Is now the time?

Something very puzzling, (apart from puzzles - see what I did there?), are the number of businesses that are cutting costs in this recession by reducing spend on training and marketing.

We are currently in an environment where cash flow is a concern, keeping costs to a minimum is paramount and staff are being made redundant. However, why oh why am I speaking to so many businesses that see the training coach or advertising spend as a luxury you can live without?

What comes to mind is that things could not be further from the truth!

Consider this.

To decrease costs in difficult conditions is one way of keeping the wolves from the door. Another proven way is to generate more revenue!

Generating more revenue seems an extremely obvious solution; however, it is surprising how many businesses currently under consultation, which are just not following that logic, so much so that I am challenging new and old clients to think about the following.

Is now the time to be more aggressive with your marketing strategy? Let us take advantage of the fact your competitors are not.

Is now the time to diversify into new markets?

Is now the time to invest in staff training, to ensure that your sales team are highly motivated?

Is now the time to enhance the knowledge of your team? Knowledge is power after all, power is confidence, and confidence in tough times could equal more sales!

Is now the time to invest in training to help your sales team spot opportunities with new clients or develop new revenues through your existing bank of clients?

Remember, “Whatever the masses are doing, do the opposite.”

Our clients are certainly feeling the benefit in prudently investing into sales and coaching and intelligently investing resources into marketing & new business development.

The masses certainly are not!

Contact us to see how our services could help your business.

Darren_leighfield@fulcrumcr.co.uk

Recruitment agencies who needs them?

The recruitment market is worth billions of pounds worldwide and there are hundreds of agencies covering a multitude of sectors. However, do you still need the services they offer?

Allot depends on the type of employee you are looking for.

If you have a technical requirement or a specialist profession then without a doubt employee the services of a knowledgeable and well-connected agent in that market place. Temporary staff, needed to start a short-term assignment then look no further than a specialist agency in that field.

If your requirements are more generic, then I suggest there may be a better way. If you are paying a recruitment fee to fill roles such as, customer services, general sales, or non-technical BDM roles then you could be spending thousands of pounds that you do not need to.

In this current climate, getting candidates through your door should not be the issue. The issue is making sure they are right for your business. Here is where the screening skills of a recruitment consultant comes into play and knowledge of your business is essential to getting the fit right.

Before you pay a fee to an agent, let us discuss alternatives that could save you money, protect your valuable time, and more importantly get the right people into your business.

Why I think PSLs or Preferred Supplier Lists are bad for your business

Picture this. It is a Saturday; you are having a big night out with friends. Everything is planned down to the last detail. You have spent hours shopping for a killer outfit; look a trillion dollars. Confidence and excitement are oozing out of every pore!

You get to the hottest place in town and the burley door attendant stops you in your tracks and says, "Not tonight you’re not on the list”

You now have two choices, go home or look for something else.

The thing is you haven’t spent all day shopping, styling your hair, and ironing your pullin shirt, to go home.

Not to be too stubborn, (and waste the magic of your shirt), you might just as well stay out. So move on to the bar around the corner. Not your first choice but much to your surprise you have a great night, spending lot of money in the process.

It is safe to say the door attendant on the first bar has, (subconsciously), made a terrible business decision; he has passed business to his competitor. Will you return, I don’t think so!

If the owner of the club had the luxury of being able to examine the entire drinking market on a Saturday night and only let in the most well behaved, affluent and thirsty customers, then surely they would jump at that?

Of course what business wouldn’t want their pick of the best people?

This is why I think that preferred supplier lists should be scrapped! I am of the opinion that in the current business climate we should be more open to new ways of conducting our business and with new people. Are PSL necessary? Are they putting limits and constraints on your business? The answer is seems to me to be a YES!. Are you getting the pick of the best people by sticking to your list? The answer is definetly NO!

Let us face the brutal truth there are allot of recruitment companies out there, I am disgusted by the behaviour of some of them, but I can name very good and highly professional companies, all of whom want the opportunity to prove their worth to you.

