Most people who become recruiters do not last. There are many reasons for that. Poor hiring decisions and inadequate training being high on the list.

But there is another key reason why so few people actually last in the hurly-burly world of agency recruiting.

It’s a frigging hard job!

So I know that sometimes you question why you do it. There are times you hate what you do. There are days you go home feeling deflated, worn-out and frankly, useless.

The world is littered with ‘ex-recruiters’, burnt out, scarred and resentful about their all-too-short recruiting career.

Seriously, the guy who cut my hair last week told me he had ‘been a recruiter once’.

It’s true too that being a recruiter can be the greatest job of all, but even so, to survive you have to know the pitfalls, prepare for them, minimise their impact where you can, and push through the inevitable challenges this job will throw you.

• Recruiting is uniquely tough because it’s the only job that I know where what you are selling can turn around and say ‘no’. Think about it. I sell you my car. You agree to buy the car. I agree to sell the car. We agree a price. The car does not then jump up and say “Hey you know what, I am not going to go with this new guy”. Don’t laugh. That happens to recruiters every day. We do everything right. Take a great job spec. Impress our client. Recruit great talent. Make the match. Manage the process. Architect a fitting deal for all parties. Secure a great offer. Get everything agreed and at the last minute – our product – the candidate – says, “ Nah, I changed my mind, I will stay where I am”. And that is it. All over red rover!

• Recruiting is a killer because for us, it is all or nothing. Sure, a tiny percentage of our work is retained, but mostly recruiting is first prize or nothing. Our business is not like the Olympics where you can pick up a respectable silver or bronze for competing well. For us it’s gold…or its donut! We do all the work, spend huge amounts of time and expertise, and manage the process with skill and diligence. But if our 5 great candidates get pipped by a late runner from another recruiter, or an internal candidate, then it is big fat zero for us. That’s tough. Hard to take. Especially when it happens often. And it does.

• Recruiting grinds you down because you do so much work you don’t get paid for. When you hear the words “I am feeling burnt out” from a recruiter, what that actually means is “I just can’t stand doing so much work for so little return”. Contingent recruiters are lucky to fill one job out of 5 they take, and place one candidate out of 10 they meet. And combined with the ‘all or nothing’ fee model most work on, it means lots and lots of hours for which we don’t get paid, and equally importantly see no tangible success. And success, in the form of happy clients and happy talent, is the bedrock upon which our self-esteem is built. And once that crumbles, it is the beginning of the end.

So what to do?

• Firstly recognise that if you are going to be a recruiter, these challenges come with the job. In the memorable words of my Under 16 rugby coach, ‘Toughen the f*** up’ and prepare yourself for plenty of disappointment.

• Secondly, work hard to mitigate the risk of these things happening to you. Hone your recruitment skills, your talent management skills, and your job qualification ability. Build trusted advisor relationships and work to get exclusivity on orders to increase your job-fill ratios. Great recruiters, who move from transacting to consulting, start to win more than they lose.

• Finally,  never forget that if you choose to be a recruiter, you have made a Faustian bargain. You have chosen a career fraught with pitfalls and sometimes it feels like a living hell, But do it right, and the fun and money we need for a great job is within our grasp, because being a recruiter can really rock too!

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There are only two reasons to come to work.

Fun and money.

And you have to have both. One of them will not be enough. Not if you want to love what you do, that is. Having a job where you get just one or the other, often seduces you into thinking you have found your dream job. But in most cases that dream fades like mirage as you realise a key ingredient of  ‘job love’ is missing.

And for recruiters, where our job is so hard, and the disappointments so many, you simply have to have them both for it all to be worth it.

Fun and money.

But let’s dig into what I mean by ‘fun’ and ‘money’.

