 34%
Consult employees before making decisions that affect them 35%

“Every employee has the capacity to be fully engaged. Engagement levels are your
responsibility: something to be worked on, not simply hoped-for.”

Warning: A better understanding of Employee Engagement does not turn you into a soft manager – it
makes your job easier!

Let’s now take a look at how to secure ‘buy-in’ to change, followed by holding your staff accountable when
we reach the section on Performance Management.

Securing buy-in
When Sir Clive Woodward took over as England rugby coach he effectively inherited a team of talented
underachievers. Of course, as the coach of a prominent sporting nation, he wanted to win the World Cup
(something that he subsequently succeeded in doing in 2003). As part of setting his vision to win the World
Cup he called a meeting of his new squad at a hotel. Woodward was excited to be hosting a team meeting
to plot a World Cup victory, only to be immediately disappointed when some of his star players turned up
late for the first meeting, chatting on their mobile phones, wearing shorts and sunglasses.

Inside, Woodward was seething but having had experiences of running large sales teams when he worked
for Xerox in Australia, he knew the secret of getting people to buy into concepts. This is roughly what he
said:

“It’s our goal to win the World Cup - and to win the World Cup we need to be world-class in
everything that we do on the field and off the field. Let’s work together to come up with a list of
everything that we need to become world-class at.”
His squad then brainstormed everything they could think of that they would need to become world-class
at in order to win the World Cup (i.e. the best in the world). Woodward then set them the task of coming
up with a ‘set of rules’ for each item. One of the items on the list that his squad believed they needed to
become world-class at was meetings. Woodward smiled to himself when the rules they created about what
constituted world-class meetings included: ‘being on time for meetings is not world-class, being 10 min-
utes early is world-class’.

Some weeks later, the squad arrived for a meeting at a hotel. Everyone was 10 minutes early except for
Lawrence Dallaglio, the captain at the time who was five minutes early. The rest of the squad booed and
heckled him as he walked into the room.

As you probably gather from this sporting example if Sir Clive had told the squad that they had to arrive 10
minutes early for every meeting they would probably have rebelled. However, because they came up with
the concept themselves they totally bought into it.

Is it possible for you to apply similar thinking with your staff to inspire World Class performance in areas
such as….?

3 hours a day phone time

Objection handing
Candidate referrals
Client meetings
Team meetings
Self-development
Exclusivity
Job taken to jobs filled rate
Closing for commitment at client meetings
Always exceeding activity targets
Every call updated on CRM
And more…..

Let’s now take a look at an example of securing ‘buy-in’.

A recruitment manager calls a team meeting because

he is unhappy with monthly sales figures

Negative meeting:
Recruitment manager: “I’m very unhappy with the sales figures and something’s got to change. Last week,
two of you rolled in late on Wednesday despite the fact that we are under target. We also had people leav-
ing early. I’m going to be on your case next week and there will be changes if things don’t improve.”

Recruiter (thinking this but not saying it): “How dare he talk to me like that. The reason I was late on
Wednesday was because I was out after work with a major prospect client and I didn’t get home until 1am
in the morning. Stuff his target. I’m going to speak to that R2R who called me last week.”
 Positive meeting:
Recruitment manager: “We have a big team target to hit and for some reason we’ve got blown off course
this month. I need your ideas and input as to how we can get back on track. Let’s capture some ideas on
the whiteboard of the current tactics we are using to win business.”

Recruiter (saying it in front of his colleagues): “I was out on Wednesday evening with a major prospect
and, if things go to plan, I will be closing this new client for £20,000 worth of business on Friday. In my
opinion, we should all meet more clients because there seems to be a lot of business out there if we can
get client facing.”

Recruitment manager: “Good idea. And well done by the way. What does everyone think about going on
more client meetings?”

Rest of the team: “Yes, we should be going on more meetings.”

Recruitment manager: “How many more meetings could we all go on over the next two weeks?”

Okay, these are only hypothetical examples but look what’s happening here. The first manager went on the
attack and demotivated people. The second manager involved staff in finding a solution to the challenge. As
a result, the second manager secured buy-in. He/she was also able to praise people for good ideas which
usually ensures that additional ideas are generated from other staff who then feel safe to give their ideas.

But there’s more to this than meets the eye. Think back to what you read about Employee Engagement
earlier in this document. You’ll remember that 4 of the top 20 drivers of creating an environment whereby
people go the extra mile are as follows:

• “My manager cares about me”

• “I’m learning new things on a continual basis”
• “My ideas are valued”
• “I receive praise in the workplace”

Can you see how the second manager, by praising a good idea demonstrates that ideas are valued? Can you
see how by using praise from time to time the second manager is reinforcing good behaviours? Later in this
document, we will take a look at how to incorporate some of the other top 20 drivers of employee engage-
ment into your day-to-day work as a manager.

Never forget that managers who focus upon their people, welcome their ideas, praise them, treat them as
individuals and coach and stretch them generate tremendous loyalty in addition to greater profitability her
individual.

Make a note now of how you intend to master a deep understanding of all facets of employee engagement
and as a result make your life easier as a manager.

The listening leader

As a generalisation, the best salespeople think more quickly than others. Their brain is one step ahead and
they often know the answer to a problem faster than their colleagues. Whilst this is a good trait as a sales-
person (because you can solve customer problems and close deals faster) it can mean that, through the
eyes of your staff, you may not appear not to be listening to them. This can be very de-motivational and so
it’s important that you ask yourself the following questions:

Do you recognise any of the following traits?

• You need to speak more than others

• You interrupt and believe it’s a natural part of the conversation
• You come to conclusions quickly and form an opinion before the speaker has finished
• You get impatient - you can’t wait to talk
• You find yourself thinking about what you want to say and not listening
• You are easily distracted
• You make judgements about the person speaking
• You get angry when you hear things you don’t like and you show your displeasure
• You want to get to the bottom line quickly
• You want facts rather than ideas
• You’re not interested in how people feel you just want to know what they’ve done
• You listen selectively dipping in and out of attentiveness
• You don’t observe body language and facial expressions
• You tend to listen without facial expressions
• You propose solutions as soon as a person has finished speaking

The importance of active listening

Imagine arriving home this evening and finding an old school photograph from when you were seven years
old with 20 or 30 of your old school friends. What’s the first face you look for in that photograph?

It’s yours, isn’t it?

And if you were to look at a photograph from the time when you left school or university, would the first
face that you look for in that photo again be yours?

If you’re really honest, when the photos come back from your wedding is the first face that you look for on
the big day yours?

Okay, that’s a bit tongue in cheek but does the above exercise demonstrate to you that more or less every-
one’s primary interest is themselves?

Now think about great conversationalists. Do they just talk and talk and talk or do they ask good questions
and listen? Think about it - if you met a bore at a party and all they did was talk at you, would you try to
disengage from the conversation at some point in order to meet someone more interesting? Someone who
was interested in you?

So, one of the important skills to improve if you want to become a great manager is asking questions of
your staff, showing interest in them - and listening! Essential techniques of great listeners are:

• Active attention
• Empathy
• Clarifying and interpreting
• Questioning
• Reflecting
• Summarising
• Action
 Performance management
KPIs get a bad rap in our industry. Why?

Well, you have probably heard the phrase, ‘micro-management’? You may even have seen advertisements
from businesses claiming that they ‘don’t have a KPI culture’. Let’s unpick the reasons for negative percep-
tions of KPIs from recruiters:

1. The KPIs are unrealistic

2. There are too many KPIs, which creates a feeling of bureaucracy

3. KPIs that have not been thought through by managers, which drive undesirable activities and lead
to recruiters ‘putting a tick in a box’

4. KPIs that are applicable to trainees but not applicable to established recruiters

But, perhaps the biggest reason for KPI’s getting a bad rap is that managers never seem to do anything with
the information!

Remember this?

“If you want to know why your people are not performing well,
step up to the mirror and take a peek.”

Generally speaking, there are three types of managers:

1. THOSE WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN

2. THOSE WHO WATCH THINGS HAPPEN

3. THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

Which of these three do you want to be?

The very best managers invest more thinking time than average managers in order to influence improved
performance from their staff. They don’t just set KPIs for the sake of it, they think carefully about the activ-
ities and behaviours needed to achieve success and they set KPIs to measure whether those activities and
behaviours are being achieved. Furthermore, if the activities and behaviours are not being achieved they
do not shout and scream at their staff - instead they analyse the figures and think creatively about how to
put things back on track.
Remember, you cannot fully control a financial target of, say, £30,000. Of course, financial targets are there
to be hit and you should make that a clear expectation but you should manage what you can affect and in-
fluence on a day-to-day basis i.e. you can control activities undertaken by your staff that will enable them
to hit that financial target.

Take a look at some example activities below that can be measured and then think about what you want
to achieve within your team. You will then be able to set activity KPI’s that help drive the behaviours you
desire.

Example activity KPIs

 
Candidate marketing calls v new vacancies taken

Possible measurement: – code on database

 
Business development meetings v % resulting in exclusivity

Possible measurement: – 1-1 review with each recruiter

  
Pro-active, free candidate generation per consultant

Possible measurement: – weekly candidate generation competition

 
Verbal reference calls v meetings arranged

Possible measurement: – code on database

 
Number of new vacancies v percentage exclusive

Possible measurement: – job spec code/manager review

 
% vacancies not filled

Possible measurement: – code on database

 
1st interviews arranged/attended v filled (i.e. Interview to placement ratio)
 
Possible measurement: – code on database/use of KPI software

Candidates interviewed v how many were poor calibre?

Possible measurement: – code on database

Good quality, former candidates re-generated each week

Possible measurement: – code on database

 
Interviews arranged verbally before CV sent

Possible measurement: – code on database

 
Fees/margins

Possible measurement: – Finance report

 
Tailored email following all sales calls

Possible measurement: – 1-1 review with each recruiter

 
New client contacts won each week

Possible measurement: – 1-1 review with each recruiter

 
TSI activity

Possible measurement: – code on database

Client referral calls

Possible measurement: – code on database

Notice in the above examples that the majority of KPI information is gathered as part of everyday work
processes. If you can manage your staff to correctly code activities in their day-to-day work, your CRM will
generate reports that you can use to analyse and improve areas of underperformance.

We will shortly be taking a look at one-to-one meetings but before we do that take another look at the
example activity measurements above. As you will see, some of the analysis of KPIs can be done verbally
during your one-to-one’s. By using the CRM to generate most of the KPIs and then cleverly measuring addi-
tional KPIs during one-to-one meetings you reduce the risk of people feeling that they are simply ‘filling in
nonsensical forms that never get read’.

What’s the benefit to you of measuring KPIs?

Before we address the benefit to you of measuring KPIs, take a moment to think about the secret of time
management in recruitment.

When you google ‘time management’ you will find hundreds of thousands of pages with advice on plan-
ning, goal setting, using a to-do list, prioritising etc. All good stuff - but not the secret of time management
in recruitment. And not the reason why some recruiters bill five times more than others in the same mar-
ketplace with the same types of candidates and the same types of clients, despite having similar intelli-
gence levels and similar work ethic.

So what is the real secret of time management and recruitment? The answer is efficiency.

Consider just one of the KPIs above, say, candidate referrals and imagine that it’s realistic for each recruiter
who works for you to secure a minimum of five, high quality candidate referrals each week that are suitable
for existing, live vacancies.

