It’s your recruitment consultant’s first day as the newest hire in the office and you’re left wondering how you are going to get them to from zero to hero as quickly as possible.
Make sure you put time aside to sit down with your new consultant and break down what to expect from them each week. Make sure you are clear form the outset from your side and explain to them how you expect these actions to develop their skills month on month.
Beyond them making their first placement, there are a number of steps which you can take together, to ensure that they develop into the best recruiter they can be:
Take the emphasis off a ‘quick deal’
This is the best thing that happened to me – as a new recruit I felt like there was so much pressure to do a first deal, by hook or by crook! As soon as the pressure was taken off me I focused my efforts onto really developing a business. I did this by implementing good practise – I met candidates and clients, had good conversations with them which had purpose and properly mapped out a business with a solid list of target clients.
Those that do deals quickly don’t necessarily materialise into the best recruitment consultants. Those consultant which concentrate on a structured business development plan will, eventually yield consistency by building a solid business correctly.
Put in place smaller targets
To encourage the above point, put in place smaller targets which can be reviewed daily/weekly. Start with simple tasks like composing a really good template for a follow up email, gradually build on the complexity of the targets. Good development points can include:
- Calls to relevant clients
- Commitment for future action
- Meeting candidates
- Meeting Clients
Make sure that these are recognised as milestones and reward them for their effort. This will help to build up their confidence (lets face it, many sales people are confidence players!)
Take them along to events
They can easily find networking events and hangs-outs in their area by scouring Google/LinkedIn and asking candidates in their network. This is a great way for them to meet and engage with relevant people in their space and they will quickly pick up the lingo as well as warm leads/candidates which will materialise further down the line.
Get them to present on their market
This is a great way of making sure that the consultant has got to grips with the market which they are recruiting in – I would always recommend candidates recruiting into targeted markets so they get to understand the space really well. This will ensure that when they are in conversation with candidates they are easily able to speak about the job roles and work out how suitable a candidate will be.
Setting up an informal presentation in which the consultant will present back to the manager/team will mean that the consultant will be required to put some real thought into their market, learning any market terms. The team can fire informal questions at them so that when they are in front of clients they will be fully prepared.
Stage mock meetings
Whether this is an office wide roll out for every new starter to make sure they are up to scratch or something you do in a one on one environment it’s great practise! Set them up with a scenario either by email or a follow up from a mock phone call. Make sure you throw some realistic objections at them and create a score sheet. From here you can give the consultant some constructive feedback to help develop their skills!
Get them to lead an office project
Whether it’s a Monday morning song playlist or organising an office wide sales day, it’s a great way to get a recruitment consultant brought into the company culture and settled into the company. Some things you can try could include:
- Office music playlist
- Sales days
- Incentive role outs
- KPI boards
Pair them with a buddy
Ideally this will be a senior consultant or somebody that has done particularly well that they can sit next to. Make sure they catch up with their mentor at least daily (ideally after lunch/half way through the day) and get them to listen into particularly important phone calls.Having a hands-on mentor to speak to on a daily basis about their queries will take some emphasis off the amount of time which you will need to invest into management and it will also help the more senior consultant to develop their skills.
For a rookie recruiter to fully develop into the superstar you know they can be, it’s important to strike a balance between hand-holding and letting them ‘sink or swim’. Whatever you do, don’t leave the new recruiter to their own devices, and have them suffer in silence – try to remember what it was like on your first day… you were probably nervous, just like they are! Be sure to create a bespoke development plan and framework for their first week, month, six months and so on, so you can continue to track their progress to becoming a fully fledged consultant.
