If you want the best results for your recruitment business, focus on your managers

In the world we are currently living in there has been much change. Most of this change has been imposed and so we have had to react. Let’s face it some have reacted better than others but react we must if we are to not only survive this episode but thrive in the new era of the recruitment industry.

Recruitment is primarily a reactive business requirement. Those clients who proactively look for the right people to enable their business to grow and flourish are increasing in number, which is encouraging, but there is still the scramble to engage with recruitment professionals when these clients need to fill a gap.

At the moment of writing this article we are experiencing a huge skill shortage. In the UK we have moved from an era where unemployment was the lowest it has been for 47 years to a rapid flood of the candidate market due to the effects of the global pandemic. And now we find ourselves riding the wave again by doing whatever we can do to help our valued clients rebuild their operations and recover.  

This presents a whole different set of challenges where recruitment professionals need to think and behave differently to the traditional set of practises if they are to claim their place on the success podium. The main challenge is the archaic mentality of recruitment leaders which is imposed upon so many recruitment managers. Set minimum call times, long working hours, outdated recognition systems and the customary ringing the bell when you make a deal.

Management styles in recruitment

There are at least four if not five different generations of employee working in this amazing industry right now across all sectors and yet we still think one size fits all.

Each generation has a different set of motivational drivers, communications styles, working principles and values and this has further increased in complexity over the past 2 years.

We have enhanced our recruitment service offering, but have we enhanced our internal practices accordingly?

If you want the best results, you must first focus on how to enable your people to deliver them. This must start at the top and work through the layers of your recruitment business. Is the tone at the top creating the right climate in your environment? Are the business leaders enabling the right culture for the managers to drive the performance? Are they removing the obstacles that get in the way of your valued clients paying the wages?

Accomplished recruiters do not always make the best recruitment managers. Most salespeople don’t make the best managers because there is a different mindset and bank of skills between the two distinct roles. Yet still today there seems to be a natural rite of passage for the top performing recruiter to be promoted internally to the position of ‘manager’. Sadly, this is often a way of rewarding their technical efforts and the only way some recruitment business leaders feel comfortable increasing their salary and benefits. Then they are expected to learn their managerial skills on the job. Would you allow a new recruitment consultant who is fresh into the business to learn on the job?

Developing your managers

I imagine you having catastrophising thoughts about this right now. So why do we think it’s OK for managers to learn on the job? Think about all the damage they can do by not knowing what to do, ill-equipped to behave in the right way and with a typical salesperson’s attitude.

You should be catastrophising about this right now!

Evidence suggests ‘accidental managers’ (managers who have not benefitted from focused and pragmatic development) cost the UK economy approximately £86bn each year. Would you rather invest a reasonable amount in their development now or pay the higher costs later? There’s always a choice.

What if managers have been developed before? Some of what they learned is still applicable today. There’s a whole lot of other applicable behaviours required today though. Hybrid working, remote communication, emerging motivational drivers, attention spans, rewards, mental health, servant leadership and managing difficult situations in a safe and ethical way are just a few of the expectations in this modern and emerging era. The sweet spot is to align behaviours with the desired results and all too often there is a massive misalignment. But that’s a whole different story .        

Your 5-to-thrive tips

1.  Business leaders - look in the mirror at yourself and your recruitment business to see if you are in the right shape to thrive in the new era
2. Structure the business to allow managers to lead, inspire and enable the delivery of your desired results
3. Place your people in the right position that plays to their strengths and enables full return on investment for what they are earning
4. Invest in the development of your managers so they can increase their confidence and competence taking full ownership of the team performance
5. Disrupt the market and change the way other organisations view the professional recruitment partner.​​​​