At work, ‘fun’ is much more than just having a giggle. Fun means working in a business where you believe in the vision and the ethos. That’s where ‘fun’ begins. To do a challenging job well, every day, you have to be doing something that has meaning to you. Fun on the job means working with people you like and respect. Fun at work includes collaboration, mutual support and a strong bond of shared goals. Fun means winning more than losing, continuous learning, constantly growing as a business person, and doing something you know impacts people in a positive way. That’s fun. And it includes traditional fun too. A workplace where we can have a laugh, where we can socialise easily, enjoy each other’s company and celebrate group and individual success. A job that enhances your self esteem and sense of worth. That is fun.

Is that how it is for you where you work?

If you are going to thrive as a recruiter, indeed in any role, you need to have ‘fun’ the way I define it here.

But what about ‘money’?

I don’t simply mean the amount you get paid, as important as that may be.

I mean working in a business that is financially successful, for a start. If we have a great product or service and deliver it well, we will thrive. And that is where you want to work. Profit is not a dirty word. Profit is like oxygen. We don’t wake up every day with ‘profit’ as our only goal, but like oxygen, we sure notice when it’s not there!

Making money means we can invest in people, learning, marketing and technology. And that is fun! And ‘money’ means getting a fair reward for the effort applied and the result achieved. So a heavy element of reward for result is a good thing. And that means if you are good at your job, you get well rewarded. And financial success is important in only one way. More choices in life. And that leads us back to fun!

So there it is. You can read many books on employee engagement and motivation at work. Put them all aside. You don’t need them to evaluate whether you are in the right job, recruiter or not.

Want to love what you do? Work with the ‘twin sisters of the holy grail’ - Fun and Money

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This post is for anyone who manages people, or who hopes to in the future. It will probably draw some flak too, but that’s because I don’t really believe in generational differences. I think it has been largely hyped and exaggerated. I have plenty of employees at Firebrand who fit into the so-called ‘Gen Y’ age bracket. And I don’t see the negative characteristics often ascribed to this ‘generation’. Mostly, I see hard working, highly focused individuals who want to do well, have fun and make a difference. And many of them have been with us years, defying the job-hopping Gen Y stereotypes.

Often, too much talk of how to ‘manage the generations’ leads to skipping over some of the difficult things that need to be done when managing people. And I reckon those things need to be done no matter who you are dealing with.

One of the ways I define great leadership is that the leader actually cares. Bureaucrats do not make leaders. Administrators don’t make leaders either. But before we go any further on the subject of “caring” for our people, a key word of warning on this.

Unfortunately there is too much hype nowadays about the idea that leaders must show concern for their teams. Apparently you have to give a figurative cuddle of support to ‘Gen Y’ staff on the hour or they will resign and go Llama farming in Peru. Codswallop. You cannot fake the fact that you care about the people in the business. There is nothing worse than a manager returning from the latest interpersonal skills training program with “concern” for others beaming from every orifice. It’s not real and everyone knows it’s not real.

Real leaders don’t need training programmes to convince their staff they care. What’s more, real leaders empathise with the people they lead. By this I mean the leader knows what a recruiter does, knows how hard it is and knows the inevitable peaks and troughs.

I have always found it key to any success I have had as a manager of recruiters, that I have worked a desk myself. I feel the recruiter’s pain to this day. I have had shocking months, offers turned down and phones slammed in my ear.  So I do understand the bruises the job will give you. I also like everyone I work with on an interpersonal level, so I really do care when someone is having a bad month or day.

But some times the empathy you need to have is of the “tough” kind.

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Tough empathy means giving your consultants what they NEED not what they want.

That means often telling people things they don’t want to hear, or setting work practices and goals that at first they may not agree with, or like at all. But that’s OK because tough empathy works – and tough empathy is about what’s needed at a particular point in time, not what’s preferred by the consulting team. After all, the team may want something, or prefer something else, but they don’t after all ultimately carry the responsibility for the business, do they? You do though.

At its best, what tough empathy means, is a balance between respect for the individual and the business imperative to achieve the task at hand.

