How do you create a winning team?

Tips from a rugby great.

Rod McQueen (Ex Wallabies Coach) gave me the following words of advice some years ago. They seem very relevant today with the current challenge all recruitment agencies face of attracting and retaining the best talent for their businesses.

1. Ensure that you have the systems in place. Creating a winning team hinges on having the right processes and procedures in place to facilitate a smooth integration for the new team member. Consider a detailed induction pack, initial formal training both internally and externally on the "right" way to do the business will equip your new people with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful.

2. Allow the team to take ownership of nuances in culture. Allow your team members to integrate your new person into the culture of the team. Remember that the players are custodians of the game. The "we" not "me" culture. The existing players dictate the culture and set the rules for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour by the team members. Make sure your standards are high enough to reach the vision for the business and that all the team have the "passion to be the best".

3. Create a buddy system to teach what's important. Coaches and mentors are the way of the future for our industry. Buddy your new recruits with mentors (either internal or external) to help them be successful. Let them learn from the best, not the average. Success breeds success in rugby as in recruitment.

4. Never rest on your laurels. Always be creating a new and innovative way. Complacent rugby teams lose. Focus on the weak points, make them strong. Always be improving. For me the message is be continually stretching your team, acknowledge them for what they have done well and then stretch them once again toward excellence.

Winning teams are committed, consistent in their activities and behaviour and are passionate about their desire to be the best!

Are you part of a winning team?

Don't let lost deals get you down!

I have just had a coaching session with Dan, a recruiter who lost $60K this month in withdrawn offers. He was devastated as you can imagine. We got to talking about what he could have done to avoid this. The plain and simple truth was both situations were out of his control. He had done everything he possibly could do to control the process with both clients giving verbal commitment that offers were coming and then changing their minds a few days later.

He asked me for ideas on how these blows might be less devastating in terms of reaching his target and I got to thinking about how he manages his numbers.

Let's assume for a moment that on average you lose 1 in every 5 offers to a counter or conflicting offer. That means that you need ensure that you have enough in your pipeline that the loss of one fee is not life and death to meeting your target.

I explained how I used to work on my desk. I always ran at least $20K in fees more than I needed to from live opportunities to ensure that I always met and exceeded target each month. I also worked a month ahead of everyone else. So for example, if you invoice on start date then you should be closing your quarter at the end of this month (May) not next (June). Make sure that you have enough "closeable" jobs covered in your pipeline so that you have reached target for this quarter at the end of May.

How do you ensure enough "fillable" jobs in your pipeline? Increase your activities!
Always look at your target as the minimum you need to attain as opposed to the maximum. That way, if something goes wrong, you will still have enough in your pipeline to meet target and won't be in the situation Dan currently is in with not enough starters invoiced this quarter to meet his target.

Start today thinking about next quarter. How many jobs need to be filled to reach target + 20K?
What is your average fee?
What are your fill statistics? ie. How many jobs must you work to fill the number required?
What job coverage do you currently have on those jobs? ie. how many candidate CV's have you sent out and how many client/candidate interviews have your organised?
What actions do you need to take THIS WEEK to increase your activities?

Need some help getting and staying focused, then why now consider a coaching program with me. Visit www.gaynorlowndes.com/Gaynor%20Lowndes/coaching for more details on how I can help you reach your potential.

How to stop your competitors stealing your rookies

One of the biggest challenges that my clients currently face is keeping their quality rookies.

You have taken a risk by employing someone without recruitment experience, have invested time and money in training them, they just start to bill and they're gone!

Grass being greener and all that.

Many Rec to Rec's are returning to the more dubious practices pre GFC of systematically working their way through agencies, offering ridiculous incentives to consider other opportunities. Linked in has created another headhunting opportunity for your competitors.

So what can you do to ensure that you receive a return on your investment? Here are my 6 top tips for keeping your quality rookies:

1. Consistent check in. A happy and fulfilled rookie makes a better biller. Acknowledge good performance and support through the bad days.

2. Keep them away from negative influences. Success breeds success, ensure that your rookies are mentored by individuals within your organisation whom share your vales and vision.

3. Create a culture of loyalty. This is one of the keys to success for Morgan and Banks (think Talent2). Continually communicate the vision and values of the organisation.

4. Offer a defined career path. Gen "Y" want it all now so communicate what they need to do to get to the next level. The Hays model of titles won based on longevity and performance is one of the best I have ever seen.

5. Offer incentives/rewards based on improved performance. Award points based on pro-active activities and then as the rookie gains experience the numbers change until the rookie is working to traditional KPI's.

