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Article: The
Recruitment Industry Needs More Than Just Big Billers by David Leyshon
While it’s an absolute given that the recruitment sector is a sales and performance driven industry, is it right for consultants to be rewarded on their billings alone? We often read about the fact that the industry still has a long way to go in proving its professionalism among clients but what are we actively doing to change that perception? Promotion is often based on beating hard financial targets but should big billers be promoted into senior roles because they are big billers? And are big billers always the best managers?
While we do reward consultants based on their performance, it’s not only restricted to hard numbers. We also focus heavily on values and behaviours. We have a published set of values which are used as a framework for managing our people and we also employ a behaviour model by which performance is appraised. This ensures that we constantly champion and reinforce our values and behaviours, ensuring a strong cultural alignment. I firmly believe that encouraging an approach that leads to a purely monetary focus will always be at the expense of softer skills such as teamwork, staff development and customer service – not forgetting leadership and management development. By linking financial rewards to behaviours, recruitment businesses can really lift performance across all areas of their operation.
In our case, we wanted to take a more holistic approach to reward and performance management and so launched a new appraisal and performance management process which combines both hard financial objectives (including sales revenues) but 40% of the quarterly bonus is linked to key behaviours namely:
• Drive for results
• Developing self and others
• Teamwork
• Problem solving and decision making
• Customer focus
• Managing change
• Planning and organising
The outcome of this has led our consultants to develop far more holistic skills and competencies and we have seen considerable improvements in teamwork and customer service.
It’s about looking at the bigger picture – and not just the short term financials. If you have a sales driven team who are used to being rewarded on financial results then I can’t pretend you won’t lose a few people – we have and that included some big billers but that’s often no bad thing. It tends to remove people with poor attitudes or questionable values. Moreover, it avoids having an environment when being a great financial performer or producer can excuse bad behaviour. Often it’s those high performing sales people who are promoted into management roles when in fact, they lack the basic attributes required to manage your most valuable asset – your people.
Building on the behaviour model, we also launched a ‘good boss programme’. This was designed to improve management performance. Every six months, team members complete a confidential online questionnaire to rate their line manager against a wide range of criteria. The resulting diagnostics are used to determine improvements. An external management coach then holds one-one sessions with each manager to close any identified gaps. This has resulted in significant measurable improvements.
In the words of one of our managers: “ I’ve completed the company’s good boss programme which is superb as it makes you look at your behaviour as a manager – and how you can get the best out of yourself and your team. In other companies I’ve found that people can get away with bad behaviour just because they are top performers – that just wouldn’t happen here as you are judged on a number of things – not just the level of fees that you make.”
And it’s all measurable. We have seen sales increase by around a quarter since implementation of the new scheme. In addition, on-target and objective delivery has increased by 36% and key accounts have grown by 42%.
I believe the lack of sophistication in managing performance – which mainly has an overwhelming emphasis on short term financial results, has been to the detriment of building sustainable and quality operations. Changing to a more holistic approach has been one of the best decisions I have ever made because it ensures that we not only harness and develop talent, but that we also retain it.
David Leyshon is managing director of specialist technical and engineering recruiter,
CBSbutler. With over 20 years experience in specialist recruitment and staffing as a business owner, executive, manager and consultant, he formed the company after leading a management buyout of Butler International in 2003 and acquiring CBS Appointments in 2004.
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