So it could mean sitting with a recruiter who is failing, but who you know can make it. It will mean putting that person on a rehabilitation plan. It means closely managing activities, imposing time management regimes, setting daily goals, and providing intense coaching. It’s confronting and scary for the consultant. It’s frankly not that much fun for the leader either. Yes it’s tough. But you are doing it because you care about their success and their future – and at a deep level they know that.

Do you see what I am saying here? The recruiter knows you are doing something difficult for you, and difficult for her, because you care about what happens to her.  And the power in that dynamic is almost immeasurable.

Some people think that to be a great leader you have to be liked by all. That could not be more untrue. People in our industry, regardless of  ‘generation’ are not looking for friends when they look to their boss. They are looking for direction, support, honesty and clarity. And even though they may not know it at first, they may be looking for the occasional dose of tough empathy too.

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Great recruiters need to understand their industry, their company, the competition, and the business environment for the types of people they place. You need to be a mile deep and an inch wide!

I find that recruiters are easily seduced. In fact, truthfully we can be a bit tarty. A client wants help with a hire that’s outside our area of expertise and we jump right in. And then we find we don’t have the skills, knowledge, or connections to do a good job. We waste time, we get frustrated and we actually risk damaging our client relationship, when actually we were trying to go ‘above and beyond’.

And think of the opportunity-cost of working in areas we are unlikely to ever revisit. Interviewing candidates we are never going to place. Successful recruiters are specialists. They know a niche and they work that niche.

Specialisation is critical because it creates a perception that the recruiter is a recognised industry expert. That is absolutely key if you are serious about this business. This expert status appeals to both prospective clients and candidates. We all want to deal with an “expert” right?

Furthermore, it gives recruiters instant credibility with passive candidates, which will be increasingly crucial. Clients are already seriously questioning the value of our fees. We have to elevate ourselves to a trusted advisor relationship.

And for that to happen we must not dabble.

Don’t allow distractions.

Go deep.

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I find managing a business really difficult. Seldom a week goes by that I don’t think I could have done something better. And of course as a leader, communicating the vision, communicating change, communicating expectations – these are subtle skills, which I don’t think any of us truly master.

However, developing these skills is fundamental to our success. Particularly now, where so many employees have so much choice, engaging people with the company’s goals is, in my view, perhaps the leader’s primary role.

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You will never be accused of over-communicating. No one is going to resign because you share too much information; be disaffected because you tell them what they are doing well, and how they can get even better.  It’s better to err on the side of sharing the vision and the values too often, than too little. I am forever getting surprised when people tell me they have “never heard that before”, when in my mind it’s been said a thousand times.

Nothing scientific here. Just 10 golden rules I have learned over many years of trial and error.

1. Communicate early and often. Don’t wait till people start to make things up because of a lack of information. Don’t communicate only once and think people will “get it”. They almost certainly won’t. Repeat the message in different ways and at different times.
2. Tell them everything or tell them nothing. I have learned that telling people half the story is dangerous. They will invent the missing information. If you are not ready to tell the full story, rather say nothing. Of course in most situations is better to tell it all, early.
3. Empathise before you communicate. “I understand that cutting the advertising budget is going to make it harder for you to achieve your personal goals in some respects, but it’s not working so we want to spend the money smarter.”
4. Deliver on commitments that you communicate or do not make those commitments. This is likely to be your most costly mistake. Communicating change or promises that you don’t follow-up on. We all get enthusiastic and we want to share positive news, but it is best to remain silent unless you know you can follow through. Not delivering kills credibility as a leader and does irreparable damage to the trust.
5. Use informal and formal channels. Sure, share company news via emails and newsletters, but also take the time to sit at the desk of a key person, or over drinks, or on the way back from a client visit. This is where you will get the questions and be able to really cut through any confusion.
6. Celebrate wins and tell success stories. Small and frequent. Success builds belief. Share the news of Mary’s biggest placement, Fred’s first retained order, our biggest placement ever, a key new client won. People want to work with winners and love to hear positive war stories. They are happening every day. Communicate them!
7. Share confidential information regularly. You have to make this call, but I believe it builds trust and buy-in. The company results, margins, client revenues.  Yes it’s sensitive stuff, but mostly I find people will be mature and will value being brought into the inner circle.
8. Where possible speak, don’t email. It’s a thousand times better and more effective. You can always follow up with an email if you just can’t stand not sending one (see here for my views on technology and communicating).
9. Plan and prepare for delivering tricky news. If you have something distasteful to communicate, for example your company is going to have to close a branch office, predict the questions you are likely to get or people are likely to think. Prepare honest, carefully crafted answers. Be careful of the language you use. For example “we have decided not to replace the consultant who left the perm desk because we see the perm market plateauing for a while and we think the people we have now are fully capable of servicing our current client workload”. That’s a lot better than “We are not replacing her because the perm market is so bad and will probably tank even further soon, so we think it is dangerous to hire someone else because none of you will have enough to do”.
10. Tell the right people the right things. This is key. Don’t have ‘communications favourites’ where you share news first with a selected few. It creates distrust and lack of loyalty. And never talk to one recruiter about the mistakes or weaknesses of another.