6. Continuous Learning and development. A strategy of a client of mine recently was to get rid of one of their senior non revenue producing staff and reallocate the salary amongst the team for training and development.

Finally, encourage your mentors and team leaders to have an open and honest relationship with your new consultants. Remember that loyalty is directly related to perceived value. Ensure that each and every member of your team feel valued.

Need help with developing a retention strategy? A high impact coaching session will clarify what you need to do. E-mail me at gaynor@trtc.com.au to arrange.

The sales vs service argument.

Let me begin by making a blunt point. Recruitment is a sales profession. That became even more evident during the recent global financial crisis. You might be amazed to learn that some of the recruiters I encounter still refuse to accept the fundamental nature of what they do. In fact when recently meeting an experienced recruiter, he responded with “we are consultants, we don’t need to sell.” I wonder how any business can survive and prosper during a recovery without selling? Have you ever considered what a contingent recruiter gets paid to do: We have a product (albeit a human product), and we receive payment when we provide the product to a client. The term “Sales” has become synonymous with opportunism, manipulation, deception and downright trickery. This perception has evolved particularly over the past ten to fifteen years, hand in hand with the growing popularity of transactional recruitment, e-mail CV’s and quick database searches. But it doesn’t have to be this way. My experience over the past 25 years in the recruitment industry has shown me that the most successful agencies balance new business (sales) with a service culture. No business can survive and prosper just by providing excellent service as many agencies have learned the hard way during the GFC. Having said that, you would also be foolish to think that nothing will ever change within your existing clients which means there will always be a need to source new business if you are to survive and prosper as a recruiter. A frequent flyer because of my training and coaching work, I meet people from all walks of life in airport lounges and on planes. About a month ago I struck up a conversation with Vivian, who manages three mobile phone stores in the ACT. She told me she had recently been recruiting sales staff, and the interviews had not gone well. She explained; “When I asked the question: ‘Why do you believe you will succeed as a phone salesperson?’ I got replies like: ‘Because I’m persuasive,’ ‘Because I have an outgoing personality,’ and ‘Because I’m driven.’ In a whole day of interviews, only applicant mentioned ‘Integrity and meeting customer needs.’ The rest thought it was all about them.” Vivian raises an important point. Any effective salesperson understands that sales is about the customer, not about them. I could take this statement and cite numerous examples of where it has or has not been applied in our own industry. If I made a list of “hard-sell” agencies and a separate list of “service-oriented” agencies, those currently thriving would all fall into the middle somewhere. What the hard sellers don’t realise is that they are setting themselves up for failure. Any transaction is a two-way street, and yet they pretend that only their interests are of any real importance. Thus, they give clients no real incentive to do business with them, and whatever business they do elicit is likely to fall apart because of a rushed approach where job fit is an afterthought. Recruiters take note, if you want to be successful in what will become an even more competitive marketplace, then balance between new business development and maintaining existing relationship will be key.

7 Habbits of highly successful recruiters

1. Highly effective recruiters schedule the important tasks into each day

Time management is one of those competencies that everyone talks about but few of us do well. It’s not just about getting things done but getting the right things done at the right time. It’s about understanding the importance of scheduling the important tasks into each day to ensure you have an ongoing pipeline. Too many of us get busy with the unimportant and reactive tasks and put off the important ones. Important tasks include business development; candidate care; client follow up. Highly effective recruiters ensure that time is scheduled into their diaries to complete the important tasks and consistently meet their key performance indicators on an ongoing basis. They finish their work knowing that they have given 100%.

2. Highly effective recruiters are outcome focused.

This habit is about beginning with the end in mind. Being outcome focused is being conscious of the bigger picture and not getting bogged down in the detail. When you are outcome focused you get more of the right stuff (the important stuff – see habit 1 above) done and are therefore more successful. Being outcome focused when dealing with a difficult client, candidate or job brief will help you keep everything in perspective and you out of the emotion of the situation. It will also help you achieve whatever goals you set yourself in your life. Outcome focused people can ride out the rough times, knowing that they will eventually reach their desired outcome.

3. Highly effective recruiters can demonstrate excellence in service delivery

This habit centres around your personal values. By putting others needs before your own and by consistently delivering results to your clients and candidates you will build an excellent reputation in the marketplace in which you operate. That’s good for you and good for your business. Highly effective recruiters elicit feedback from candidates and clients about how they can improve. They are not afraid of constructive criticism or too arrogant to take notice. By striving to continually improve your service you will move from being an average recruiter to an exceptional one. Excellence in service delivery is not one off, it is a consistent goal for highly effective recruiters.

