Every year, I and several other staffing professionals write articles and columns trying to rejuvenate individual performers on how to improve on previous years’ performances and put together a year unlike any you’ve ever had. This year, I’ve decided to look at what the company should do to have a breakout year instead. Companies monitor their performance similar to how they critique an individual performer. That being said, companies have to be simultaneously introspective and forward thinking to repeat and outpace a previous fiscal year.
However, looking at your individual performers still has to be a part of this. Companies look at recruiting and sales as two separate divisions. Some companies value sales more than recruiting but you can take all the job orders you want, but if you don’t have the quality team of recruiting professionals to fill orders, it’s similar to having a state-of-the-art car without a state-of-the-art engine to support it. If you’ve got a recruiting team with depth, you should have someone closely monitoring and leading each contributor to make sure that each individual is hitting their required metrics and making quality numbers as opposed to making empty submittals, interviews or candidates interviewing that don’t have a serious intent regarding the job they’re being considered for.
On the opposite side, you need to have an aggressive, seasoned and consultative sales team that is wide-reaching in terms of accounts they’re going after but is also pragmatic in terms of sourcing accounts/companies that they think will yield intermediate as well as long-term dividends. If you have an account executive making calls and visits to clients that will never yield quality business, you’ll see your company’s traction stifled and your momentum stall as quickly as a productive year you’ve just gotten through celebrating. That being said, you need a central authority that is willing to take the onus upon them to make the tough decisions and realize that personal relationships within a firm should not affect them making the call regarding performance alterations or even personnel changes to streamline an entity’s ability to become more aerodynamic and work at an individual or team’s potential.
PREMIUM CONTENT: IT Staffing Growth Assessment
A third component that can’t be overlooked is how the company is performing from an overall fiscal and metrics standpoint. For instance, Staffing Industry Analysts predicted that IT/Technical staffing market grew 6% in 2015 and would grow at the same rate this year. If your company is at this pace, you’re just keeping up. That’s fine, but you also don’t want to be average. At this point, you should be looking at your company as a microcosm. For example, key performance ratios that should be closely examined include submittals to interview, client visit ratios to job orders, candidate interviews to job fills and other criteria that should be closely scrutinized to make sure that you’re hitting performance numbers that will average out to success. If you are, great! If not, don’t be afraid as an executive(s) to pull out the red inked pen and make decisions that are crucial for your company and the individuals representing it to reap the rewards they deserve.
Let’s come back in 12 months and see how we did. Good luck!
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