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Yes, the staffing market may be recovering, but every day we read of recruitment companies going into liquidation. And even in the best of times, I know plenty of recruitment business owners are frustrated by how hard they work for such modest returns.

And the tendency is to blame clients, or the market or the government.

But often the real culprit is much closer to home. Profitability of a recruitment business is totally dependent on recruiter productivity. And more to the point, poor returns are usually a result of long-term acceptance of mediocre performers.

And plenty of business owners are naïve when it comes to the real cost of their staff. They talk of accepting people billing a modest multiple of their salary as being sufficient. I have often heard such statements as “Well, I only paid her $60,000 a year and she billed $70,000, so she covered her cost”. Total nonsense, that was a loss making hire, make no mistake.

What is often forgotten is the opportunity cost of having a serial under performer in your company when you could have a high performer, covering overhead and contributing to profit.

This short video above explains a quick, rough and ready way to work out what recruiters cost you – even before you pay their salary!

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Not so long ago, I ran the Sydney Half Marathon.

That’s 21.1 kilometres around the streets of Sydney. Took just over two hours for me to do it too.

But running a Half Marathon is no big deal. Even at my age, and with my drinking habits. Thousands do it regularly. In the Firebrand business we have plenty of real athletes, some of whom comfortably run full marathons!

So why tell you this? Well, running this marathon reminded me of a very important life lesson. And it’s a lesson that has huge significance for anyone who wants to be a great recruiter and make a long-term career in this industry.

The story goes like this.

I suspected I might be a little unfit, so I went for a jog around my neighborhood. Problem was that after three kilometres I had to stop as I was out of breath and felt dizzy. Bad news. I was seriously unfit! As I hobbled home, I made a rash promise to myself. It was 9 weeks until the Sydney Half Marathon, and I decided I would get fit enough to run it.

So easy to say. So hard to follow through.

But I was determined, and I started training. Gym. Road running. Running on a treadmill. It hurt. I hated every second. The gym was full of smug dudes who looked like models from Men’s Health magazine. Running the streets was cold, and friends of mine would honk and laugh as they drove past.

One week into my programme, I got home from a run and I started to waver. “This is ridiculous,” I thought. “I am too old for this rubbish,” I reasoned. “I don’t need to actually run a marathon to get fit,” I persuaded myself. “I am far too busy. I have travel coming up. There is no time to get fit for this,” I tried to convince myself.

By the time I got into my warm living room I had decided to give up the stupid half marathon idea, and I was on my way to the fridge to grab a beer (which I had given up for 9 weeks too by the way!)

Suddenly an image flashed into my mind. I was sharply reminded of a conversation I had had that very afternoon with a recruiter in our Sydney Firebrand team. This person was a good recruiter, but young and relatively inexperienced. He was going through a rough time. Two bad months. Offers turned down. He was despondent and was telling me he was not sure “if recruiting was right for him”.

