Self Assessment – Jobs

Jobs could be a potential issue as we come out of lock down, not only do you need to find more but you could benefit from improving your qualification and fill rate. In reality this is a pretty easy fix. The nice thing about job conversion is that it comes down to good quality qualification. A simple checklist or form can help you to consistently ask the right questions and make the right decisions about the jobs you work (or don’t). Job flow can take a little longer to influence and it is important that you go right back to the beginning of the job generation process to increase job flow. If you need more jobs as we come out of lockdown then follow these steps in the process to review each to identify where your sticking point is:

• Is your market in collapse? Search the job boards to see what is being advertised, search the CV boards to see how many CVs have been posted in the past 24 hours, week and month to plot a trend curve
• How good are your leads? Review your lead generation strategies to make sure you are looking for leads in the right places
• What is your lead conversion process and your current conversion ratio? How much time per day do you allocate to sales?
• How valuable is your service and how can clients find you? What are you doing to attract customers and how easy is it to find you if they don’t know you?

The above will help you think about where you need to focus your effort first to improve your job flow.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Map out your placement process from job registration through to the end of the candidate’s first month/week/day (delete as appropriate for market) and where there is maximum opportunity to exert control and influence. Create a checklist for each stage of the process
• Review your current job forms and checklists. Are they valid for this market place we find ourselves in? Do they have prompts for securing exclusivity, getting a straight start or interviews booked
• Job flow is linked to your sales activity and the leads you discover. Review your lead generation strategies, how many different sources of leads do you generate leads from on a daily basis?
• How much time do you spend prospecting for business? Who do you expect to hire through you in September? How far into the future can you see? Write a sales plan to target a minimum of 50 companies you don’t work with across a minimum of 150 managers.
• How much time do you spend selling to your existing client base? If you only react to the jobs they give you then you could be missing out on future needs that your competitors and getting hold of before you do
• Do the mission on I’m not filling enough of my jobs and I need more jobs

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Not a bad score. Could be generous sevens across the board though. Let’s take things in order – Job pipeline is OK but could be better. Could be the case for quite a few consultants, especially if we are just returning from furlough. However, it’s not an excuse to accept it as OK. There is more work out there than you are currently dealing with so winning more jobs has to be a priority. With candidate availability increasing the speed at which you could resource a job means you will have more time to do sales. Planning it properly will help you to phone the right client on the right day about the right subject. Pull together a plan of good quality prospects and leads and set the mission of winning some jobs. Stop saying you’re going to do some sales calls and start saying to yourself that you’re going to win new piece of work. If you want to fill more jobs then it can be quicker to place people you’ve got than find people you’ve not. Review your current live candidates and make a placement plan to secure them a new role. Also consider the live jobs you’ve got where you could recycle a shortlist. Lastly, to improve your job qualification make sure it is robust for this market. Do a review of the jobs you lost during lockdown and establish the pattern that connects them. This is what you need to prioritise assessing in your job qualification process. Get it on your form or in your checklist.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Assess your current live jobs. Are they all still live and able to hire? To win more jobs find clients who are of a similar profile in similar markets. Use your current job portfolio to help you win work and demonstrate you’ve got knowledge of that area
• Map out your placement process from job registration through to the end of the candidate’s first month/week/day (delete as appropriate for market) and where there is maximum opportunity to exert control and influence. Create checklist for each stage of the process
• Review your current job forms and checklists. Are they valid for this market place we find ourselves in? Do they have prompts for securing exclusivity, getting a straight start or interviews booked
• Job flow is linked to your sales activity and the leads you discover. Review your lead generation strategies, how many different sources of leads do you generate leads from on a daily basis?
• What is your job take on pitch? What do you go through with each client to explain exactly what you are going to do and why it is valuable to your customer? If you assume the selling is over because they are giving you a job then you could be dealing with clients who are less committed than you assumed
• Do the mission I need more client control or I’m not filling enough of my jobs

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Solid scoring. A good pipeline of jobs and confidence in your placement process is great to hear. What if you could take that from a 10 to an 11? What if you could go from great to exceptional in this area?
According to the type of recruitment you do, there could be opportunities to secure more commitment from the clients you work with. Look at your existing customer base. Score the level of commitment you get from each of them on a scale of 1-10. What would you need to do to get each of those scores up by one point? Yes, even a 10 to an 11. Make it happen. They are far more likely to do it if you tell them than if you wait for them to come up with it as an idea. Look at your process, what opportunities exist to make it slicker or quicker? What technology do you use to help? How could you incorporate video, virtual interviews, testing and online assessments to make decisions for clients quicker and easier?

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Up your expectations of yourself. You’re achieving good results but what would great look like? How realistic is it?
• Get your placement process mapped out and look at where you could add extra value (and perhaps even charge more) to help clients make better decisions. Recruitment fees can be negotiated up by good consultants.
• As you predict a healthy pipeline of jobs, how far into the future can you see that? What would happen if we were called back into lockdown again? What lessons did you learn and how can you protect yourself from that happening again?
• Watch The Pillar on Planning and The Beast

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