In the above scenario, if your staff only managed to achieve two hig h quality referrals what could you do as
a manager to improve this in the following week? The answer is, identify and fix things that will make them
more efficient!
Here are some examples of things that you could do:

- Listen to call recordings of how your staff are asking for referrals in order to search for improve-
ments

- Undertake some deskside coaching in order to listen to live calls and feedback improvements

- Hold a team meeting to discuss whether staff are asking for referrals often enough and also discuss
how each person is asking for referrals

- Run a 30 minute training session on candidate referrals followed by a team competition for the
person who secures the biggest improvement in the number of candidate referrals secured in the
following week

- Direct your staff to the online learning portal or the relevant chapter of the training manual and
inspire them to revisit that learning, followed by a review with you the following week

The above suggestions are only examples and you may have other ideas of your own, of course. But look
at what’s happening - the manager who analyses KPIs is able to intervene constructively and positively in
order to influence improved performance.

KPI measurement enables you to identify areas that you can improve through coaching, re-training and/or
inspiring different behaviours. That’s the power of measuring KPIs.

Remember, there are three types of managers. Which of these do you want to be?

1. THOSE WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN

2. THOSE WHO WATCH THINGS HAPPEN

3. THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

Activity measurements for new staff

Activity should be volume based and easy to record and measure.

For permanent recruiters:

Dials
Calls (where decision makers are spoken to)
Calls (where candidates are spoken to)
Candidate referrals
Candidate marketing calls
TSI
Verbal reference calls made
Client meetings arranged
New vacancies (and whether A,B,C class)
Exclusivity
Candidates interviewed
1st interviews arranged with clients
1st interviews attended
2nd interviews arranged.
2nd interviews attended
Offers accepted
Starters

For contract recruiters:

Dials
Calls (where decision makers are spoken to)
Calls (where candidates are spoken to)
Candidate referrals
Candidate marketing calls
TSI
Verbal reference calls made
Client meetings arranged
New requirements (and whether A,B,C class)
Exclusivity
Candidates interviewed
1st interviews arranged with clients
1st interviews attended
Offers accepted
Starters
Contract extensions

At the moment, measuring KPIs probably seems like a lot of work. That’s one reason why you need to man-
age staff to code their activity correctly within our CRM – because you’ll then easily be able to record activity
and take the figures from there!!

When you look at what’s being measured, you can see how a drop in one activity will have a knock-on effect
to the next step in terms of results. Making these figures visible means that it’s easy for recruiters to identify
where they are falling down or doing well and the impact this has on final results.

You can avoid a feeling of “big brother” by ensuring that your staff understand why you are taking activi-
ty figures – i.e. to help them find efficiencies and invest your time helping them to improve their earning
capability as a result! Remember to discipline yourself as much to praise good performance as to develop
under-performance.

Efficiencies
Once you begin measuring volumes of activity you will be able to identify efficiencies. After all, there’s no
point in a recruiter making more calls if the result were to the same number of placements – i.e. you need
to take action to identify efficiencies otherwise your staff will feel they are doing more work for less return.
Not motivational!

By measuring efficiencies, you can easily pinpoint development areas and work on improving one area at a
time. As your staff become more experienced they can do this for themselves enabling them to better un-
derstand the relationship between activity and results and why you are asking for the figures.
By monitoring and managing efficiencies, you can also bring about consistency and quality control as it be-
comes visible to consultants that efficiencies need to be maintained, if an increase in activities is going to
bring increased results.

Measuring and improving efficiencies also enables you to help consultants to see how they can get more
results for the same effort. This solves the age-old problem of a consultant working flat out who can’t do
anymore but wants or needs to increase results.

Because individuals have different strengths and weaknesses, experience, knowledge and development lev-
els your expectation of acceptable and good performance should differ accordingly. For this reason, you can
introduce individual Targets and Objectives.

Targets
This is what you want as a minimum expectation. It’s your job to inspire, train and coach staff to smash tar-
gets BUT if a realistic target has not been met, there is a problem.

Many managers view targets as being something to aim for. This is incorrect. If you want a culture of success
then your staff need to see what you consider success to be. Success is measured as the amount by which
expectation has been exceeded. Far more motivational!

“Make targets S.M.A.R.T.E.R.”

This is a simple principle to understand but much harder to put in to practice.

S - pecific
M - easured
A - greed
R - ealistic
T - imescaled
E - valuated
R - eviewed

You may find it easiest to start with a blank sheet of paper and write the acronym S.M.R.T. down the side.
(we will address the A E and. R. later)

Next to the S, write what you want as an end result. For this to be specific it needs to be very easy to see what
your expectation is. For example:

Increase revenue for the month

Next to the M write how are you going to measure the level of under or over achievement. Writing this as a
minimum outlines that it is an expectation and that success will be measured by how much they exceed it.

This is the accepted figure:

From £16,000 to a minimum of £20,000

Next to the R, write what the gap is and consider whether your expectation is realistic. Consider factors such
as; time available, current performance, development level, business in the pipeline etc, to consider if your
expectation is realistic. Remember that if you are going to meet the A in S.M.A.R.T.E.R. then it’s going to need
to be agreed. This is how you get commitment to achieve.

That doesn’t mean that a target should be set to stretch an individual beyond previous performance, which
motivates individuals to achieve. If they don’t buy in to it being realistic then why bother trying?

The gap here is £4,000. Is this realistic?

Next to the T write when you want it done by and when you are going to judge the level of success or failure.
Remember that you can’t do this until the agreed date.

By the end of February

The target then is written as:

Increase revenue from £16,000 to a minimum of £20,000 for the month, by the end of February.

The E stands for evaluated. You need to evaluate if the targets and objectives were smart and if the process
is working for you. If it’s not then you have to find out why and put it right.

The R stands for reviewed. This again is absolutely key. There’s no point setting targets that you don’t review.
Staff expect there to be a positive or negative consequence to under or over achievement otherwise what’s
the point in doing it next time?
 One-to-one meetings
1-to-1 meetings each week with your staff provide you with a critical opportunity to focus your expertise
where it is most needed. By knowing where staff are missing important activity targets you can coach them
to improve during 1-to-1s where appropriate.

Warning: 1-to-1s are an opportunity to coach, inspire and improve performance – they should never be
perceived as b******ings!!!!!

Read this powerful story below about a New York subway journey…

“People were sitting quietly - some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with
their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene. Then suddenly, a man and his children entered
the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate
changed.

“The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The
children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers. It was very
disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing. It was difficult not to feel irritated.
I could not believe that he could be so insensitive to let his children run wild like that and do
nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the
subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned
to him and said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t
control them a little more?”

“The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and
said softly…”

‘Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where
their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know
how to handle it either.’
The story above is an extract from Stephen Covey’s 20 million bestseller, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effec-
tive People’. One of the seven habits is a very powerful phrase that you can implement into your manage-
ment style in order to achieve better results and it is as follows:

‘Seek first to understand, then be understood’

Now that you’ve read Covey’s New York subway story, take a look at two hypothetical 1-to-1 meetings be-
low:

1. Negative meeting:
Recruitment manager: “I’m very unhappy with your performance this month. You’ve only billed £5,000 and
your pipeline is weak. What on earth is going on?”

Recruiter (thinking, but not saying it): “How dare you talk to me like that. I’ve been on holiday for 2 weeks
and I had a £12,000 fee drop out beyond my control.”

2. Positive meeting:
Recruitment manager: “Dave, your figures aren’t at your usual high level at the moment. I’d like to discuss
what we can do to help you get back on track. Talk to me about last week – what got in the way? Let’s see if
we can find some ways to save you time and improve your billings. “

Recruiter: “Well, I was on holiday for 2 weeks and I had a £12,000 fee drop out beyond my control because
the candidate took a counter offer that was only £2,000 higher than my client’s offer.”

Recruitment manager: “OK, so you would have been on £17,000 without the drop out? Let’s analyse that
and see if we can find a way to reduce the risk of that happening again. Tell me, what did you do to reduce
the risk of a drop out?”

Recruiter: “Well, I used the template job order to ensure that I extracted lots of benefits that I could sell to
my candidate. I also prepared my candidate for interview.”

Recruitment manager: “Excellent, well done. What else did you do?”

Recruiter: “I tried to minimise the risk of the counter-offer by pointing out some of the things I learned in
the training.”

Recruitment manager: “Excellent. What else?”

Recruiter: “That’s it really, the rest was beyond my control.”

Recruitment manager: “Have you ever prepared your client for interview?”

Recruiter: “No I haven’t.”

Recruitment manager: “Let me explain how it works….(manager explains the technique).

“If you had also been able to increase the salary expectations of your client that they might need to pay
more, in addition to preparing the client to sell directly to what the candidate needs whilst interviewing
rather than simply grilling them, do you think that might have tipped the balance so that the candidate
took your role?”

Recruiter: “Yes, possibly. I’ll try that next time.”

Recruitment manager: “Great, there is also a powerful video in our portal that you can refresh yourself
upon about preparing clients for interview. And there’s a chapter in the training manual that relates to
preparing clients for interview. Can you refresh your knowledge via either of those two learning resources
before we meet next week?”

Recruiter: “Yes, I can, thanks.”

Recruitment manager: “Well done today, you come up with some good ideas. I’ve made a note of your ac-
tions to refresh yourself via the training. Let’s review what you’ve learned and implemented when we meet
next week.”

Of course, the two meetings above are hypothetical and in these hypothetical examples the recruitment
manager was dealing with a pretty positive individual. Later in the manual, we will examine how to deal
with more challenging or difficult individuals. For now though, can you see the difference between ‘going
on the attack’ at one-to-one meetings versus questioning and coaching in order to achieve a more positive
outcome?

Wherever possible, ask questions to ensure that staff come up with answers to their own challenge. At the
point that a person has exhausted their own thinking you can then say, “well done, anything else?” At this
point, because they are unable to think of anything else, you can then position your superior knowledge
as a solution to their problem which means that you are teaching them a life skill whilst at the same time
ensuring the that staff member values your advice. This raises your own credibility with them (and the rest
of their team if they subsequently talk about you after the meeting!)

NB: One reason that managers end up having to deal with more ‘challenging or difficult individuals’ is be-
cause earlier in their career, that individual somehow got a bad attitude in their mind - possibly as a result
of the way that their previous manager dealt with them or spoke with them. Never underestimate the
power of talking to your staff pleasantly and professionally.

And remember, it doesn’t matter one jot if you are a nice person. It doesn’t matter if you are loyal, trust-
worthy and honest. It doesn’t matter if you care 100% about your staff – IF YOUR STAFF PERCEIVE THAT
YOU ARE A NASTY PIECE OF WORK. Their perception of you is their reality.

Key management mantra: Perception is reality

The 3-stage one-to-one method to deal with difficult people

Stage 1 meeting - Seek first to understand, then be understood

“Last week is gone now, but let’s look back on it and see what we can learn. What got in the way to stop
you from hitting your activity targets?”
After obstacles have been uncovered by your staff member…

Recruitment manager: “I think you’re right, well done. What else could you have done differently last
week?”

Recruitment manager: “Okay, you could have done X, that’s a good idea. What else?”

After they have exhausted their thinking…

Recruitment manager: “What about if you had done Y, would that have helped you hit your target?”

Recruitment manager: “OK, well done today you’ve come up with some really good points….”

Summarise the actions from the meeting and make a note of them

Example summary at end of Stage 1 meeting with a ‘difficult person’

Recruitment manager: “I think that was an excellent meeting - well done today. If you implement these
actions you’ll be back on track.”

“Would you like me to help you by holding your feet to the flame…? Okay, I just made a note of your ac-
tions. Have you made a note as well? Let’s review how you got on with those actions when we meet next
week.”

Stage 2 meeting - dealing with ‘the slippery bar of soap’

Recruiter: (when you ask how they got on with their actions) “Oh, sorry – you’re absolutely right. I for-
got.”

Teach them to be organized…..

Recruitment manager: “The reason I don’t forget is because I’m a business person and I’m organised.
That’s why I write things down. As you know, I use this app (whatever method you use as a manager is fine
but Evernote is a powerful free app where you can record actions on your phone) and that’s why I don’t
forget.”

