Great people are the number one factor in building a successful business in the staffing industry.  Identifying, evaluating, and hiring great talent is only one part of the equation when building a great team.  See Part 1.  Now that you’ve found, interviewed, and hired a potential rock star, you need to assure that they have the tools needed to produce in the fast paced world of recruiting and staffing.  Training and development for a new recruiter can at times be a tightrope act.  In my experience, one of the best and most important personality traits that I find in a successful recruiter is a bit of an entrepreneurial streak.  The good recruiters have a “get it done” mentality, and don’t require constant care and feeding.  They are creative, self-motivated, and possess natural leadership abilities.  Downside, they can also be resistant to taking direction, stubborn, and at times overly independent.  I was always very clear with my newly hired rock stars, and out of the gate told every new hire this, “I’ll micro-manage at only two points in your career.  First, when you begin working here, because I’ll spend significant time with you to give you the tools necessary to be successful.  Second, if or when your production decreases to a point that requires additional training and remediation in order to get the production back up, or to identify the lack of desire or skills necessary to perform the job well.” 

Much like working with a new client on a placement, or for timeshEASY, working with a new client on implementing software, the more time you spend at the beginning of the process, the more time it saves you on the back end.  Not only is it important to spend the time, it is also important to structure the training.  Systemization of process in general is a good idea, its the whole “Sharpen the Saw” mentality.  By making the path to success clear and consistent, you can save your team and yourself a ton of time. 

Another great training and development opportunity is the certification programs for staffing firms with the American Staffing Association.  By becoming a TSC CSP certified professional, your recruiters and account reps will gain the knowledge to add some of that “out of the box” value that your competitors aren’t.  Your clients will appreciate your investment in training, and without providing legal advice; your recruiters and account reps can help to keep your business out of the courtroom.  As you’re well aware, the regulatory environment for employers and staffing firms isn’t getting any easier to navigate. FLSA, FMLA, ADA, ADEA, OSHA, Title VII, along with many other federal and state employment laws are a very real part of the daily job of staffing.  I personally always felt better as an owner, knowing that my team was versed in the laws governing my industry, and made the certifications an integral part of our new hire training program. 

It’s easy to get caught in the daily grind and the ever-present churn of the staffing business.  As a recruiter, sales rep, branch manager or even owner, you are focusing constantly on the next requirement, candidate, and ultimately placement.  Most staffing firms are so focused on these things that they lose sight of creating and emphasizing real competitive differentiators.  Simply believing that your firm can find and retain good candidates as a differentiator isn’t really very different, every staffing firm on the planet has that response practiced and are ready to throw it out at a client or candidate at the drop of a hat.

As with any highly competitive market, whether its software or staffing, you have to add some “out of the box” value that your competitors aren’t.  Granted, there are those customers who don’t really care about anything but your ability to submit 50 resumes per week with the correct Acronyms included, and your Added Value is your adherence to their SLA’s…  We don’t really have much advice for working with those customers, good luck.  However, for your SMB and non-VMS type customers, you need to develop “a hook” that keeps them from calling your competition when they have an opening.  Same goes for those A-player candidates, your recruiters should be cultivating relationships and adding value for those folks consistently.

But how?  The obvious, yet often overlooked answer is to always hire absolute Rock Stars, and train the heck out of them.  Easier said than done, but in the recruiting industry you must be a phenomenal evaluator of talent, as well as a phenomenal cultivator of talent.  In my experience with Apex Systems, and then with my own firms, I found that hiring sharp and hungry recent college grads, preferably those with some exposure to team athletics was the most successful profile.  The athletic angle is important for a few huge reasons.  Staffing is full of highs and lows, requires a personality that is ultimately coach-able, and is highly competitive.  Whether team sports builds character or merely exposes character is up for debate, but its one of the only existing venues available to find out how a new hire may react under the pressure of that difficult deadline imposed by your clients.  A team sports background also blends very well with the staffing environment from a competition standpoint.  As I always said while hiring in my staffing days, if your the new freshman on the team you're doing everything you can to take the starting job from the senior, but you always do it in a way that is productive for the team overall, and would never do anything to hurt your teammate.  By competing as hard as you can you will only make your teammate better.  Internal competition, when cultivated and conducted the right way, is a beautiful thing to see when running a staffing firm.  Recruiting is and always will be a team game, so hiring people who have actually been on a team certainly can't hurt.   

Check back next week for Part 2 and ideas on how to get those Rock Stars trained and producing…