During that conversation I did not hold back. I talked about persistence. I spoke of the fact that nothing worth having ever came easy. I spoke of courage and character. I told him stories about bad patches I had had, and how determination had turned things around.  I examined how building a reputation and a real business took time. I shared my opinion that often you feel as though you are getting no traction, but that all the work he was doing would pay off in time, and when it did he would feel pride and self-esteem and a sense of achievement.

And every word I told him is true. But as I hesitated at the fridge door, about to grab the beer, I realised what a hypocrite I was being. How could I tell this guy to knuckle down? To persevere in the face of something he found difficult, when I was giving up on my half-marathon after only 6 days training?

I closed the fridge and the next day hit the road again. Over the next two months I trained four or five times a week and I hated almost every session. I got a calf injury and came so close to giving up. I made so little progress for the first month that I felt I was getting less fit instead of more fit. I had to travel overseas for work and the temptation to give up training was overwhelming. But I held firm and I trained in hotel gyms and I jogged along the murky Singapore River in 90% humidity, when I could have been in the cool bar of the Marriott hotel.

School holidays came around and I took the family on a holiday to Borneo and with only two weeks to go until race itself, I resisted the hotel in-pool bar and jogged down the main street of Kota Kinabalu instead – to the utter amazement of the locals who were sensibly resting under shady trees, or sitting under fans drinking iced tea.

But that conversation with the Sydney recruiter kept coming back to me. Don’t give up. This will pay off. You have to put in the hard work before the rewards come.

One week out from the race I went to the Sydney Botanical Gardens and ran 15 kilometers. I did the distance, but it hurt so much I wanted to lie down under one of the giant Port Jackson fig trees that line Sydney Harbour. I truly came so close to giving up on the race there and then.

On the day of the race I nearly didn’t get out of bed. It was cold. I knew that 15 km had nearly floored me. How could I run 21 kilometers? At the event itself were 10,000 runners. And trust me this was no fun-run. No one was pushing prams or dressed in Superman outfits. These guys were serious!  They all looked like East African Olympians. Skinny with all the right gear. I felt well out of place and half felt like slinking off and going home.

But I did the race. And I was pumped and sped through the first 15 kms as though it was a stroll in the park. It got harder after that, but I finished, ran every step and I did it in a better time than I expected.

And it felt great.

No doubt it was worth all the hassle and the pain.

And so is it with our jobs. It’s true that often people have early success in our job. A good match, a bit of good fortune, a client or two inherited.  It can make you look good and there is nothing wrong with taking wins when they come around.

But real success? Building reputation that will last? Developing sophisticated skills? Building a portfolio of loyal clients? Evolving into a trusted advisor? Generating referrals and word of mouth talent? Generating repeat business? Securing clients who use you exclusively?

That takes time, perseverance and effort.

It takes consistent activity. It takes moral courage to do difficult things like cold calling. It takes ego strength to withstand rejection and poor results. It takes an open mind to learn new skills and work at the things you are not good at.

And slowly but surely the rewards will come.

Recruitment or running. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

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This is the fifth blog in my series on great coaching for managers of recruiter teams.

Previously I expanded on the importance of ‘live feedback’, ‘real life coaching’, as well as the tactic of ‘plugging in’ new recruits.

Today we look at ‘role swapping’.

Many managers I have worked with feel that if they are not doing the talking or showing the consultant how the job is done, then they are not providing valuable input.

This is not always true. From time to time, it is highly effective for the manager or coach to reverse roles, providing feedback after the event.

For example, once you have a consultant up to a certain level of competence, or even with your more experienced people, take them on a client visit with you where they lead the discussion, where they take in the job, where they do the selling and you play a secondary role.

You may be surprised how difficult this is to do! Many managers simply cannot help themselves on a client meeting and leap in to take control. I understand why, but look at the bigger picture. When is the recruiter ever going to learn if you always take control? In fact you are setting that person up for disaster because the first time they actually get to run a client meeting, they really will be on their own. i.e. when you are not there.