“For you to become a top recruiter, being organised he is one of the key traits so I’m going to help you with
that going forward and from now on…..”

“I forgot will never be accepted as an excuse.”

“It’s your responsibility to make notes and to check those notes before meeting with your manager. I’m
here to support you and I will let it go this once, but clearly we can’t be having the same meeting over and
over again.

I’ve got massive belief in you but I need you to do these actions before next week. OK, great. Just to let you
know it will be a different kind of meeting next week if the actions don’t get done.”
Stage 3 meeting

Same format, followed by:

Recruitment manager: “Well done today, you’ve come up with some good ideas again.

However, the actions from last week have still not been done so I want to invest a bit more of my time to
help you…..”

This week, I’d like you to come to me first thing in the morning with your plan then at lunchtime come to
my desk with an update and then at the end of the day come to my desk so that we can review how you
got on…

First thing - your plan

Lunchtime - update
End of day - how did you get on?

“Remember, I will not be chasing you or reminding you. If you do not do this it is a very bad sign. It’s your
responsibility to come to me not the other way around.”

“OK great, I’m doing this to help you. I’ve got massive belief in you and I’m sure that you’ll soon be back on
track.”

Once again, the above meetings are hypothetical but we’ve outlined them in this way to give you a feel for
how you can still keep meeting with a difficult person relatively positive whilst at the same time coaching
improvement and holding them accountable for their actions.

Summary
Performance management is about a process of consistent and fair management that gives staff the “how”
as well as the “what”. This is what most recruiters want, and will keep them developing.

Whilst they’re developing, your business will be too!

Improving your capability at one-to-one meetings

- The quick meeting

Remember, if one of your staff members is absolutely flying you can spend less time with them at their one-
to-one - it’s even possible to have their one-to-one standing up at the coffee machine provided that you
know their figures…

“How did you get on last week? Hit all your targets? Excellent. Do you need my help with anything this
week?”

However, be aware that even the superstars need your time and they may be receiving headhunt calls from
R2Rs…..

“Okay, have a good week. Perhaps we can have a catch-up with a quick drink after work one day this
week?”
 - Meet/talk with your fellow managers

One of the easiest ways to improve your management capability is to meet or talk with your fellow manag-
ers. They will have had experiences that you have not had and vice versa. They should have read manage-
ment books and watched management videos that you haven’t and vice versa.

- Management masterclasses

Put some time in the diary for you and your fellow managers to meet, say, once a month for one hour. At
this meeting, discuss issues and share experiences or watch a management video for 10 or 15 minutes, turn
it off and discuss.

Another powerful tactic to use within these kind of meetings is to role-play a real situation that has hap-
pened with one of your team. The idea is that you play the part of your difficult staff member and one of
your colleagues role-plays with you as to how they would deal with it. This is as close to reality as you can
get because you’ve experienced that situation personally therefore you should be able to play the part
pretty well. Usually, both parties in the role-play learn from each other.
 Ongoing development
Surveys of Millennials consistently show that the training is The Number 1 thing they want from a new job.
In addition to training, however, you as a manager, should be very focused upon points 3. and 5. below….

Top 5 things millennials want from a new job

1. Training — 40%

2. Expectations and goals are clearly set — 31%

3. I’m provided all the information needed to do my job — 30%

4. I’m given reasonable goals and timelines — 26%

5. Leaders seem invested in my success — 23%

CNBC April 2017

Let’s be clear about this. Induction training is only one small part of learning how to become a top recruiter.
Think about it, when you were a trainee, were you really the finished article after a couple of weeks?

Development of your staff should be ongoing – and this goes way beyond so-called ‘on-the-job training’
(more about that in a moment). Think about learning as a journey towards mastery. As you know, the job of
a high performing recruiter entails a multitude of skills - knowledge of our sector, professional sales ability,
objection handling, candidate sourcing, new business development, headhunting, taking and filling jobs,
exclusivity etc - to list just a few.

Now, consider after your induction many years ago if you had been asked to rate yourself against each crit-
ical skill on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best in the world, would your ratings be 4s, 5s and 6s per-
haps? So, how many trainees do you think are anywhere close to mastery after six months or even a year?

Furthermore, how many experienced recruiters do you think can rate themselves close to 10 out of 10
against each critical skill needed to become a top performer?

Weekly development and ‘on-the-job training’

Let’s de-bunk a recruitment myth - on-the-job training is NOT training. Sure, if done constructively it can
help pass on vital knowledge in real-time and it definitely has a value (caveat: if done constructively) – but
it’s not training, it’s feedback.

Training involves buying staff into concepts, explaining things in more depth, brainstorming ideas, allowing
time for practice – and commitment to implement what’s been learned!!!
But, as a busy manager you don’t have time to train your staff, do you? Even though the research above
says:

- 40% want training

- 30% want to be provided with all the information needed to do their job

- 23% want you as a leader to invest in their success

And even though employee engagement studies prove beyond question that 4 of the top 20 drivers of hav-
ing a highly engaged team (who go the extra mile for you) include:

- “My manager cares about me”

- “I’m learning new things on a continual basis”
- “My ideas are valued”
- “I receive praise in the workplace”

So, how would you like to instigate 48 improvements per annum for each person in your team WITHOUT a
big impact upon your time? Whilst at the same time, giving Millennials what they want, improving morale
and reducing the risk of your staff being headhunted?

And all for just 30 minutes per week of your time - by you facilitating focused, weekly development sessions
that improve one aspect of performance per week for each staff member.

Reactive weekly training (example times)

- 8.15 am to 8.45 am once per week
- Weekly ‘learning lunch’

Let’s take a look at how a ‘reactive weekly training’ session could work for you…

Scenario:

- You observe staff forgetting to ask for candidate referrals

- You remind staff during the week
- But, at the end of the week candidate referral results are poor (your KPI)

What do you think this week’s ‘reactive weekly training’ session should be about?!

Average manager, (thinking)

“I don’t have time to put together a training session, plus I’m not totally confident that my way of asking for
referrals is world class. And, they’ve all been trained on how to secure candidate referrals.”

Top manager, (thinking)

“My experienced staff have stopped asking for referrals and my trainees are following suit. I will facilitate a
short session using a video from our platform on how to secure candidate referrals – and I can brush up my
own technique at the same time.”
 Example, weekly training session – 30 minutes

Top manager: “Right guys, for some reason candidate referrals were low last week. Let’s brainstorm the
reasons for that and capture those reasons on the whiteboard.”

Recruiters:

“I’m not asking often enough.”

“I’m asking but for some reason everyone says they’ll have a think about it or they say they don’t know
anyone.”

Top manager: “Good work guys, openly admitting in front of colleagues that you’re not doing things is a
sign of high emotional intelligence.”

“Let’s pop this video on for 10 minutes or so and look out for things that we are NOT doing or things that
we could do better….”

(After 10 minutes or at the point where the manager sees a ‘gem’ and stops the video for a brainstorm):

Recruiters: (commenting on what they’ve seen)

“We are not selling the role enough to candidates to get referrals.”

“We aren’t asking candidates for help – we are simply asking, ‘do you have any friends looking for work’.”

Top manager: “Excellent. What else?”

Recruiters:

“We are not asking for referrals as often as we could.”

“When the candidate says, ‘I’ll get them to call you’ we are not even attempting to turn that around.”

Top manager: “Excellent. Let’s now split into 2 teams and work out what you need to do differently this
week.”

Recruiters:

“Jim and I are going to remind each other to ask for referrals if we spot each other not asking.”

“We are going to implement point X from the video.”

Top manager: “Good ideas. I’ve made a note of your actions. Let’s give those actions a really good go this
week and I’ll review with you all at next week’s training session. Can you please add your actions to our
training platform so that it automatically sends you reminders?”

“Finally, did everyone get something from today’s session?”

Recruiters: “Yes, it was a good refresher.”

Top manager:

“We’ve only been able to watch 10 minutes of the candidate referral video. Can everyone commit to
watching the last 10 minutes in your own time before next week’s session?”

“John, you don’t have good WiFi at home so can you read Chaper X from the manual about candidate refer-
rals instead?”

Can you think of any reason why a manager who wants to improve performance, enhance morale and
loyalty or refresh forgotten skills would not invest 30 minutes per week with their team whilst at the same
time making management easier for themselves?

Here are a few quotes to get you thinking…..

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”

“Floss only the teeth you want to keep.”

“People ARE your most valuable asset. It’s time to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.”

“Training empowers people to realise their dreams and improve their lives.”

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

Self-development
Average manager: “I keep asking my team to watch sales training videos but they never do it.”

Top manager: “What was that Ken Blanchard quote? Mmm…. ‘If I want to know why my people are not
performing as I want them to, I should step up to the mirror and take a peek’.”

Remember this definition of management?

“Deciding what to do & then getting it done through the effective use of resources”.

If you know that the content in your training resources is world-class – and that if your staff were to consis-
tently use that content that they would bill more then YOU have to find a way to buy them into using those
resources.
Excuses you will hear from salespeople for not wanting to self-develop:

“I don’t have time.”

“I watched one of the videos and I didn’t learn anything new.”

“The ideas I saw won’t work in our sector.”

“I don’t like the layout of our learning platform.”

“The presenter in the one video I watched said things that I just know won’t work with my clients.”

“I don’t like reading books.”

In a moment, we’ll address each of the above excuses but first, here is a simple idea….

Self-improvement as part of job descriptions

‘Any recruiter who doesn’t invest in self-development is falling behind the competition.
As long as you have a career in recruitment you must have a career of training, of learning, of
self-development, of getting better.’

In addition to the usual sales objectives, establish monthly, quarterly and annual objectives for personal
development. This can be done via a simple Development Needs Analysis (DNA) :

Example DNA for candidate sourcing

Remember: It’s human nature not to grasp everything from training first time around. Think about a movie
you’ve watched for the 2nd or even 3rd time only to think, “I don’t remember seeing that in the movie!”

On average, most people need to see/hear the same things 7 times before they fully understand (known as
‘The Rule of 7’). Of course, The Rule of 7 doesn’t always apply and it is perfectly possible for some people
to pick things up first time around and implement effectively but if you have ever experienced the movie
scenario above, it’s pretty obvious that the majority of people won’t grasp every technique instantly from
any training resource.

Furthermore, people’s understanding of the concepts that sit behind techniques tend to improve the sec-
ond, third or fourth time.

What does this mean to you as a manager?

In simple terms, it means that some of your staff will probably think that there is little point in re-visiting
training that they’ve already encountered previously. However, you, armed with superior knowledge of
how people learn and master techniques, do understand the importance of re-visiting material.

Earlier in this document we highlighted the idea of getting staff to assess themselves on a scale of 1 to 10,
with 10 being the best in the world. We hope you can now connect the dots and conduct a DNA with expe-
rienced recruiters as well as trainees on a quarterly or half-yearly basis.

Important takeaway from this section: How many experienced recruiters fit this description?

“He/she says he/she has five years’ experience but in reality,

it’s one year’s experience repeated five years in a row.”

There is a vast difference between the recruiter who has 5 years of experience and the one who has ‘one
year’s experience five years in a row.’ The one who is capable of making each year a learning experience
will consistently improve billings or move up the corporate ladder and become a manager or both.

Summary

Inspiring trainees to self-develop is good but inspiring everyone in your team to self-develop is even better.

Here are two examples of self-development objectives:

1) During the next 3 months I will read chapters X and Y from our training manual and I’ll re-watch the Busi-
ness Development videos in our portal. I will also summarise the key points that I want to implement within
the portal.

2) Within the next 3 months I will re-read the training manual again from start to finish. I will:

- Highlight in light yellow any of the ‘gems’ that I haven’t used before
- Highlight in light green anything that I used to do but for some reason I have forgotten about
- Highlight in light purple anything that I disagree with my suggested alternative to improve our train-
ing manual

I’ll also add ideas of my own that I think are powerful but missing from the manual.
Example of highlighting the sales manual

Source: Recruitment Excellence Training Manual

Remember the three types of manager?

