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Welcome to issue 380 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
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CONTENTS
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Article One: Practical People Management; Basic tools for extraordinary results - The Balancing Act by Denise Walker In this series of articles, Denise Walker shares her management experience, ideas and methods that actually work from a practitioner’s perspective rather than HR theory. Imagine this: you are a new manager in the first day of your first management job and you are just about to meet up with your team of inherited staff for a first briefing. Usually confident, you have earned the reputation as a high performer, having achieved top sales results over the past year. You have well and truly earned this promotion. And you are more nervous than you can remember ever being before; your mouth is dry, you doubt yourself 100% and you can’t for the life of you remember why you wanted this job in the first place! They are waiting for you on the other side of the door. You take a deep breath and walk into the room: Act 1, Scene 1… Yes, it can be like being on stage – and, just as successful actors prepare, practise, learn their lines and know their role inside out, successful managers know exactly what their roles are. And this starts with knowing what their jobs entail in the first place. In essence, as John Adair’s simple model sums up perfectly (www.johnadair.co.uk), the focus is on 3 key areas: - TASK: Achieving the TASK Whilst no two management roles will be exactly the same, there are some universal elements to managing. Working to this model is, in my experience, the most practical method of achieving great results through a team of people, whatever the size of the business. I have worked with some very effective managers, who, through balancing these 3 areas, whilst adapting focus between each (according to the needs of the organisation), obtain quality results for the business, build great staff morale and develop their teams. 1. Tasks In the first of this series of articles, we covered the subject of leadership, including vision and planning. Using this as a starting point, effective managers plan to get the basics right, such as tools, stock, equipment and facilities, so that there are no obstacles to achieving task objectives. And they also establish responsibilities and standards, so that people know who is expected to do which tasks and when and so that quality is maintained against agreed performance indicators. This may be common sense but you’d be amazed at the type of issues that surface when tasks are not managed properly; I once worked with a client, who relied on customers being able to deliver A4-sized documents to his office and his team to be able to process them within a certain timeframe. In a meeting, he was berating the fact that his staff regularly mislaid these documents and, as a result, missed the company’s deadlines for dealing with them. It was only when we noticed that the front door had a very small letterbox, that we investigated further and found that the issue was caused when customers delivered out of hours; they tended to leave their precious documents either in the entrance to the building or with neighbouring businesses (which had larger letterboxes!). Once recognised, that particular obstacle was soon overcome with a spanking new large letterbox. Another example is when interviewing tools for one particular recruitment consultancy (registration forms, welcome packs, and reference request pro-formas) were altered to include prompts for questions that consultants often forgot to ask. Hey presto, no more forgotten questions. Once the plan is in place, it is essential to monitor performance against it and to regularly review it in a meaningful way. Successful managers give themselves a chance to work ON the business, rather than just IN it by stepping outside of the day to day activities on a regular basis for some strategic planning. This helps them to recognise resource deficiencies by looking at their operations from the outside in, helping them to highlight all obstacles and then working out how to overcome them. It is amazing how many creative ideas come to light and are then put into practice in this way. 2. Teams Team management is all about getting team-building systems, processes and standards into place. For example, establishing standards of team performance and behaviour, the style of the business, discipline, ethics and integrity. It also requires managers to set team objectives. This is important, because team goals gel people together, enhance the overall performance and encourage self-support and mutual learning experiences – something that is not easily achieved through setting individual objectives alone. And of course, there is a need to give feedback on the overall progress of the group. One of my favourite illustrations of this is a small recruitment business, whose owner/director recognised that the team element had been missing from the working environment for a long time; she realised that, by introducing a few team elements into the business, this might enhance individuals’ potential. As a small business, she wanted to avoid “micro management” at all costs, so she introduced a few simple key elements to team management, which included: delegation of team-related roles; a weekly team catch up meeting (lasting no more than half an hour) and a team target. Within 2 months, morale and productivity had improved and the manager was delighted to find that she had more time on her hands, because the team were a lot more self-sufficient. Simple, easy to implement and effective. 3. Individuals Just as good recruiters know that understanding clients, candidates and jobs inside out is the key to great recruitment results, good managers know that understanding individual staff inside out is key to great people management. They make it their business to know their staff’s personalities, skills, strengths, needs, aims and fears. I am often asked this: “When inheriting a team or recruiting new staff, how do you know this of them, when you have not worked with them before?” My answer to this is: “Ask them.” Mind-reading helps but it’s a lot easier this way! When managers first start to work with new teams asking saves guesswork and time, although they will get to know their staff better the longer they work with them. Clearly, a manager should be there to assist and support the team and it helps to have individuals working to agreed objectives and to give recognition and praise, when it is due. This can be achieved through an effective appraisal process but can also be done informally, where appropriate. And don’t be afraid to lose staff through doing the right thing and developing them to their full potential; some managers mistakenly try to keep people with them despite the obvious fact that they are ready to be promoted, a sure fire way to lose them to competitors. Successful managers develop their staff and often produce top performers, who move onto more senior roles within the same company – to the immense benefit to the overall prosperity of the business. And my final point on this subject is this: example-setting is an absolute must when it comes to maximising management potential. If you work to high standards, “walk the walk” and generally manage yourself well, you will be the best possible role model for your people. What more could a team ask of their manager!