4. Highly effective recruiters are persistent

Take a look around your office – who do you consider to be a great recruiter? One of the habits this person will have is persistence. Persistence to keep going when things don’t work out as planned, persistence to keep building their desk and business. Persistence to keep at it when they don’t feel like it or are bored. Most people, when faced with defeat give up and go home, those with persistence keep trying until they get the results they want. They try different ways, keep learning and have faith that they will reach their desired goals and outcomes. Persistence pays!

5. Highly effective recruiters are committed to self development

Stephen Covey in his best seller “7 habits of highly effective people” describes this habit as sharpen the saw. That is, successful people reflect on their results and continue to learn and develop. Many very experienced recruiters go stale because they think they know it all. Complacency sets in and they maintain the desk until the economy changes and then wonder what’s happened. Many of them left the industry during 2009, all because they were not prepared to learn new techniques or stretch themselves further. Human beings don’t like change on the whole, however it is the only constant in our world so embrace it. The world will change as a result of the recent global financial crisis and highly effective recruiters will change with it. Commit a percentage of your income to self development as you would a savings plan, I guarantee you will see the benefits. If you think you are too experienced for industry training then engage a coach to help you stretch a little. You’ll be amazed about what you learn about yourself in the process. Awareness brings change. Change brings different results.

6. Highly effective recruiters have balance between work and play

Gen Xers were defined by their work. Many of them (like me) have lived very unbalanced lives in the past. Gen Y’s on the other hand, have no concept of working hard to get ahead and have expected everything to be handed to them. I believe a shift will occur in our thinking about work/life balance as a result of the recent hard times. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap Galatians 6:7-8. My take on this is to ensure that as far as is practicable, all areas of your life are balanced. Highly effective recruiters have interests outside of work and enjoy balanced lives. They take time to smell the roses and celebrate their successes. They also understand the importance of working hard to achieve the results that they want to achieve. Highly effective recruiters set goals in all areas of their life and are positive and well balanced as a result.

7. Highly effective recruiters have high levels of honesty and ethics I have been amazed over the last 12 to 18 months at the dishonest behavior of some in our industry. I know times have been tough for us all but I am also a big believer in the concept of Karma - that there are consequences to every action and word. What goes around comes around so be very careful with your thoughts, words and deeds. Highly effective recruiters are honest with others and themselves. They behave with integrity and sleep easily at night knowing they have done their best. Honesty got lost somewhere in the last 20 or so years and I am pleased to tell you that it is making a comeback. Practice dealing with everyone in an honest and ethical manner and you will attract similar people and situations.



In summary, highly effective recruiters are well balanced, positive, persistent people whom understand what is important in their work and their lives. Take a look around you….learn from the masters and be the best you can be!

Are you at cause or effect ?

I have been talking a lot lately about cause and effect in my coaching sessions. It is basically an NLP (neuro linguistic programming) tool that challenges your thinking.

Have you ever been in a situation where things "just happen"? Times when circumstances cause you to react? If you are controlled by circumstance then you are at the "effect" end of the pendulum. If, however you create situations and circumstance then you are at the "cause" end of the pendulum.

Let me give you an example. I coach a recruiter who is struggling to maintain his billings whilst leading a team. He has always been a big Biller. Always making things happen for himself . As a Biller he was at cause - he made things happen, always ensuring he had a pipeline, consistently billing. As a newish leader, he is very much at effect. He complains he can't motivate his team, can't maintain his billings and is now under pressure from his directors. The flag for me as his coach was his constant use of the word "can't". I knew I had to challenge his thinking to move him back to cause. I asked him "in perfect world, what would the current situation look like for you". He responded that billings would be consistent between him and his team and realistically that may mean that his billings will not be at quite the same level they were before but his team would more than make up for that. The next step was to establish some actions that he could take to empower his team to do what needed to be done. Within 2 weeks of moving him from effect to cause, his team were noticeably more motivated and therefore more productive and on target for the first time in weeks.

Here's how to apply this to your life. When something happens (an event occurs) ask yourself whether you are at cause or effect. If you recognize you are at effect, then take action to move back to cause. It might be as simple as asking yourself how can you take control of this situation rather than handing control to someone else (like a client or candidate). Those of us at cause make things happen. We chose not to be victims or blame others for where our life is right now. We take responsibility. If you are not happy with your life right now, ask yourself "am I at cause or effect"?