1. THOSE WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN

2. THOSE WHO WATCH THINGS HAPPEN

3. THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

When you set personal development objectives it is your job to inspire staff enough to want to do the
above on their own and/or to assess whether it has been done to the standard you require.

Let’s now take another look at those excuses for not wanting to self-develop

Recruiter excuse: “I don’t have time.”

Top manager: “Can you manage 5 minutes per day, perhaps first thing when you arrive in the morning over
coffee? If you were to take away just one thing that led to an extra placement….”

Recruiter excuse: “I watched one of the videos and I didn’t learn anything new.”

Top manager: “Excellent, that’s exactly what I need you to be telling me. There’s over 150 hours of mate-
rial within the platform and there’s bound to be a few videos that we need to remove. Please let me know
which video that you watched and why you didn’t think it was useful. Also, how many other videos can
you watch this month and give me feedback as to which ones you found useful and which ones weren’t so
useful?”

Recruiter excuse: “The ideas I saw won’t work in our sector.”

Top manager: “Why not? Show me the video please and talk me through your thinking. Also, do you re-
member from your induction the attitude of high achievers V low achievers in regard to learning? High
achievers always think ‘How could I adapt the content to make it work for me. Did you do that?”

Recruiter excuse: “I don’t like the layout of our learning platform.”

Top manager: “Thanks for the feedback. We are always looking to improve our resources. By the way, do
you watch videos on YouTube?” The layout on YouTube is pretty basic, isn’t it? Can I ask you, what’s more
important to you, the layout of our platform or the content that will help you make more money?”

Recruiter excuse: “I don’t like reading books.”

Top manager: (just about to start a 30 minute weekly training session with four books on the table, one for
each of his/her staff)

“OK guys, today will be a little like going to a library! I’ve highlighted a chapter in each book and I think we
will all get a lot of value by each person reading a chapter and then we can share the best ideas.”
NB: This manager cleverly gave the book with the best ideas to the person that had previously told them:

Recruiter excuse: “I don’t like reading.”

During the short training session, at the point where everybody has finished their chapter, the manager
asks each person in turn to share the best ideas. Naturally, the person who said, “I don’t like reading” gets
a turn to share their excitement at one of the high-quality ideas in their chapter. The manager then praises
them publicly in front of colleagues.

Look what’s happening here. The manager didn’t simply accept the excuse, they found a creative way to
inspire someone to a different mindset. Does this always work? No it doesn’t, but it works more of the time
for managers who invest thinking time, who are creative and who care about their staff.
 Managing performance
through process
Where do recruiters typically underperform? Take a look at the list below and think about how you as a
manager can provide solutions in each of these areas (not listed in any particular order).

1. The way they take job specifications

 
2. Not enough proactive client meetings/socials
 
3. Talking too much at client meetings, not asking the right question to uncover problems

4. Low ratio of client exclusivity

5. Not achieving full fee as often as they should

6. Poor interview to placement ratio

7. Not enough candidates for their vacancies

8. Low ratio of star candidate exclusivity

9. Poor client qualification – not understanding the difference between A, B, C clients

10. Over reliant on CVs, not closing clients to see the people they recommend wherever possible

11. Not qualifying candidates effectively enough

12. Poor grammar/ineffective email follow up

13. Not enough focus upon on TSI 

14. Little to no focus on networking

15. Not selling the benefit when marketing candidates

16. Not knowing the best questions to ask during sales calls

17. Time management/goal setting

18. Not using ‘warm calling’ techniques

19. Not closing for commitment to the next vacancy

20. Poor/no interview preparation for candidates and clients

21. Ineffective use of Boolean

 “But they’ve already been trained in everything above - all they
need to do now is get on with the job and work harder!”
Frustrated manager

Think back to when you started in the job. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best in the world, how would
you assess yourself against each of the points above after six months to one year in the job?

In fact, how would you assess yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best in the world, against each of
those points right now?

Yes, our staff will have been trained but when you think about it, training a totally inexperienced person is
essentially about transferring knowledge into their head - they will not be a master of their trade after an
induction course!

Let’s be pragmatic about it, even the best people forget things or misunderstand things and it’s a fact that
some people need to be exposed to the same material a number of times until it starts to sink in. That’s
one reason why ongoing training and development and ‘refresher training’ is so important.

Aside from that, the main reason for asking you to look at the points above is for you to think like ‘a recruit-
ment doctor.’ If, during your one-to-ones, you are able to diagnose reasons for underperformance more
accurately you will be able to get to the nub of the issue more precisely and therefore add immediate value
for your staff during those meetings. Let’s take a look at an example:

Recruitment manager: “Last month, your interview to placement ratio was 1 in 7, what do you think the
reasons for that were?”

Recruiter: “I don’t know.”

Recruitment manager: (thinking but not saying)

“Mmm, this could be due to….”

- Taking job specifications ‘on the back of a post-it-note’

- Not securing enough candidate referrals for live vacancies
- Ineffective interview preparation
- Not preparing clients for interview (so that they sell to our candidates)
- Sending, say, 4 CVs but the client chose the worst 2 candidates because the recruiter didn’t influ-
ence the client to select the best ones
- Not closing for exclusivity on the vacancy
- Not reducing the risk of the counteroffer
- Poor matching of candidates to jobs
- Over-matching - i.e. not getting on the phone enough candidates
- Poor candidate control
 - Not selling jobs effectively enough to candidates
- Not closing star candidates for exclusivity wherever possible
- Inefficient Boolean searches that inadvertently exclude suitable candidates
- Poor quality inmail/ messaging when approaching target candidates on LinkedIn
- Quality of job advertisements not good enough
- Not working hard enough!

So, using the analogy of the ‘Recruitment doctor’…

• The symptom = 1 in 7 interview to placement ratio

• The cause = one or more or perhaps even all of the above!

Can you see what’s happening here? The KPI under-performance is just the symptom. It’s your job to diag-
nose the root cause of the problem so that you can instigate an improvement in your recruiter.

Clearly, if your recruiter is deficient in a number of the above areas you can’t spend a full day re-training
them in everything. However, you can identify one of the most urgent areas, coach that in your one-to-one
and then do the following….

Recruitment manager: “OK, do you now understand the benefit of taking a template job order every time
you take a job specification?”

Recruiter: “Yes, I can see that I didn’t challenge my client in order to open up the job specification and
make it easier to fill.”

Recruitment manager: “Good. We’ve reached the end of our one-to-one now and we don’t have time to
drill down into other areas that would help you rapidly improve so what I would like you to do before we
meet next week is….

1) Read chapter X of our training manual on taking and filling vacancies

2) Watch the video on our training portal about how to make your job is easier to fill.

I will then review your actions with you when we meet this time next week….”
 People, Process, Profitability
You may be familiar with ‘the 3 P’s’ – People, Process, Profitability?

Hire the right People, ensure that they use the best Processes and you can pretty much guarantee in-
creased Profitability.

NB: As you read through the pro-formas below, ask yourself the question, “Do I want my staff to ask the
most powerful questions possible whenever they speak to candidates and clients?”

Clearly, the answer to the above question has to be yes. Pro-formas do not create bureaucracy, instead they
enable you as a manager to process- drive best practice and ensure that your staff ask the most powerful
questions possible.

If you or your staff think of better questions or processes to use within the following pro-formas, it’s vital
that you feed that back to the senior management team so that we can improve them on an ongoing basis.

Here is a checklist of the pro formas within this document:

1. Account Development Plan

2. TSI
3. Verbal reference form
4. Senior Candidate Tracking form
5. Senior Candidate Tracking measurement form
6. Vacancy taking form
7. Vacancy qualification checklist
8. Candidate sourcing reminder form
9. Candidate sourcing competition
10. Candidate interview service check
11. Client interview feedback form
12. Candidate interview feedback form
13. Fee discount justification form
14. Client event feedback form
15. Business development meeting form
16. Client verbal service check form
17. Peer reference form
 Account Development Plans

Scenario 1: Recruiter 1 picks up a new role with ABC company, fills it and then works on other positions
as well as carrying on trying to win business within other companies. Unknown to Recruiter 1, four other
contacts within ABC company recruit heavily.

Scenario 2: Recruiter 2 picks up a new role with ABC company. Whilst working the role, Recruiter 2 maps
out every person in that business who is involved in the hiring process, using an Account Development
form like the on the next page.

Over time, Recruiter 2 builds a picture of everyone within ABC company who recruits permanent staff and
contractors. Recruiter 2 also has a good idea of how often each hiring authority recruits.

Example of how to use Account Development Plans

Task each recruiter who works for you to map out an agreed number of target clients using an Account
Development Plan.

You may wish to classify contacts within each company as follows:

A class = we know the contact well and we have a good relationship

B class = we have had some contact, but the relationship could be stronger
C class = we haven’t started to build a relationship with this person

Action tab

Your staff should make a suggestion within the action tab of the Account Development Plan as to how the
relationship can be strengthened.

Account development review meetings

From time to time, you should hold account development review meetings at which your staff bring their
Account Development Plans. You and the team can now share information and ideas to help increase spend
within those businesses.
Useful information/news items:

Current suppliers:

Key actions:
 Senior Candidate Tracking

How many senior candidates do your staff interview or talk to each month?

Of that number, how many of them:

a) Recruit permanent staff or contractors in their own company?

b) Will recruit permanent staff or contractors in the next company is a join?
c) Will definitely call us when they next recruit because they perceive that we provide the best ser-
vice?

Candidate/client qualification

“Jimmy, one of the key things that employers look for at your level is the ability to build teams.
Could you tell me about the teams that you’ve built over the years please and how you went
about doing that.”

Senior Candidate Tracking is very simple. It involves:

• Giving an extra level of service to every senior candidate we speak to

• Qualifying how often the senior candidate recruits in their current company (which also gives us a
good gauge as to how often they might recruit in their next business)
• Then, maintaining extra contact with the senior candidates so that they feel a superlative level of
service from our staff

Examples of how to deal with senior candidates even if we don’t have asuitable vacancy

• During the first meeting/conversation, sell the benefit of proactively (and anonymously) marketing
them to companies that they would like to work for
• Calling, sometimes late in the evening, to update them on progress - which sends a powerful mes-
sage of superior work ethic, especially if other recruiters don’t stay in touch
• Proactively volunteering to help improve their CV
• Meeting for a coffee before work, sandwich or drink after work to update
• Socialising, even at the weekend if appropriate
• Regularly letting them know that we are working extremely hard on their behalf, trying to find the
right role but not compromising on the quality - i.e. we don’t have exactly the right role at the mo-
ment but we will not waste their time by sending them on the wrong interviews

See below a form for each of your staff to complete for the top five candidates that they are tracking
 Targeted Sales Information (TSI)

How many candidates a day does each of your recruiters speak with? 10, 20, 30+?

Let’s assume it’s 30, and let’s also assume that each candidate has had at least three jobs. Consider if a
recruiter could find out the names of each manager that the candidates reported to. If they could, then in
one day a recruiter could get 90 manager names!

Other TSI information that can be gained during candidate calls

• Which agency placed them in the role?

• How many permanent staff did their work alongside?
• How many contractors did their work alongside?
• “If we pick up a job back at your previous company, how interested would you be in working there
again?” (This is primarily a contract technique)

How to use TSI

1. To identify companies that recruit most often

2. Take verbal references on candidates (with permission) directly to line managers within compa-
nies they no longer work for
3. Target your candidate marketing calls more accurately because you know what kind of candidate
his hired by each hiring manager name that you source
4. ‘Sell back’ contractors that were placed by your competitors in the past, provided they said yes
to the question, “If we pick up a job back at your ABC company, how interested would you be in
working there again?” (NB: of course, you would need to take a verbal reference on this candidate
first before you offered them back)

What gets measured gets done

Every recruiter should use version of the TSI sheet on the next page on a daily basis. If you train people well
so that they understand the benefit and you monitor how much TSI has been collected it will take you to
huge amounts of new business.
 Candidate sourcing reminder
Have you ever wondered why, despite being trained, your staff still forget to use techniques when talking to
candidates or clients?

