RISMEDIA, July 20, 2009-In Part 2, I wrote about making the time for recruiting. So now you’ve booked some regular and consistent time to start recruiting activities. Here’s what comes next. You need to set goals. We’ve all done this before and the key is to stick with them. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to get started.
• How much additional revenue do I need or want this year and next?
• How much room do I have in the office(s) or how much desk space is available?
• Do I want newbies, experienced, or a combination of both?
• What percentage of each do I want?
• Approximately how much is each category worth to me in dollars?
It’s crucial that you WRITE DOWN YOUR ANSWERS. See the Harvard Business School Goal Story linked to the bottom of this piece illustrating this statement.
From your goals, you build a plan of action that will lead you to accomplishing each one.
This requires what I call “backward goal achieving.” Example: your goal is to hire six new agents by the end of 2009. Think back from the end of 2008 to the present. You’re working within a six month time span or recruiting one agent per month.
We’ve compiled some statistical data from the tracking and accountability system we provide to our clients called iNTELAGENT. On average it takes approximately 40 completed contact calls to arrange one interview. By “completed contact calls” I mean an actual meaningful conversation with a recruiting prospect. Voice messages, or “Hi how are you?” calls don’t count. It typically takes three interviews to get one hire. Let’s do some quick math and break it down.
We’ve established it takes three interviews to get one hire and 120 completed calls to get three interviews. There are 20 (typical) business days in the month. 120 completed calls divided by the 20 working days in a month indicates that you need six completed calls per day to get your three interviews which will lead to one hire.
Sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? That’s because it is, unless you have methods and processes to assist you with connecting with people and sharing your professional values and beliefs in an easier and more concise way. These methods and processes will be covered in future articles and that’s what we’re here to help you with.
Goals should be reviewed on a daily basis if possible. By using a similar formula to the one mentioned above, break your activities down to a “per day” basis. Have them in writing and in close proximity to where you are working and even in different locations where you can see them as you work. At the end of the day, you want to match where you are in relation to achieving them. If you fall behind one day – no problem; schedule time to catch up the next day. This will be easy for you because you’ve already made a promise to yourself to make this happen and have begun to schedule a regular time to conduct your recruiting.
Take the time now to figure out your goals and WRITE them down. Read this amazing study conducted out of Harvard University’s MBA grad program that will confirm, without a doubt, how important it is to document your goals. http://www.lifemastering.com/en/harvard_school.html The knowledge I gained from reading this piece really made me “wake and smell the coffee.”
In my next installment, I’ll share some insight on defining your identity and what really sets you apart from the competition.
Jason Shaw is Senior Account Manager/Recruiting Consultant for AlignMark, Inc. jshaw@alignmark.com.
Part I
http://rismedia.com/2009-06-24/creating-a-plan-for-recruiting-can-you-spare-the-time/
Part II
http://rismedia.com/2009-07-14/make-time-to-put-a-recruiting-system-in-place/
