General

I have been an agency owner for just over a year. Right now I have one experienced Consultant (with me almost from the beginning) and two Junior Consultants who are real newbies. The experienced Consultant started off well – R700 000.00 in billings the first six months. She is now seemingly burnt out. Every measure of her performance is off – hours worked, hours on the phone, number of calls made. And so her job order and send out numbers are down. She seems satisfied with her income to date and has started to work according to her own “rules” – coming in at exactly 8am and leaving at exactly 5pm. She used to work long hours, take work home, etc.

I have two issues here: 1) How do I get the person who has been my best performer to get back on track, and 2) How do I not let a “work by my own rules” atmosphere take over my company. To build my agency, I know that it can’t just be me hitting the numbers – number of calls, hours on the phone, number of job orders and send outs, etc. And my best performer is setting a bad example.

Now, I don’t want to lose this best performer. Having her leave because I come down too hard on her is not something I want to have happen. I also know that I have to set a standard for performance for the new people – the ones I have now and the ones I will hire next year.

So, what I can do to motivate my best consultant to get back on track? It seems to me that this is the first thing I have to do. Am I right? If not, where should I start? What should I do?

I am seriously burnt out! I’ve had so many fallaways and counter-offers this year, and I’m trying to keep myself motivated, but am struggling to get to work in the morning. I have been a consistent R200K a month biller for the last 3 years, but haven’t done CLOSE to that this year. I’m not sure I want to do this anymore. Do you have any advice on how to get past this slump I’m in?

My question is this: I have reached a level where I can bring in as many Job Orders as I need and headhunt candidates. But I am now bored. Why? Have you experienced boredom at any stage of your career? How can I motivate myself? I used to be motivated by money, but now have a home, nice car, money family etc. and seem to be quite happy with what I have achieved. I feel at 29 I am burnt out. I personally bill R2.4 million a year working very lazily and manage my agency of 5 people. I need to start challenging myself and stop merely existing DOING JUST ENOUGH. Any suggestions?

I recently went to a seminar where the speaker spoke about a “New Breed” of Recruitment. He mentioned some things that really scared me about technology and the demise of the staffing industry. What are your thoughts about where this industry is going?

I have an executive candidate who is going for a first interview tomorrow, it is a panel interview for 1.5 hrs. She has excelled and grown as much as possible in her current position, but I don’t want her to come across as someone who wants to necessarily climb the chain too soon either as my client wants an individual who is willing to stick to this position for a number of years before moving up in the organization itself. But the position is already a level higher than her current and remuneration will be commensurate. How would you recommend I brief her for that?

We are in the middle of working a job order with an existing client. We have been sending their internal recruiter candidates we believe meet their requirements. This recruiter is interviewing our candidates and then asking them for other candidate referrals. While I understand this is not illegal it is a practice that I believe does not meet an ethical business standard. Can you comment on how I might approach this recruiter and bring this matter to their attention without jeopardizing the relationship?

As an aside, this recruiter used to be our employee and went out on his own ending up as an internal recruiter. Thank you.

We’ve know each other a long time. We’re both 20-year veterans of the business, so I’m hoping you can help me. I’ve been a successful recruiter for most of my career (my average billings have been about R7 million a year).

As you know, I specialise in Engineering and, as of late, find myself rethinking whether I’m still capable in this field. I’ve had two months in a row where I’ve billed nothing and am having a very hard time staying positive. I’ve worked my way out of slumps before and been through 3 recessions, but am finding this even more frustrating.

Other than increasing my confidence through success (placements) which obviously works, is there anything else I can do? What should I be reading, listening to, drinking, smoking? Should I abandon Engineering and try something else?

I work in a small office, 4 recruiters and the owner. We have a leave policy, but it doesn’t seem fair. Our owner counts my days off, but seems to have amnesia when counting the days of two of the other recruiters. I’m not sure what to do.

I have managed a small agency that bills about R900K a year since 1994. We have 4 consultants that I have been managing (I’ve been off my desk for about 2 years). At this point, my consultants are pretty consistent and I need to get back on my desk.

This is going to sound strange, but I am very nervous about making calls again. Partly because while I was managing, our senior recruiters have become solid recruiters and really know their stuff. I sit in the middle of the open plan, so everything I do is very obvious. Short of going through training again, how can I quickly get myself back to speed?

I am so pleased we are on this programme with you. A candidate that I placed left within 10 days of my placing him with my client. This obviously fell within the guarantee period…in fact my client didn’t even pay yet. When I presented my client with 3 further candidates to interview, he told me that he actually managed to find a more suitable candidate on his own and would like to hire him. He wanted to know what his contractual obligations to us would be in this case. The truth is, he is a good client and in desperate need of the right candidate. So do I charge an engagement fee and what would be fair?