5 biggest mistakes new recruiters make

We lost some 60% of the industry during the GFC and many experienced recruiters either left the industry or were made redundant. As a result, the industry is now extremely talent short. This is further evidenced by the rec to rec agencies refusing to take on any more jobs and the unbelievable amount of headhunting currently going on in the industry.

Many of my clients are telling me that they are struggling to find promising talent for their businesses which prompted me to reflect on my recruitment journey over the last 22 or so years and the mistakes I made and saw made by others. So if you want to not only survive but do really well in this business, then learn from the following mistakes.

1. Not Learning the basics first
My youngest son is 17 and plays ice hockey at an elite level. Amazing, considering that he put on his first pair of ice skates when he was 14. How did he do it? He perfected the basics first. He learned to skate forward first, then when he had perfected that skill, he added skating forward and stopping. Once that was perfected he learnt to sprint on the ice. Every week he added another basic skill to his tool kit and practiced until it was perfected.

Same with recruitment. Break down each task and practice it until you can do it without thinking. For example, consider the cold call. Start with perfecting a script, then practice it until you don't need to read it, then add objection handling, then closing and so on. Practice until it becomes second nature. Then work on another skill until it is perfected and so on.

I remember clearly the frustration that I felt when I made mistakes or lost placements because I wanted to run before I could walk.

2. Not getting proper training
One of the main reasons that new recruiters fail, is that they don't get proper training. Some agencies have a robust induction process and in my view they are giving their new recruits the best chance of success. Others however, have a policy of no training until probation is over. Educate yourself as to what is available in the marketplace and ensure that you train with industry accredited trainers (like me!) At the very least, ensure that you are reading all the material that is readily available on blogs like this. Find a mentor within your new organization, watch, listen and learn from the experienced and successful. It's how I and many industry veterans learned.

I was lucky enough to work for Geoff Morgan and Andrew Banks setting up the Alectus Personnel brand some years ago. My biggest learning whilst there was to move from a contingent recruiter to a retained recruiter, selling client paid advertising and working less jobs for a greater result. Much of my training workshops are based on what I learned whilst in that environment.

3. Forget that candidates are as important as clients
Our industry is renowned for it's poor treatment of candidates. Don't fall into the trap of believing that your clients are more important. Treat every person you meet as you would like to be treated and never, never become complacent as far as candidate care is concerned. Take your candidate's calls, return messages and e-mails from your candidates and work hard to meet their needs. Remember that your candidates are your best and cheapest advertisement.

I remember when I worked for Recruitment Solutions under Greg Savage during the mid 1990's this lesson was learned as we were KPI'd on candidate care and we had a rule that all candidate messages must be returned before we left for the day. Great habit to get into early in my recruitment career.

4. Offer discounts
My view is and always has been that I am worth every cent I charge. Very rarely did I have to resort to discounting during my career and on reflection, that's because I honestly believe that I provided a great service. When I first started in the business in the late 1980's, discounting was unheard of. That's because recruiters of my day didn't hide behind technology. We had "relationships" with our clients. My clients expected to see me during the recruitment process and as a result, most of my work was exclusive and at full fee. It's really hard once you have set a precedent to go back to charging full fee so start the way you mean to carry on. It's too easily to allow your clients to take control by dictating what they will pay. Look at it is way, you wouldn't go into a restaurant and start negotiating the prices of the meals would you? So why discount your service?

5. Become negative
Geoff and Andrew went to a lot of trouble finding glass half full recruiters. In fact, from memory, I did a full day of personality profiling and psych testing to even be considered as an M&B recruiter. If your profile was 10% higher or lower than the template they had created, regardless of how good you were, you didn't get an offer of employment. This created a culture of winners and many recruiters during that time aspired to work for M&B. Since then, I have studied much on the brain and how it affects our behavior and therefore our success. It is now scientifically proven that you create what you think about. That being the case, you will find that the most successful among us are also the most positive and optimistic. Look for the positive in every situation, and remember that mistakes are just things you haven't learned properly yet.

Being positive has ensured my success in recruitment as well as training and coaching. Negative thoughts cause call reluctance, which can be a killer for recruiters. As Monty Python says "always look on the bright side of life".

Finally, be the best you can be. Hold your head high and be proud of being a recruitment professional.

I am running my Recruitment Essentials workshops in April around Australia, so if you are new to the industry, give yourself the best chance of success by spending a couple of days with me learning how to be the best you can be. Visit www.trtc.com.au for dates and to book.