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Article Two: Effective Business Development in a Downturn by Michael Moonesinghe Whether we are technically in a recession or still just in an economic slow down doesn’t really matter, does it? at the end of the day the lack of business confidence which has become even more intense in recent weeks, certainly feels like a recession! Michael Moonesinghe, Managing Director of Glover Daniels Executive Search, the recruitment to recruitment consultancy which focuses on Senior Management opportunities within our own sector offers his advice on effective business development activity during an economic down turn. Many consultants have seen their major accounts go on a ‘temporary headcount freeze’ or selective recruiting at best –major redundancies at worst! Now is the time for each and every recruitment consultant to focus their skills on effective new business development activities before they starve, but how? The value of networking I believe effective and targeted networking calls and meetings are the best business development strategy. A lot of consultants will keep in contact with placed candidates or at least until they are out of the replacement/refund guarantee period! But when did you last speak to the candidate that you placed 6, 12 or even 18 months ago! What are they doing now? Have they got hiring power? Or could they be your sponsor/facilitator to get you in front of a hiring manager or decision maker? Also, what about all those candidates that you have interviewed over the last couple of years, those you didn’t place? Where did they finally go to? Have they got hiring authority in their new role or did they stay and get promoted? Okay, you may only have their home number if they have moved on, so why not invest a few hours one or two evenings a week or over the weekend on the telephone from home catching up with them. It’s still better than making 50 cold calls a day! In headhunting (executive search) we speak to dozens of new people a week, who may or may not be motivated to move at that particular time, but through staying in contact and building a consultative relationship with them (without becoming a pest by calling every week!) we hope to be at the front of their minds when they are either ready to move on or are looking to retain a consultancy to represent them in a professional manner or are asked to recommend one. When did you last suggest to a client conducting a ‘quality audit’ on your last assignment. –This is an excellent new business opportunity that is so often overlooked! I know we can all claim to have more important things to occupy our days, but what can be more important than keeping a satisfied client, especially during a recession? I find that clients respect a consultant much more when they invest the time to find out about their businesses rather than those who just ‘heavy sell’ a CV over the telephone and then press forward without having a real grasp on their client’s current and, just as important, future business requirements and therefore know how a candidate could add value to their team or organisation. This knowledge allows you to keep a ‘watching brief’ for suitable candidates and then present them to your client at the right time. This will steal the lead on your competitors, who may be waiting back at their offices for the regular ‘shopping list’ mass mail out from HR. It also allows you to become more proactive on your clients behalf instead of being completely reactive. Reference checks should also be seen as an excellent opportunity to develop new business. This is why it is very important to get the actual name of the person at interview, together with a direct or mobile number so that you can bypass the usual ‘gatekeeper.’ One last tip on effective networking, and one which is so often overlooked - don’t forget to go back and say “thank you” to someone who was able to open a door for you, whether you got immediate business from it or not. They will appreciate it and be happy to help you again. New business development need not be a chore that is dreaded or done only under duress. In fact business development should be an ongoing activity, used to open and expand client relationships and not left until you have little or no business to work on. Consultancies who establish and develop close and strategic partnership relationships with their clients and continually seek out new business opportunities within them, whilst widening their networking circle will always survive and maybe even grow through a recession. The law is simple… Survival of the fittest! Recessions are sadly a fact of modern business but they can be developed into opportunities to excel, drawing you closer to your candidates and clients. They are much like a tunnel which we have to travel though to get from one side of the mountain to the other. We know that we will reappear into the sunlight again; what none of us knows for sure at the moment is when that will be, 3,6,12 or 18 months? What history does show us though is that sadly around a third of companies will not survive the recession intact. This of course is good news for the two thirds who do survive and are around to take full advantage of clients restaffing as the economy starts to grow again.
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Regards
Louise Triance
UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
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