So why limit yourself with a select few?

Competition is good for business! In this current climate many new and existing agents are willing to be much more flexible on terms and price. This means you could be getting a much more competitive contract with someone outside of your magic list.

Candidates do not always throw themselves into the arms of every agency in town, which means you could be missing a future asset to the business that may not even appear on the radar of your PSL!

When a candidate on the open market looks promising to you they will also look promising to your competitor. You need to remember that many recruitment consultants in many cases are target orientated and commission hungry. Will they offer them to the business paying the higher commission? Perhaps, which means you may not even get to know about them, even from your cherished PSL. Forget any exclusivity agreement you may have, if you do not know about the candidate can it be enforced?

Having a PSL can alienate you as a business and can create a negative impression. I recently targeted five businesses that would have been ideal for a candidate of mine. Of which three had PSL agreements in place. I informed my candidate she should apply directly to three of them as I am not on their PSL. she felt it would be unfair for me not to earn a fee for the time and care I had given her. She said that she would not want to work for such "closed and inflexible companies”

Only dealing with a select number of businesses limits your ability to gain an overall snap shot of the market.

I can only see one benefit from having a PSL, it gets cold callers of the line quicker and saves you time. I personally feel there are much more effective ways to protect your time and I am always happy to discuss those with you. Perhaps that could be a future blog!!!

More shocks from the Recruitment Industry

Last night I broke the usual routine of home, meal, East-enders, run, then bed and spiced things up by meeting an old associate of mine for a drink, (coffee of course, it was a school night).

So we sit down in a local bar, (I mean coffee shop), exchanged pleasantries, moaned about the lack of activity in our love lives, drank a few more coffees, (I mean beers..... no I mean coffees), made our predictions for the coming football season, then onto work.

Now as luck would have it, this associate of mine happens to be a recruitment consultant for a leading Financial consultancy in Bristol.

I won't bore you with the details, but will summarise the content.

Last month he raised two invoices for just over £7000 with candidates’ he had found on a FREE social networking site and boasted that he had done this many times before.

Informed me that many companies are looking to head hunt the best staff on the market place, which often means "re-visiting" candidates’ he had already previously placed.

Now I am in business to make profit and I commend the initiative shown here.

But the following thoughts cross my mind.

Is the client aware that they are paying over £7000 for something that cost the agent nothing?

I wonder if compassion and empathy was shown to the client? After all times are hard for IFA's and financial services business at the moment, so were the fees discounted to reflect the agents, (cough, cough), costs?

Where is the moral correctness in churning candidates’ that have previously been placed by the agent in your business, only to whip them out and offer them to someone else?

In my mind that empathies the mentality of the recruitment consultant, it's not about taking your business to the next level and working with you, but earning the commission at the end of the rainbow!

Candidates will in time move on, but seeing as you paid the fee shouldn’t the consultant be doing everything they can to keep in your company not moving them on?

Ashamed of the Recruitment industry!

I think the recruitment industry is a disgrace. There are far too many recruitment companies out there charging highly expensive fees, for doing very little.

Now I remember a time when recruitment was a tough old job, you had to network to find candidates, build loyal relationships with the people you place and hope they value your services enough to refer a friend, take your business cards to the local pub and eves drop like mad in the hope that the conversation between too mates in the corner involved words to the effect of

"I am sick of my job, I need to move on”!

Fast forward a few years and it's all got a little bit easier. Job boards... Monster, Fish, Reed, to name a few.

They have done for recruitment what super sonic did for air travel... So imagine, you advertise your clients role, search the few thousand CVs on line, very shortly you have 2 0r 3 relevant candidates - send them to your clients, fingers crossed all goes well............hey presto your accounts department are invoicing 15 - 25% of the first year package to your client.... Easy money!!!

My advice to employers

1) If you use an agent – ask them to justify the fee
2) Ask them how and where the role will be advertised
3) Let me know how you get on!