So sure, be ready to leap in if it goes totally off the rails, but otherwise let the recruiter run it.

Then afterwards in the cab back to the office, or in a coffee shop, do a full, immediate de-brief, pointing out missed opportunities or where things could be handled differently.

The same role swapping should be applied to interviewing candidates. Your consultant interviews, you observe and feedback afterwards.

The most powerful coaching you will ever do.

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This is the fourth blog in my series on great coaching for managers of recruiter teams.

Previously I expanded on the importance of ‘Live Feedback’ as well as the ‘Real Life’ approach to consultant coaching. Today we talk about effectively inducting new hires through clever coaching.

If you spend all your time training consultants in a one-on-one situation, your own productivity will suffer dramatically, plus we agree ‘classroom learning’ has limited effectiveness. A neat solution to this problem is to plug new recruits into your own desk.

Assign one or even two new people to literally follow you around and listen to every conversation you have for an entire morning. Let them listen to you taking job descriptions, let them come with you on client visits, let them sit in on interviews with you.

This way you expose new people to the full variety of consulting situations, they absorb your style and ethos, and after all they are getting it from the best consultant in the team (hopefully).

You can also plug new recruits into other senior members of your team. One word of warning. If you do plug consultants into yourself or your colleagues, it is very important to have regular debriefs where you ensure that they understand what has been happening and they have the opportunity to ask questions. Three or four times a day, stop and ask them to tell you what they have heard and learned. Then refine their perceptions and explain dynamics they have missed. Maybe set them follow up tasks. At the very least it tells you where they need more input.

You can’t limit your new hire training to this technique, but you can certainly liberally plug new recruits in during their early weeks. It’s much better than have them sit there and read a training manual!

Plugging people in is a highly effective way of getting on with your job, while at the same time providing exposure to the fundamentals of the role.

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In my last blog post I explained how great coaching is built on two key functions – recognition and correction.

Today I expand on one of the tactics I have found exceptionally helpful in mentoring and coaching recruiters to outstanding performance, ‘Live Feedback’.

This may sound unusual, but a good leader who wants to have an impact as a coach should actively look out for opportunities to catch their consultants in the act of doing something good!

Yes, live feedback starts with the positive.

If you want to see a behaviour repeated, reward it via recognition. So for example, if you hear a consultant doing a great job of selling a temp rate to a candidate who was hoping for more, as soon as that recruiter puts down the phone, tell them. ‘Heard the way you handled that conversation Bob. Great job! It’s really crucial we keep our margins up on this temp desk and that starts with paying our temps market rates, but no more. Well done’.

What’s more I think you should pass on this recognition publicly and immediately. It is wonderfully uplifting for the individual, and will certainly reinforce that behaviour. But it also starts to create a team ethos and culture that rubs off on everyone in the team.

But of course as a manager you must also be on the lookout for practical situations to improve a consultant’s skill and performance. This is the ‘correction’ component of effective coaching. This will mean keeping an ear out for conversations where you feel the consultant has said the wrong thing or could have said something differently or better.

The key here is not to be punitive or demeaning in words or tone. It’s a real skill to position your feedback as constructive, but it can be done. Say you heard a consultant making a bit of a hash of handling a counter-offer. You may start with something like this. ‘That was a tricky situation Bob, and you handled it well, but just thinking, when your candidate said he had been offered more money to stay, do you think it would have been good to take him back to his original reasons for considering a move…’ And out of that question will come an impromptu coaching session on handling these situations. It’s immediate. It’s powerful. It’s positive.

Always be prepared to speak to the consultant immediately they have put the phone down. The learning and retention by the consultant is far more powerful if you can relate a concept to a real and recent situation. This takes discipline and means that you often have to consciously listen out for situations and opportunities.

Live feedback is incredibly effective. It’s real because the consultant has just felt the euphoria of success and or the pain of failure. You will never have a better time to really drive home behaviour.

And that is coaching.

Coming up next week in this consultant coaching series of blog posts – ‘Real Life Situations’.