The candidate sourcing reminder sheet on the next page is designed:

1. For new starters to complete for each and every candidate they speak to (for example, for their first
50 candidate conversations)
2. So that you as a manager can capture where things are going wrong
3. To remind staff of a variety of techniques

As you will observe, the candidate sourcing reminder sheet highlights a number of techniques that could be
used. In practice, it’s very difficult for anyone to use all the techniques during one telephone conversation.

Don’t worry about this. By filling in the form following 50 candidate conversations your recruiters will be
reminding themselves of other valuable sourcing techniques that they didn’t use or were not able to use.
This will help engrain those other techniques into their minds.

Notice that the candidate sourcing reminder sheet should be printed double sided because it contains ex-
amples of wording for particular techniques, which serves as an additional reminder.
 The 10 point plan for more referrals
1. Look after the candidate first
2. “Just before I go, I wonder if you can help me?”
3. Sell a job that they can’t do/won’t be interested in
4. Who do you know who can do that job?
5. Tell me a bit about them
6. How can I get in contact with them?
7. Thanks, whom should I expect a call from?
8. Perhaps I can save you the time of calling X?
9. Multiple referrals
10. Look after the candidate again

Example peer reference wording

“It’s clearly important to make your CV stand out from the crowd, there are two key ways I can do this for you.
The first is to take references from previous employers and use their positive comments to market you more effectively.The
second way is to get a positive testimonial about you from people that you have worked with at the same level at some point in
your career.
The reason this works so well is that people who have worked with you at the same level often know the day to day nitty-gritty of
the job a little better than your immediate manager. Would you not agree with that?
In that case, which two people have you worked with, either now or in the past - at the same level as you - who can give a posi-
tive testimonial about your ability to help you get a better job?”

Objection handling wording

I totally respect that you’d like to speak to your friend first, but can I ask you how you found my service today?
If I were to approach your friend in the same professional way that you and I have had a conversation today how would you feel
about me saving you the time of having to make the call? But to reiterate, that call will only be made in the same professional
manner you and I have had today.

Objection handling wording – if you fail to overcome “I’ll get them to call you”

“Thank you very much for offering to call your friend.

By the way, I appreciate this is my problem not yours but from the way you’ve described him, he does sound very close to what
I’m looking for and my client is short-listing (today/tomorrow).
I’m really grateful for your help, but when do you think you might be able to get him to call me?
You wouldn’t be able to call him today would you? You couldn’t call him now for me, could you?”

Failed headhunt call

In the unlikely event that your ideal next career move comes my way in the next, say, year or so how useful would define if I were
to call you and tip you off about the opportunity? To avoid wasting your time call you back with the wrong kind of role please
could you paint a picture of what that might look like?

Example service check wording

How have you found my approach today? How does it compare to other recruiters…?
 Senior candidate tracking report

What gets measured gets done

The form below can be used to summarise the progress of staff who are conducting Senior Candidate Track-
ing.

Use this tool to provide a snapshot report at management meetings

Candidate Tracking Report : Quarter _____________

Consultant Candidate Comments

Fred
1
2
3
4
5
Jim
1
2
3
4
5
Jade
1
2
3
4
5
 Client event service check

Hosting events that offer high-quality content that is of interest to existing and prospect clients is a great
way to get new business to come to us.

Popular events include:

12 PM to 2 PM workshops run by us with c10 clients in attendance, for example:

• Competency-based interviewing
• The 12 biggest mistakes made when hiring and how to avoid them
• How to position your company as an employer of choice so that the best candidates want to work
for you rather than a competitor
• How to write more effective job specifications

Events co-hosted by us but delivered by a partner, for example:

• Employment law seminars/ new legislation seminars presented by a firm of solicitors

• Breakfast seminars presented by a prominent business speaker that we team up with

Webinars delivered by prominent speakers

• Industry experts are often happy to present these events for free in return for being profiled to our
customer base

Here’s why the client event check sheet below is so powerful:

1. We learn how useful they found the event

2. We learn what else would be of interest to them
3. Sometimes we get a testimonial we can use
4. We gain introductions to other people they know
5. We collect information about how often they recruit, what type of people they find
difficult to hire, and even what vacancies they have right now!
Name:………………………………………………… Company:……………………………………………………………..

CLIENT EVENT SERVICE CHECK

• How have you benefited from attending this workshop? Please list the 3 main areas:
1) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 representing excellent) please rate this workshop: ......…….….…./10
• If not “10,” how could it be improved? ……………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
• Would you, or your staff, attend another (Name of agency) event? YES NO

• What content would you like to see covered at future events?...............................................................................

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
• To keep our records up-to-date, please could you answer the following questions:

Example questions to insert here:

- How many permanent staff report to you?

- How often do you recruit temps/contractors each year?
- How often do you recruit permanent staff each year?
- What vacancies do you have right now that we could help you with?
- When you recruit, what type of individual is most difficult to find?
- Tick here if you would like a free analysis of your recruitment processes to uncover areas where time and money could
be saved.
- Tick here if you would like a free salary survey

• If you know of other hiring managers in your company (or in other companies) whom we could help, please list their contact
details & job title where possible below:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
• If you enjoyed this session and have the time right now, please feel free to write a testimonial for our website:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................
 Client meeting pro-forma
The pro forma on the following page has been designed to provide structure for recruiters who attend proactive business devel-
opment meetings in order to win business from our competitors.

By breaking the meeting down into 4 stages recruiters are more inclined to establish a need for our services by uncovering prob-
lems that the target clients didn’t even realise they were encountering with their current suppliers.

The key questions to ask your recruiters when they return from client meetings are:

• What problems did you uncover?

• What solutions did you give to those problems?

• What level of commitment did you gain at the end of the meeting? For example:

a) The client agreed to call me exclusively the next time they hire

b) The client agreed to call me first the next time they hire

c) The client agreed call me alongside their current suppliers the next time they hire
 Example client meeting pro-forma
Company: ............................................................................... Date: .......................... ……………………

Contact: .................................................................................. Title: ...........................

Phone: Work……………………… Mobile . ....................................... Email: .........................

Assistant/P.A.……………………………………………………….

Pre-meeting qualification

• How many people did you recruit in the last 12 months – contract/perm?
• How many do you envisage recruiting in the next 12 months?

Example Agenda for Meeting

• Which areas do you find particularly difficult to recruit for?

• Discuss areas in which time and money can be saved in your recruitment process
• Explore ways to position you more attractively as an employer of choice
• Challenges that you expect in your hiring strategy over the next 12 months?
• Have you benchmarked the best people in your current team to aid selection?
• What are your current urgent vacancies and when do you need people to start?

[Insert company’s key selling points here]

STAGE 1 – Gather Information about the Company and Department

(“80/20” rule (80% listening/20% talking) to get the client talking about his/her company/dept)

What challenges do you face as a business / industry/department? ………………………………………………............................

When is your financial year end? …………………………………………………………………………………...............................................
What has the company’s financial turnover/profit been for the last 3/4 years? ………………………………………………………..
Who sets the recruitment budgets for the year and when? ………………………………………………………………………………………
How important is it to get high calibre staff into your business / department? …………………………………………………………
What are the costs to you if recruitment fails? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
What is your headcount for this year? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What areas of the business are most volatile as far as headcount is concerned and why is that? ……………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Where does outsourcing fit into your business if at all? …………………………………………………………………………………………….
What is the Contract Vs Permanent headcount ratio in your business / department? ………………………………………………
Who is the best contact regarding contract requirements? ………………………………………………………………………………………
How do you manage contract workers wishing to contract directly with you? ………………………………………………………….
When do you find to be most busy during the year with regards to your usual recruitment cycle? ………………………….
How do you manage the peaks and troughs in your departments work load? …………………………………….......................
What new innovations or products has your company recently brought to the market? ………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Where do you see the growth of your business in the next 12 months? …………………………………………….......................
What current and/or new projects might you belooking to recruit for now or in the next six months? ……………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
What are the key issues/challenges in your business at the moment? ……………………………………………………………………..
Who are your main clients? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What do you perceive to be you’re your key strengths in the market place? …………………………………………………………….
Unique Selling Points (USPs) ……………………………………………………………………….................................................................
What is your view on your business being viewed as an employer of choice? …………………………………………………………..
What is your current market position? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Who are your biggest competitors and why? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What are you doing better than your competitors? ………………………………………………………………………………………………….
What are your competitors doing better than you? ………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Do you have or could you draw an organisational chart that illustrates where you fit into the company?...................
What type of people do you recruit and how often? …………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
What backgrounds do they have? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Which companies do you particularly like them to come from? …………………………………………………................................
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
How much are you charged for these candidates? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
How do you bring senior skills into the business / department? ……………………………………………………………………………….
What do you like to see in a good recruitment consultancy service? …………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………..
How do you like to work with your recruitment consultancy partners? ……………………………………………………………………
Please describe the ideal staff member – and also the type of person that won’t fit in. ……………………………………………
…………………………………................................................
How many hours per week do people work? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Realistically, what are the promotional opportunities at this company and how do people get promoted? …………….
Please give me some examples of people that have been quickly promoted …………………………………………………………….
Why would a happily employed person want to come and work here? (Why is the company a good place to work?)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......................
What training do you provide? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Please could I have a list of company benefits? .............................................................................................................
What’s your background? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Why did you join the company? .....................................................................................................................................
Where did you work previously? ....................................................................................................................................
What successes have you enjoyed whilst at this company? ………………………………………………………………………………………
What is the worst thing about working here? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
How do you achieve cost efficiencies currently in your recruitment process? …………………………………………………………..
STAGE 2 – Uncover the Clients Problems.

(Develop the Needs by Asking Questions that you can provide solutions to later)

Please describe how you recruit from start to finish – i.e. from compiling a job specification through to
the new person starting so that I can look for efficiencies and cost savings.

(Job Spec to CV Short List to Interviews to Offer / Counter Offer to Placement to Productivity to Retention)

Job Spec
• Do you email or give the details verbally to your recruiters? ……………………………………………………....................
• Please can I see an example of a recent specification that you sent to a recruiter………………………………………..
• What questions do your recruitment partners ask over and above what’s on the emailed job specification?

CV Short List

• How long does it take to receive CVs after instructing the recruiter? ………………………………………………………….
• How many CV’s do you usually receive per role? ………………………………………………………………………………………..
• Typically, how many of those are NOT right for the role? …………………………………………………………………………..
• Typically, why are they unsuitable? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Interviews
• Out of every, say, 10 people you interview how many are NOT right for the job? ……………………………………….
• What are the usual reasons? (personality, attitude, skills etc) ……………………………………………………………………
• How often do candidates NOT want to progress to 2nd interview? ……………………………………………………………..
• How many interview stages? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
• What’s involved at each stage? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
• Who else interviews at each stage? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Offer / Counter Offer

• Of those candidates offered how many do NOT accept? ……………………………………………………………………………
• How often have you offered a candidate who accepted the job only to later inform you that they have changed their mind
and decided to stay with their current company? ……………………………………………………….................................
• What was the impact of this on you and the business? ……………………………………………………………………………..
• What procedures have been put in place to resolve these issues? …………………………………………………………….

