Recruiters. You only have to get 5% better to bill 50% more.

Here is what I learned recruiting, managing and coaching recruiters. And I am now into my 5th decade of doing it!

You only have to get 5 % better to bill 50% more.

Roll that around on your tongue and let it sink in.

The real value in recruitment is your influencing skills. Pretty much all the rest can, and will, get automated.

The bit that counts is your ability to connect, engage, question, understand and influence the outcome.

(In here, I was about to insert a rugby metaphor that illustrated this great recruitment truth. Then it occurred to me some crazy folk may not be interested in rugby. So, I put it at the end, in italics, for those who love the game they play in heaven. The rest of you, as you were and read on, please).

With a candidate, for example, through your credibility, your knowledge, and your communication skills, you encourage her to chat to you, and after that consider your role, and then even go for the interview. Get 5 % better at that, and you will get ten more great candidates a year in front of good clients. Half of them will be hired. How much money is that?

The client is taking eons between the first and second interviews and losing all the good talent, but just can’t see that she is the problem. You meet with her, talk her through the realities of a post-covid market, tell great anecdotes about how innovative companies are capturing the best talent. Your client sees the light, takes your advice, ups her game, and starts to hire!

Get 5% better at that conversation. Being brave enough and articulate enough to have that conversation will lead to multiple happy matches, otherwise gone begging.

And candidate outreach or client process management are just two of the many ‘moments of truth’ in recruitment where your credibility, advice and influencing skills can make all the difference.

Taking a job order. Briefing a candidate on a role. Debriefing the client on candidates after an interview. Presenting a shortlist to a client. The job offer itself.

There are many.

They are the moments that differentiate average recruiters from good ones and good recruiters from great ones.

Not searching the database, running an Ad or even screening.

Essential they are, but they are not the leverage point!

You need to keep working incrementally at improving all these ‘moments of truth’ in recruitment. Critical snapshots of time where you can influence the outcome for the greater good. Shape the process. Architect the deal

Moments where your credibility, consulting, advising, storytelling, persuading and influencing skills can make all the difference.

It’s in those moments that the magic happens.

And a good recruiter knows when their skills created a beneficial outcome. The feeling is indescribable. It is where all the fun in this business is.

And when you are having fun in recruitment, your clients and candidates get what they came to you for, and then the money just follows.

Think about that previous paragraph. It is smarter than it sounds.

Get 5% better.

And when you have done that, get 5% better. Again.

(Rugby Metaphor: When the heroic forwards win the ball at a scrum or lineout, and the mincing backline players fling it down the line, one of them will get tackled. That’s called the “breakdown”, and for a few seconds, the two backs in the tackle ‘breakdown’ will slap and glare at each other (as long as a hair does not fall out of place) until one of those same heroic forwards gets there to contest for the ball, routinely risking life and limb to do so. Typically, it’s a ‘breakaway’ or ‘flanker’ that arrives at the breakdown first. Flankers from both sides will make that dash to the breakdown. The one who gets there first gets his/her hands on the ball, will win the ball for his/her side. If that happens most of the game, his/her side will win (despite the best efforts of the backline players who will knock the ball on, drop it, kick it into touch, and commit a wide variety of other wasteful actions, all without dirtying their playing kit). The ‘breakdown’ is the recruiting ‘moment of truth’ in my metaphor. It’s where the magic happens. Win that, and you win the game. In rugby and recruitment. So, that flanker only must get there a split second before the other sides’ flanker to ‘win the breakdown’ and win the game. Not a few seconds faster. Not a minute faster. Not a day earlier. Just a tiny split-second. That’s the 5% better all recruiters should strive for).

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