So sorry that I could not join your super training session last night! I hope you are keeping very well. Demitri, please help us with something where we feel stuck and that is: We have had a request by several of our personnel consultants to have flexi time and by that I mean being off in the afternoon and working online from home especially in the evening, this is something that has increased substantially here. So we are thinking of offering this opportunity to our personnel consultants. But before we offer something that creates a lot of problems for the company, we would very much appreciate your input on how you have seen flex time work best for personnel consultants. We will enormously appreciate your answer Demitri and we want to say thank you in advance for your input!

I’m curious about your view of open plan vs. private offices for our recruiters. When and where do you draw the line?

I am trying to find an incentive plan that will work for someone who is driven by the goal of getting job orders, not by traditional send outs, call levels, etc. What do you think of the idea of paying her per Job Order she brings in?

This person can be a superstar, I just need to motivate her a little more!

What do I do with a consultant who is proving to be excellent in all ways (billing about R200K a month) but seems to have a bit of a problem with either perfectionism or possibly cold-calling? Everything this recruiter does is great but she does not manage to get enough activity to meet her goals. I am particularly talking about candidates. We need a certain number per week and I do not know how to get her to hit the number instead of hitting a third to half of it.

I was hoping that you could give me your opinion about work/life balance. Our top biller in the office leaves at 4pm in the afternoon (while the rest of the recruiters stay until 5pm or later). He also makes between 30 and 40 calls during the day, and talk time around an hour per day. Yet the result is, he bills between R250K and R300K per month.

Similarly, the other recruiters also have low call rates, and yet our owner continues to drive the importance of doing all prep work and planning at home, and staying late, and being on the phone above all else as a means of guaranteeing effectiveness and billings.

It has always been my contention that quality is better than quantity, and that in order to live a healthy life-style there needs to be a break in the time that one works. I’ve always thought that if a person can’t do the job really well in the 8 hours we should be at our desks, that person either needs training or help with their workload.

This is a sensitive question because all too often owners in this business can be seen as “never satisfied” and “only goal driven” which makes it harder for a recruiter to feel appreciated. I would love to get your opinion on this.

Why do young recruiters who experience success very early in their career always seem to leave the business faster than others that entered the business at the same time? What advice would you give as a manager in channeling that success into long term retention?

What do you think of hiring your soon to be wife (fiancé at the moment) to be an office manager/ PA to start and then eventually to be a recruiter? I want the good, the bad and the ugly please:)

I need some advice. A couple of months ago we became a preferred supplier with one of the largest telecommunications companies in the country. I was very excited about this new account because we worked hard to get it. But after four months we have sent over 60 CV’s and we still have not made a placement. What would you suggest?

Our agency really enjoys your questions and site. We are a specialised agency and we are fanatical about personally interviewing all of our candidates before we send them to a client (hardly ever do just a phone interview). I think we do a pretty good job of selling our candidate’s background/core skills. We do this in a ‘highlight film’ sort of way, which you showed us.

Where the problem lies is how do you effectively sell a candidate’s personality/soft skills to a client that you’ve met in person? Any suggestions on how to more effectively sell those candidates who distinguish themselves with their personality and interviewing ability?

All of your advice is so valuable to us. However, I do have a question. How do you get clients to revert back to talking on the phone when they prefer or demand e-mail correspondence only? I have two clients that want everything to be handled by e-mail. What are your thoughts?

In the last 2 years, we hired about 20 recruiters, and most of them left. We pay good basic salaries and great incentives. We hire mostly recent graduates. So I suspect that’s the reason for turnover, they stay for a few months and then want to leave and continue their studies or travel overseas. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

I’m having a real problem with my voice mail script. Please can you give me some advice? Here is the message I am currently leaving (I get about 20% call backs).

“Hi [NAME], this is Linda. I’m a recruiter specialising in the Electrical Engineering field. My number is 011-XXX-XXXX. I’m calling to make you aware of an exceptional engineer looking to make a move. He has a BSC and a Masters in Electrical Engineering. He’s currently handling R80 million on new product development projects with turnkey responsibility. He’s a high energy engineer, self-driven, a really focused candidate. So call me as soon as possible to hear more about him. Again my name is Linda, 011-XXX-XXXX. Thanks [NAME]. Hope you’re having a great day”.

Our agency like many others asks recruiters to handle their full desk; business development andrecruiting. It is a model that has been very successful for us and we plan to maintain moving forward. Our logic is that it allows the recruiter to really drive the direction of their business as well as understand their clients more than they would in other structures. We preach this, we recruit our staff based on this model, however we do at times hire individuals that have not worked in this environment.

Last year we hired someone who was new to this model. Their knowledge of the business, personality and pure recruiting talent led us to believe the hire was a good one. Throughout the interview process we discussed what the transition would look like, the expectation of business development and whether or not they would be willing and able to embrace our model and strategy. Fast forward a few months, and things are not working as expected. They are capable; however we have not yet been able to coach them out of the comfort zone of a recruit only desk. How do you recommend we help get things on track?