Placements
• Of those placed what is their productivity / Quality of work? ……………………………………………………………………..
• Out of Ten (10 being perfect) of those employed in the last 6months how many are you NOT 100% happy with?
• How often have you had to replace an unsatisfactory contractor or permanent employee? ……………………..
• Tell me about retention. How long do people tend to stay with the company? …………………………………………..
• How many new hires within the last 12 months have you had to let go? …………………………………………………….

Time to hire
• Typically, how long does it take from giving the vacancy to the recruiter to having the successful person on board?
• What is the impact to you all the business of having vacancies unfilled longer than necessary?
More questions to uncover client’s problems.

What is your percentage staff turnover pa – and why? What would you like it to be? ………………………………………………
What is the cost to your business of this turnover? …………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Which recruitment companies do you use and what do you like/dislike about their service? …………………………………..
In an ideal world, what would you like your current recruiter to do that they currently don’t? ………………………………..
On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being excellent, how well does your recruiter screen candidates before you interview/recruit?
What tests/references do they apply to their workers? …………………………………………………………………………………………….
What challenges do you face when recruiting? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
How would you rate out of 1 to 10 being outstanding your current PSL / Recruitment Process? ………………………………
What frustrations do you feel you currently have with your current recruitment supplier? ……………………………………..
What measures have they put in place to resolve them? ………………………………………………………………………………………….
From your last recruitment process what would you have liked to have been done better? …………………………………….

If they have a preferred supplier list

How long have you used your current PSL suppliers? ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Who did you use before? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Why did you change? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What would you like the PSL to do different they are better? ………………………………………………………………………………...
When was the last time that you benchmarked your current suppliers? ………………………………………………………………...
STAGE 3 – How the way you work will solve their challenges / problems
(Don’t sell but explain how you can solve the following typical client problems0

1. Time between instructing recruiter and receiving CVs is too long ……………………………………………………………….

2. Inappropriate CVs ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

3. Too many CVs ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

4. Recruiter says that some candidates don’t want to work for us ………………………………………………………………….

5. Candidates do not have the right personality when we interview them ………………………………………………………

6. Candidates do not have the right skills when we interview them ………………………………………………………………..

7. Candidates do not have enough hunger or drive when we interview them …………………………………………………

8. Candidates turn us down after the first interview or when we offer them the job ………………………………………

9. Candidates occasionally accept my job offer only to later inform me that they have decided to stay with their current
employer ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

10. People that I hire sometimes don’t work out and I have to terminate the employment ……………………………..

11. People that I hire are not productive enough ………………………………………………………………………………………………

12. Sometimes, good people that I hire leave earlier in their careers than I would like them to ……………………….

13. Contractors occasionally let me down by leaving before the end date of their assignment …………………………

Solutions to the above problems

Specialize in sourcing the kind of candidates that you employ: 1, 2

Verbal references to get ‘off the record’ comments about personality and attitude: 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13

Verbal references to get ‘off the record’ comments about skill levels or technical ability: 2, 6, 11

‘360 degree references’ from colleagues who have worked with the candidate at a similar level at some point in their career: 5, 6,
7, 10, 11, 12, 13

Technical or skill tests: 2, 6, 11

Psychometric tests: 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13

Extensive training given to all our recruiters in competency-based interviewing, matching candidates, assessing drive, attitude and
hunger: 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13

How we take more detailed job specifications and ask more questions than our competitors: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13

If, after consulting with our client, they agree to edit or refine their original job specification based upon our recommendations,
we ask our clients to sign off the final brief to ensure that both the client and the recruiter have crystal clear understanding of what
to recruit against: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13

The use of interview elimination screening questionsthat we build bespoke to each vacancy that we take from the client: 2, 5, 6,
7, 11
Counter offer minimisation – i.e. at short list stage 1 – 5 rating and we only work with 1s and 2s. For 3s to 4s we advise candidate
go back and discuss what they’re looking for with their current employer and to come back to us if they are unsuccessful - i.e. we
are confident they won’t take a counteroffer. 8,9

How we market your company’s opportunity to our candidates by:

a) Systematically finding out from every candidate we speak to, ‘ what are the five most important things to you in your next
career move?’
b) Asking more powerful questions regarding why your company is a better place to work than candidates’ current workplace.
c) Matching and selling the selling points of your business directly to the five most important things the candidates are looking
for.
d) Meeting our clients regularly to gain a deeper understanding of why the company is a good place to work so that this can be
conveyed with passion to our candidates.

4, 8, 9

How we attract better quality candidates than our competitors – i.e all our staff are trained in over 30 ways to find candidates
without the web. Many of these techniques are not in common use, but using them enables us to source candidates that are
often not even on LinkedIn. In addition, we don’t just rely on the 20% of candidates that sit on agencies’ databases, instead we
are all trained to a high level in headhunting. Finally, our staff are highly trained in advanced Boolean search meaning that we can
invariably find needle in a haystack candidates on the web.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Trial close the client by asking for their thoughts about the way you described your service and solution to each problem – e.g.
“How does that sound in comparison to what you’ve been receiving?”

STAGE 4 – Close the Client

How have you found our meeting today?

What did you think about ( name three problems and solutions)? Can you see how that would save time and money in your
hiring process?

From what we have discussed today, how happy are you to call me exclusively when you next recruit?

From the organisational chart you gave me, who else recruits/is recruiting now?
 Pro forma job specification

Badly taken job specifications are the number one cause of poor time management, candidates not wishing
to attend interviews, recruiters sending the wrong people to the client - and many more bad things that we
want to avoid!

On the next page, you will see a pro forma job specification. It is critically important to ensure that your
staff use one of these forms each and every time they take a new vacancy.

Even if recruiters are very experienced, they will be missing important questions contained within the pro
forma. For example, the pro forma contains questions to:

1. Defend fees and margins

2. Identify new business opportunities in other companies

3. Identify candidates that we can place

How many recruiters have you met who routinely achieve 1,2 and 3 above whilst taking a job specification
from a new client?

This is one of the most important processes in our business and it is unacceptable for any one to take a
vacancy without at least trying to ask the majority of questions contained within it.

Naturally, we want to continually improve every process in the business and so if you, or any member of
your team, think of more powerful questions that need to be within the pro forma please let one of the
senior management team know.

Company name: Tel: Mobile:

Contact name and job title: Skype:Website:
Job title of the vacancy: Email:LinkedIn/facebook:
Who does this person report to? Alternative contact:
Company background, core business, date Est:
Ownership:
Number of employees:
Growth plans:
Key customers:
Turnover/profit for last 3 years:
Responsibilities (typical day, percentage time spent on each task)

What are the (3) most important duties in priority order?

What specific objective will this person be expected to achieve?

How will this person be measured?

Is this a team role? What is the structure of the team and how many people are in it?

Is there any travel with this position?

If so, what percentage of the time will this individual spend travelling and to where?

SALARY RANGE: £LOW £MID £HIGH

If the best candidate is already on £HIGH, what would you like me to do?
Essential skills/experience – i.e. cannot do the job without these

Background of previous/current job holder when they started the job?

Are there any skills that are substitutable or transferable?

Which parts of this role could be trained?

WISH LIST (would ideally like but not essential)

Personality

Three screening elimination questions – and the answers –so that I can screen short-listed candidates more
effectively

Reason for vacancy?

How long has the vacancy been open and what steps have been taken to fill it so far?
Have you looked internally? Has the budget been signed off?

How will you or the company be affected if this role were to remain unfilled?
How many people have you recruited in the last year?
How many have not worked out and why?
I things move quickly and I found the perfect candidate today, could we get an offer this week?
What is the latest possible start date before something bad happens because it’s still open?
Will this person supervise? Y/N what are the personalities of those staff?

Company benefits

Is there a company car or car allowance? What type of car?

Holidays? Incremental with service? Any restrictions on use?
Medical Insurance? Life Assurance?
Pension? When eligible?
Share scheme?
Any other fringe benefits?
Would you consider relocating the right candidate?
If so, what is the relocation radius?
What does the relocation package include and how much is it worth?
Would you consider paying the relocation package as a ‘golden hello’?

Bonus? Y/N how much could it be? When paid? How calculated? (e.g. Company/Personal Performance,
Profit Share)?
What were the last 3 years’ bonuses?

When is the next salary review and how much could it be?
Study/training help? (Fees/books/revision time/exam days)

How ambitious should the person be? When do you envisage promotion?
How quickly have you and other staff been promoted?
What is the next step for this person?
What are the long-term opportunities in, say, 3 and 5 years?
Growth plans and areas of future development

Who had this position last?

Why did they leave?
How long had they been with the company?
What was their background?
Where are they now?
Please help me benchmark by describing the best person you’ve had doing this role?
Where are they now?
Why would a happily employed person want to work in this role?
How would you describe your company’s image?
Planned new products/services/innovations?
Who are your main competitors?
What are you doing better than them?
Why did you join the company (where worked previously?)
What is the usual interview procedure – how many, tests, medical?
What’s their normal style and agenda (what are they looking for from the interview?)
How long after the first interview will the second meeting take place?
Who else will be involved in the interviews?
What is their background/personality?
Who is the ultimate decision maker?
When are you available for 1st interviews?
What are the earliest/latest times of day for you to interview?
Do you ever interview by Skype or telephone?
What other recruiting sources are you currently using (other recruitment companies, advertising, in-house)?

How many people have you interviewed so far (including internals)?

How many CV’s have you received? What have you liked and disliked about the people you’ve interviewed
and the CV’s you’ve seen?

Please describe the best candidate/CV you’ve seen

Has an offer been rejected for this role? If so, why?

Which companies or industries do you like people to come from and why?
Are there any other industries you would consider?
Which companies do you not like people to come from and why?
Are there any individuals (target candidates) that you would like to be included
in this recruitment process and why?

JOB QUALIFICATION
Cooperative, partnership based client?
Attractive or competitive salary?
Face-to-face job briefing?
Interview slots scheduled?
Terms of Business agreed?
Exclusive or multiple agency?
A, B, C Class vacancy?
 Candidate referral competition
Every recruiter within our business is well-trained in the art of securing referrals of high-quality candidates
to fill existing roles.

So why do, despite excellent training, do recruiters often forget to ask for referrals? One reason is that it is
not always front of mind for a recruiter when talking to a candidate.

A simple way to keep referrals front of mind - and to rapidly boost the weekly number of referred candi-
dates that we secure – is to have a competition and for you to publicly celebrate successes and recognize
high achievers.

On the next page, you will see a rudimentary candidate referral competition. Notice that the prize is rela-
tively small (this is more about praise and recognition).

Management of the competition

These are the important principles of the competition:

1. Keep it simple- this is about creating a culture not some complex competition!
2. Let your staff know that you trust them only to submit the names of referred candidates (
but that there will be the occasional spot-checks and it’s a disciplinary offence for anyone
who cheats)
3. Make sure that you announce the results of the competition every week. If you don’t do
this, referrals stop being front of mind and the numbers of referred candidates go down,
meaning that we will make fewer placements

What is the same person wins every week?

Try ‘best improver’ competitions in conjunction with the main competition. Also, ask the best person in
the business to run a training session with the rest of the team as to how they are managing to secure the
most referrals
 CANDIDATE REFERRAL COMPETITION
A referral is pro-actively generated by selling a real opportunity to a candidate that they can’t do with the specific intention of
getting a name & number from that person. Please record your referrals in the table below. The person who registers the most
good calibre self-generated referrals each week (minimum of 5 to qualify) will win <for example a bottle of wine and £25.00>

Name, background Source of referral for new Interviewed Interview with client
and telephone/email candidate - with their tele- / placed with client
number of new candidate phone number (thank you Yes / No Yes / No
letter/email sent?)
 Example candidate service check

Despite the fact that our staff are extremely well trained in securing candidate referrals, some candidates
will not want to do this during a first face-to-face or telephone interview with one of our recruiters.

By giving each interviewed candidates a written service check or a link to an online version of this service
check, we pick up very useful feedback plus a number of referred candidates that the person feels comfort-
able giving to upon reflecting about the service they have received.

Using the candidate service check on a client meeting

Imagine the following scenario on a business development meeting:

Recruiter: “How often have you been interviewed by a recruitment consultant?”

Client: “Once last year.”

Recruiter: “How thorough or not was the interviews?”

Client: “Not very thorough at all.”

Recruiter: “Did they show you any interview quality-controls?”

Client: “No, what do you mean?”

Recruiter: “Every candidate we interview is asked to complete a service review regarding how thoroughly
they were interviewed. Let me show you…”

Client: “ That looks good.”

at it does is it pulls the customer and some of the video to them wh
Recruiter: “This is just one of the ways in which we save you time… i.e. all candidates have been inter-
viewed thoroughly meaning there is a better match plus timesaving for you.”

Client: “Sounds good.”

 EXAMPLE CANDIDATE SERVICE CHECK

Thank you for taking the time to complete this service check, the details of which are confidential,
and will only be reviewed by our Managing Director to ensure that we continue to provide the very
highest standards of service.

Please return this form in the enclosed prepaid envelope - and as a thank you for your time you will
be entered into our weekly candidate prize draw for XXXX.

1. How thoroughly were you interviewed? o Excellent

o Good
o Average
o Poor

2. How confident are you that your consultant can find a job for o Excellent
you? o Good
o Average
o Poor

3. Did your consultant discuss any current vacancies with you (or o Yes
suggest other approaches to find the right role for you?) o No

4. On the basis of your experience today, would you recommend o Yes

us to friends or work associates? o No

5. If no, please let us know how you think we could improve our service.

6. If you know of any other excellent calibre people that we may be able to help, please list their
contact details & job title where possible below:

Name Job title Telephone Email

7. If you have the time and would like to write a testimonial please do so below:
 Verbal service check to secure a client referral
How often have you purchased a service and, shortly afterwards, received a call from a manager or direc-
tor of the company checking hoi satisfied you were with the service?

Verbal service checks not only send a very powerful message from our company that we care about the
service levels our clients receive, they also present an opportunity to:

a) Rescue a situation where the client was unhappy

b) Secure internal referrals, i.e. introductions into other hiring managers within the organisation

c) Secure external referrals, i.e. introductions to other companies

Take a look at the example structure of a verbal service check call on the next page
 Example verbal service check to secure a client referral

My name’s { } from { }.

We really care about service levels at { } and I’m calling to ensure that you have/are receiving the
right level of service from { }.

Please could I ask you three quick questions?

1. What have you liked about the service?

2. What, if anything, would you like us to do differently next time?

3. What, if anything, do our competitors do that you’d like us to incorporate into our approach?

Thanks for your help. Just before I go……

INTERNAL REFERRAL

How much do you spend with recruitment companies each year?

Who else recruits in your company?

Why don’t we meet to look at developing our relationship and providing greater value?

EXTERNAL REFERRAL

Thanks for those positive comments. Just before I go….

In view of those positive comments I wonder if you can help….?

We’re very busy at the moment but I am looking for one or two new clients and I wondered who you
might know in other companies who could also benefit from this level of service?
 Verbal referencing to win new business
The biggest mistake made by recruiters when taking verbal references in order to get into decision-maker
conversations with hiring managers lack of thoroughness when taking the reference.

Make sure that your staff use the verbal reference pro forma on the next page every single time they take a
verbal reference and you will observe the following benefits:

1. Your recruiters will Impress prospective clients with the superior level of detail taken during those
calls

2. Staff will be able to use anecdotes of how they have saved companies time and money by taking
detailed verbal references - i.e. how they have prevented our companies from making bad hires

3. You will be able to take copies of good references and bad references (and anonymized) on client
meetings to illustrate to prospect clients that our policy of verbally referencing candidates wherev-
er possible Will save them significant time and money
Candidate: ………………………..…………………… Date: …….…………………………………..
Information obtained from: ……………………………… Position: ……………………………………

1. What was your relationship with him/her?.………………………………………………………….

2. He/she told me they were doing [confirm CV]. Is that correct? YES / NO
If ‘no’, what was he/she doing? ……………………………………………………………………………
3. Confirm dates on CV: From: Mnth…… / Year ………… To: Mnth…… / Year …………
4. What else was he/she doing? ………………………………………………………………………………
5. How would you rate productivity on a scale of 0 to 100%?…………………………………..
6. What did he/she do better than his/her peers (key achievements)?
Save/make company money………………………………………………………………………………...
Suggest new ideas ……………………………………………..………………………………………………...
Other ………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………..
7. How many people did he/she manage (if at all)? ....................................................
8. How involved was he/she in management decisions (if at all)? …..……………………….
9. How hard did he/she work? ……….……………………………………………………………………….
10. What was his/her attendance like? .…………………………………………………………………….
11. How did he/she get along with others? ..……………………………………………………………..
12. Salary AND benefits when he/she left the company?
Salary: ……………………………………………………………………
Benefits: …………………………………………………………………
13. Why did he/she leave? ………………………………………………………………………………………..
14. What were his/her strong points? ……………………………………………………………………....
15. How could he/she have improved?.…………………………………………………………………….
16. Hypothetically, if you worked in another company, would you re-employ in that company? If not, why
not?.………………………………………….................................................................................
17. Is the person honest and trustworthy? YES / NO
18. The candidate is being considered for the following position (describe). In your opinion how qualified is
he/she to do that job? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
19. What else could you tell me that might help me form a more accurate estimate of his/her ability? .………
…………………………………………………………………………………….......
20. Can I pass this information to my client? YES / NO

NB: Find out what’s happening in their department/company and if possible (once you have qualified their
business potential), close for a meeting.
When recruiting, which type of candidate do they find hardest to find?
Exciting or interesting developments? New products?
Challenges?
 Getting your staff to think commercially
How many recruiters have you encountered who celebrate when taking a vacancy, work hard on it for
many hours and then tell you that one of the 5 other agencies working on it has filled the role?

When your staff take vacancies, you (and they) should know which ones to invest the most time and
effort.

The job order qualification pro forma below is a useful tool to enable recruiters to prevent their com-
mercial view of which vacancies are most likely to produce a financial return to managers

JOB QUALIFICATION

1 2 3
Client wouldn’t an-
Reasonable job spec-
swer questions and
Complete job specification ification that I can Very co-operative
emailed a basic
with all our questions an- sell to candidates client who answered
job spec that lacks
swered and get them inter- all my questions
important informa-
ested
tion
How long has this job been Forever (12+ A little while (6+ The budget’s been
open? weeks) weeks) signed off today!

Who else is trying to fill this Exclusive or retained

Lots (3-5) A couple (1-2)
role including internal staff? role
Other candidates in the mix Client has some-
A couple at first Client has no CVs or
including internal candi- one at final inter-
interview suitable candidates
dates? view
Repeat business - realistic
number of placements in None 1-6 7+
next 12 months
Salary – reasonable, attrac- Well under market OK –pretty compet-
Good salary
tive? rate itive
We need someone
Start date –realistic? In a few months 6+ weeks
URGENTLY!
Says fees are too
Fees and TOB. Agreed and Terms agreed and
Will only pay 10% high, wantsa dis-
acceptable? signed
count
Don’t have time, I’ll I can only brief you Let’s meet or Skype
Face to Face Job Briefing?
email the job spec over the phone today
I have to send CVs Partnership – will
Mutual co-operation and wait for feed- Takes most calls take all my calls and
back respond quickly
Lots of these roles, I can think of 2 or 3
Hard to fill, very
How difficult is this to fill? few candidates but good candidates right
rare skill set
fillable now!

Scoring outcome: 12 – 17: Probably wouldn’t recruit 18 – 23: Possibly recruit 24 – 33: Probably would recruit
 Peer reference text for registration process

Peer referencing is a very powerful technique to generate high-quality candidates with a similar back-
ground to those interviewed by your recruiters.

Clearly, we train our staff in this and other techniques but despite ongoing development, praise and recog-
nition and reminders you will find that some staff forget to ask for peer references.

The text below can be used during the registration process to capture information that takes us directly to
former, or in some cases if we have permission current, peers of our candidates. We can then take a peer
reference and convert some of the peer referees into new candidates.

Example Peer reference text for registration process

To enhance your chances of securing the very best role, we find it very useful to get positive testimonials
about your ability.

Ideally, these testimonials will come from people who you’ve worked with at a similar level at some point in
your career (because they often best understand the day-to-day nature of your role better than an immedi-
ate manager).

Please list below the details of current or former colleagues who have worked with you at a similar level at
some point in your career and who can provide a positive testimonial about your ability (all discussions will
be treated in the strictest confidence).

NB: Feel free to discuss how this approach can help your career when interviewed by your consultant.

Name Job Title Telephone E-mail

 Fee justification pro-forma

Fee defence begins with perception of value. Once again, we train our staff how
to create the perception of value via:

• The extra thoroughness, care and attention we apply when taking job spec-
ifications via our pro-forma

• Uncovering where things have gone wrong when clients have hired in the
past via other sources (and how we reduce the risk of that happening)

• Explaining in detail what we are going to do to fill the client’s role – i.e. get
them to feel the extra value we provide

The pro-forma below should be completed by recruiters who feel a client will
not recruit with them unless the negotiate fees, but that there are commercially
viable reasons to do so.

Note the pro-forma:

1. Re-trains recruiters by reminding them of techniques to create a percep-

tion of value
2. Gives you information as to where the recruiter needs to be re-trained
3. Highlights valuable ‘tradeables’ that we can get in return for any agreed
discount
4. Should be printed double-sided with 27 rebuttals to rate reduction re-
quests being on the reverse (another reminder)
Reduced Fee Justification Form Date: _____/_____/_______

Consultant Name: ________________________ Client Name:____________________

Which technique(s) did you use to defend our fees?

Use of fee defence questions in the job pro-for- Yes  No  N/A 

ma
Getting the client to say I was more thorough Yes  No  N/A 
than other suppliers at the end of taking the
job spec
Detailed explanation of how we go the extra Yes  No  N/A 
mile

Reason for your request to reduce fees:

Tough client Yes  No  N/A 

Client with big spend potential Yes  No  N/A 
Easy to fill job Yes  No  N/A 
Other (please explain below)

Did you attempt 5% off invoice value Yes  No  N/A 

What did you secure in return for the proposed discount?

Exclusivity on this role Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 

Exclusivity on future roles Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Interview slots (before sending CVs) Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Internal client referrals Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
External client referrals Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Testimonial (that we can write) Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Client meeting Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Names of other candidates that we can place Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Client will put us on PSL Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
Improved payment terms Success  Didn’t ask  Wouldn’t agree 
 Example rate negotiation rebuttals
1. What is your current understanding of what we do in comparison to other agencies?
2. When you say “It’s too expensive”, may I ask what kind of service are you comparing us with?
3. What’s more important to you – recruiting the very best person in the market, or saving a few pounds on the fee?
4. Do you know Jim Smith from XYZ company? They are a very similar company to you aren’t they? His thoughts were very similar to
yours initially but he now claims that we saved him money by paying our fees. How interested would you be to hear what he said?
5. Like any business we will consider discounts for bulk buying, but I can’t discount for a one-off placement. So why don’t we put this
one to bed and then I’ll sit down with you and look at a deal for committed future business?
6. If your other supplier deals with you at 15%,but has other companies at 30%, where do you think they will send their best candi-
dates?
7. What do you think of the old adage “You get what you pay for in life”?
8. What candidate sourcing strategies did they discuss with you to ensure that they find the very best candidate in the market? How
much experience, personal contacts and market knowledge does the other recruiter possess?
9. How important do you think it is that a recruiter goes the extra mile to fill this role with the very best person? For 15%, do you really
believe anyone will be committed enough to call candidates out of office hours at 8pm or 9pm in the evening?
10. If you were a recruiter and you had 2 roles at 25% and one at 15%, where would you put your best candidates? Incidentally, how
many exclusive candidates does the other recruitment firm have for this role?
11. I agree it is a big investment. Don’t you agree that’s why it is essential that your project is given 100% focus, commitment and re-
sources so that it gets filled with the very best candidate?
12. I understand that your current suppliers charge less. Doesn’t that make you wonder where they are cutting corners? Do they hire
inexperienced recruiters? What candidate sourcing strategies do they use? What impact might those limitations have on their ability
to deliver the quality of candidates you are looking for?
13. Surely the question to ask yourself is how much time and effort they will invest in your position if they have other clients that are
paying them 25%?
14. We’re not the most expensive, but we do deliver the best candidates. However, if you choose your recruitment partner on price
alone, we’re not the right company for you. Is price your overriding concern, or is it more important to recruit the very best candi-
dates?
15. I’d really like to work with you, but at that price, I can’t justify re-allocating a team of people onto your account to fill the role.
16. You won’t get a contractor with the skills and experience you want for less than £XX. If that’s beyond your budget, we can find you a
less experienced person who will be cheaper. Which of the essential skills and experiences we’ve discussed could be removed?
17. How crucial is it that the temp completes his/her assignment with you? Isn’t it fair to say, the way the market is at the moment, if we
don’t pay the temp enough there is a risk that they (or any person for that role) may be poached away by another recruiter?Do you
really want to run that risk?
18. I assume that your company prioritises its workload in order of importance? Have you ever considered that recruitment companies
might do the same? At 15%, would you say you are an A, B or C class client for the other supplier? Perhaps I should explain what you
get from us as a priority, A class customer?
19. I can create a special fee structure for you based on volume. The more people I place with you, the more you benefit. All we would
need to do is get across a preferred supplier agreement to you for signature today, confirming in writing that we will get 2 weeks
exclusivity on all vacancies. Incidentally, what is your recruitment budget for the next 12 months?
20. How much does it cost each time you recruit the wrong person? A moment ago you kindly said I’d taken more detail than any
other recruiter you’d dealt with.If I can consistently save you that cost doesn’t the little extra for my service become a minor concern?
21. If I could prove to you that our approach could save you more time and money than your current supplier, how open would you be to
explore out how we can do that for you?
22. Putting rates to one side for a moment, how interested are you in seeing him? I can understand you wanting a good deal, but this
candidate is registered with me exclusively and I can place them at any one of 3 companies with no discount.If you were in my shoes,
how would you handle that request?
23. I understand why you are asking for a discount - I would do the same in your shoes. Perhaps I should explain how our service will
actually save you money overall?
24. As you can see from the detailed workflow of our processes, there are many things that we do that our competitors don’t. I can’t
offer you that comprehensive service for less, but if price is critical, which part of the service do you not want?
25. OK, you’re looking for X and I’m looking for Y. If I can save you the time of calling other recruiters and arrive at a point where we’re
both happy, are you prepared to make a decision to hire Dave now? OK, Let’s put it to bed then and meet halfway.
26. I’m not saying I can do something for you, but if I can, what can you do for me in return
27. OK, in that case I can give you 5% off the invoice value (NOT 5% off your rate card)
 Client post interview de-brief

Information gained during a structured client debrief conversation can be invaluable to:

1. Enable you to use appropriate feedback to re-sell back to your candidate- for example, you can
feedback enthusiasm

2. Occasionally overcome objections by catching them early

3. If the client is interested in your candidate, steer them to offer the most suitable package.

For example:

“II things go well, what salary/package might you be offering? “

4. Re-confirm reasons why offer should be made through you, i.e. counter offer
 Client post interview de-brief
Consultant Name:………………………………………………… Date: …………………………………………………….

Candidate Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Company Name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Company Contact: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Feedback
How did the interview go?

How well do you feel [candidate name] will be able to handle the position?

What did you like best about [candidate name]?

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being extremely interested, how would you rate [candidate name]?

How can they get to a 10?

If client has reservations

Just to clarify my thinking, what do you need to think over - is it…?

How did you leave it with the candidate?

Are there any areas of his/her background where you would like more detail?
If interview went well

Will you be inviting them back for a second interview?

When will that be?

With whom?

When will you be making a decision?

If things go well, what salary/package might you be offering?

Re-confirm package needed for candidate to accept offer

Re-confirm reasons why offer should be made through you, i.e. counter offer

If client wants to make an offer

When would you like [candidate’s name] to start?

When will the written offer letter be ready?

Who else in the company should I be talking to? (Get referrals)

Remind client of need to get the offer letter done TODAY!

 Candidate post-interview de-brief

Information gained during a structured candidate debrief conversation can be invaluable to:

1. Enable consultants to call their client with useful feedback for their client, rather perceived
to be chasing by simply saying, “how did he/she get on?”

2. Occasionally overcome objections by catching them early

3. Learn more about the vacancy you are recruiting for! - “How was the position described in
comparison to the way I described it to you?”

4. Gather more client contact names

5. Check the candidate’s commitment

 Candidate post-interview de-brief
Consultant Name: ………………………………………………… Date: ……………………………………………
Candidate Name: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Position: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Company: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How do you feel the interview went?

How was the position described in comparison to the way I described it to you?

How long were you there for?

Did you meet with anybody else? (ask for names and positions)

How did you get on with the person that interviewed you?

What questions were you asked?

How did you answer these?

Is there anything you would liked to have said but didn’t have the opportunity?

Is there anything you said that you wished you hadn’t?

What did you particularly like about the job?

Were you shown around the office/ company – by whom?

Do you have any reservations at all about the job or company? If so what are they?

What kind of future can you see for yourself at this company?
Did you tell them that?
Did you discuss salary/ package/rate? If so what?

Would you accept the job if offered? At what salary/rate?

Is there anything that would prevent you from accepting an offer at this time?

What would be the earliest date that you could start?

How did they leave it with you?

What other interviews/offers do you have outstanding?

How does this role compare?

What is it going to take for you to accept an offer from this company? I need to know what your bottom line is, the point below
which you would not accept an offer

Personal considerations?

Family:

School:

Bonus:

Benefits package?

If the candidate is hedging:

You don’t sound very excited:

How much do you want this job?

How would you feel about me arranging more candidate interviews for the client?
 Interview preparation pro-forma

Did you know that you can improve your interview to placement ratio by 40% or more by ensuring that
your staff prepare candidates more thoroughly and more effectively than our competitors?

The following pro-forma gives some structure to the interview preparation meeting but it’s important to
train staff NOT to TELL candidates what to say. Instead, they should coach candidates so that they under-
stand why a different answer will give them a better result.

Interview Prep Pro-Forma

Candidate Client

1) Re-confirm what they are seekingin a new role

Re-confirm the ‘five ideal things’ that the candidate wants from their next career move, as identified when
you first spoke with them
Summarise any ‘conerns’ that you identified when you first spoke with them

2) Describe how the role you are putting them for suits their needs/solves their concerns

Day to day activities /responsibilities:

Reporting to:

Problem the client is trying to solve:

Environment, team size:

Culture and work hours:

Company history:

Interviewer history (LinkedIn):

Future plans:

Interview procedure:

If interviewer is not inspirational, try:

“When you meet X please be aware that he will probably be interviewing you on a technical level so
he probably won’t be overselling the opportunity and growth.”
3) What five questions do you think you will be asked?

How will you answer them?

If the client asks you about your experience of (essential skills) how would you answer?

What questions are you planning to ask at the end of the interview?

4) Other interviews pending - how does our role compare?

5) Evidence

Take any certificates, awards, references, letters of commendation with you.

What have you personally done in your career that has made or saved your employer time/money?How
much?

6) What will you be wearing?

7) Close! Close! Close!

How do you normally close off an interview?

How do you think that comes across to the interviewer?

If there were other candidates that were more enthusiastic do you think they would stick out in the inter-
viewers’ mind?

“Thank you for your time today, just to let you know I have really enjoyed the interview, I feel like I could
make a real impact in the business. I am keen to take move to the next stage”

8) Close candidate to call you immediately after the interview - sell:

Position you as more enthusiastic than other candidates

Help correct any misunderstandings

Happy to call me the minute you get out of the interview?

 Template resignation letter

Whilst we clearly cannot use the same template resignation letter several times over with the same em-
ployer (!) we can use it the very first time.

The reason that a template can be useful is:

1. It’s easier for the candidate

2. The message within the template very clearly tries to signal that the candidate will not change the
mind

Private & Confidential

Dear XX
I have decided to leave the company and I am writing to give irrevocable notice of
my decision to leave.
Under the terms of my contract of employment I understand that I have to give {X
weeks} notice but as I have {Y weeks} untaken holiday I would like, if possible, to
offset the untaken holiday and leave on {ZZ} date.
I have enjoyed my time at {ABC}, but having thought extremely carefully about my
future I have decided it is not in either of our best interests for me to remain with
the company.
(And if applicable:) Please let me know the arrangements for handing back equip-
ment, company car, etc, and handing over outstanding work and responsibilities.
I wish you every success for the future.
Yours sincerely
 Prompt to ensure consultants identify all employee benefits

A - Financial incentives
B - Non financial incentives
C - Company car/ car allowance/ travel
D - Life enhancement benefits
E - Training / study assistance

A: Financial incentives:

• Bonuses – cash, based on company/personal performance or both.

• Commission
• Corporate credit card
• Contributory pension
• Non-contributory pension
• Private healthcare
• Life assurance (company paid)
• Profit share
• Share options or equity
• Telephone allowance
• Mortgage subsidy

B: Non-financial incentives:

• Additional paid holiday allowance

• Incremental holidays
• Bonuses – Incentives / travel / gifts etc
• Company bar / drinks allowance
• Departmental rotation within every X year period of employment.
• Clothing allowance
• Free shoe-shine and/or dry cleaning
• Free meals
• Freebies (Company products at reduced prices or free)
• Discounts at local shops
• Home PC
• Mobile phone
C: Company car / Car allowance / Travel:

• Company car
• Car parking/ allowance
• Petrol allowance / fuel card
• Season ticket subsidy/loan
• Free car washes

D: Life enhancement benefits:

• Career breaks / paid sabbaticals

• Flexible working arrangements.
• Company owned holiday accommodation (This country or abroad)
• Extra paid maternity leave, in addition to statutory rights
• Extra paid paternity leave, in addition to statutory rights
• Subsidised club membership (Sports / Golf / Country / Social)
• Gym/swimming pool membership (Free/ subsidised)
• Sports events tickets/ Corporate hospitality (Sailing, Racing, Tennis etc)
• Subsidised food/ Luncheon vouchers
• Creche
• Subsidised childcare
• In-company doctor/nurse/massage

E: Training / Study assistance:

• Study assistance – part or all of courses/books paid for.

• Study leave
• Training – classroom and/or e-learning
• Team Building exercises
 Candidate Offer Acceptance Resignation Checklist

In the early days of a recruiting career, a candidate resignation checklist can be completed by the recruiter
and presented to the manager to ensure that best practice has been followed.

This process can also be used if an experienced recruiter is suffering from turned downs or counter-offer
issues.

Candidate Name

Role Offered

Package Offered (How much Increase?)

Start Date

Candidate Notice period

Holidays or days in lieu owning to Candidate

Line Manager Name

Reason for leaving

Has this changed?

Any reasons why Candidate would not take this offer?

Other interviews outstanding?

If yes, has the Candidate cancelled interviews?

Candidate told other agencies now off the market?

Is Candidate’s CV on search sites?

If yes, has candidate erased?

Offer letter sent to Candidate by employer?

Have we picked up the job that they are leaving behind?