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The opening weekend of RWC 2011 was excellent. Quality opening ceremony, mostly tight games and just a touch of controversy to keep the banter going until the next round.

I have just one hope (outside of an AB’s victory of course) and that is that us Kiwis learn to totally embrace and love everything going on during the RWC. I have been fortunate enough to attend a FIFA World Cup in France and to have been living in Sydney when they hosted both the Olympic Games and the 2003 RWC.

My lasting memory of those three occasions was the euphoric spirit amongst the hosts and visitors alike. It was unbelievably enjoyable!

That’s the opportunity we have right now. Let’s shake free from our intense scrutiny of the All Blacks that often leads to dour support and little celebration of the great things they are capable of and just relax and get into the whole thing.  I passionately hope we win but I am also determined to enjoy the whole experience again regardless.

That’s how I see it… a GREAT OPPORTUNITY for six weeks of highly contestable sport and associated fun that leaves everyone on a lasting and memorable high!

Too optimistic… nah… ?

PS: There are some very cool local things going on outside of the fanzones so keep an eye out! Poneke Rugby Club hosting the South African Fans and the local Te Reo school in Seatoun giving authentic Maori tours and experiences… Nice!

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Having just read Tim Ferriss “The 4 Hour Work Week” whilst undertaking the quarterly review of our business I was reminded once again that Pareto’s Principle is our top strategic imperative.

Our top performers (the $1m plus consultants) get 80% of their revenues from the top 20% of their clients…FACT!

An equation backed by a simple desire to focus hard on getting deep relationships across a small number of clients. This creates trust, opportunity and therefore competitive advantage. Whilst it may take a little longer to show returns, given time,  your returns will be far greater.

Yet just about every new consultant I meet seems determined to build a long client list. Maybe this stems from the desire to get a few early wins but I reiterate that this strategy is flawed. Slow down, invest in  fewer clients and aim to build cultural and institutional knowledge, which in turn creates trust. It’s this trust that will leverage you into big returns and protect you from competitive pressures. You will also find yourself enjoying your work a lot more!

Next meeting you have with your manager tell them you want fewer clients!

There is a trend amongst the multi-national IT Vendors to use  centralised and technology  led processes to select regional and sometimes global providers. These are often pursued by the multi-national recruitment generalists whom tick off the location box and tolerate a price driven agreement. Fair enough and good luck to both parties.

But, my point about it potentially being a lazy solution is that the process often ignores the reality that the best recruitment solution for any multi-national also needs the following elements:

• Flexibility
• Local relevance
• Specialist Sector coverage
• Local knowledge and relationships

I have observed these IT multi-nationals signing up PSA’s even when their multi-national partners have little or no coverage in local markets covered by the PSA. Now that is a lazy solution and worst of all they are letting down their own local teams by hindering their access to the best people and ignoring well established mutually beneficial relationships.

Convenient yes, leveraged yes but are they smart?

Not in my opinion.

I believe two behaviours will spare them from this anxiety and make them forever relevant:

1. Build deep, trusting and informed client relationships…

2. Become a relentless sourcing animal…

Neither of those two things are easy and that’s why there are far fewer $1m plus billers than there are $300k billers. The former category of recruiters never question their relevance. They invest heavily in gaining deep knowledge of their clients and in their relationships. Equally they are relentless in their pursuit of quality candidates. To breakdown the skills required to master the above  behaviours is a book rather than a blog, but use your imagination.

If your consultants master these two behaviours they will never feel distracted by any uncertainty of their worth.

1. Sell your company, your vision, your job, your values, your people etc. You may love your company but don’t assume an applicant will yet. Don’t assume anything. They don’t know enough to love you yet and they are interviewing you as much as you them. You have to move from interviewer to sales person as this is what recruiters do for you.

2. Manage the experience well. This means provide a good job brief and de-brief the applicant post interview regardless of desire to hire or not. This stage is about your brand and your reputation.

Sadly a very good client of ours has just lost a couple of great people because these items were over-looked. These are things recruiters do for you when engaged but when you do it yourself they are equally important!

I hope this helps…

The thing they need us for is the experience and specialist knowledge of our sector. When combined with the skills to search out , engage and manage the process to successful outcomes our relevance never fades and our value is high.

Certainly I acknowledge that in-house recruitment teams and RPO providers can add great value to organisations in terms of volume hires but when the hard to find key people are needed we remain the best source. This is because if we are any good, we know where they are, what they want and we can go out and get to them.

A simple proposition but a complex role, hence there are many more $250k billers and much fewer $1,000,000 billers in our industry.

Be a niche specialist and great relationship manager if you want to stay high up in the value chain. You will always be relevant!

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“Getting there first is not what it’s all about. What matters always is execution. Always,” Chris Fox – head of product at Facebook.

Reading this post http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/14/first-best/  got me thinking about where this industry of ours might be heading. Of course we would like to have the best new idea, strategy, innovation or iPhone killer app.

In fact, without naming brands,  I’ve seen a whole lot of good ideas already like:

• Niche Job Boards
• Video CV banks
• Web-based referral programmes
• “Self Help” web talentpools
• All the so-called ‘social recruiting’ tools

These innovations are all based on good ideas but what separates the good from the great. I think Fox has probably nailed it with his comment that it’s not about a great new idea and therefore being first to market, as much as it’s about a great committment to the execution of the idea. That’s the hard bit I think. Having the tenacity, the financial backing, the skills, the time, the massive vision, the team, the balls and the passion to get it done.

So I watch with interest and respect for those who continue to build technology to support their idea and our industry whilst I await the rise of those that really do nail the execution bit… yep they will be loaded and I’ll be talking about relationships, trust and understanding the people bit! I guess I’ll use the Malcolm Gladwell excuse as explained in ‘The Outliers”… wrong birth date for me .

Please let me know if you do see a great example of the brilliant execution of an innovation in our industry as I’ll follow with great interest.

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They make me smile…

Watching the All Blacks on Saturday night was excruciating yet at the 70 minute mark it was as if they just decided to win the game in spite of what was actually trending in their performance.

Is it Leadership?

Is it Belief?

Is it Habit?

Is it Ability?

I don’t know but it is well worth reflection. I love winners… On Sunday I watched my local club Miramar Rangers win the Chatham Cup (NZ‘s FA Cup) also so I was smiling all weekend. Yet again I got that warm fuzzy that goes with winning and admiring some top individual moments, team spirit and celebrations.

Thanks to Richie McCaw and Mike Woodside, the two captains of two winning teams, who reminded me that Winning puts a smile on your face. Whether it’s for your club or your country doesn’t matter it’s just a great habit to get into.

Thanks you guys, I’m going to keep reflecting on winners and their habits!

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A client was explaining to me last week about their 87% direct vacancy fill rate. About half of this was from Employee Referrals. I applaud their efforts and that is a great statistic to evidence their effectiveness.

Yes, I agree that Employee Referrals are a fantastic source of quality candidates.

Yes, I suggest that all organisations should have an Employee Referral programme.

No, it’s not the panacea so make sure you know what you are looking for… let me explain!

The best corporate recruitment advisor that I have ever met is a guy called Alfonso Nunez. He is currently working with RPO Group in Australia. He has a great mind for deep analysis of the business impacts related to how an organisation recruits and he once told me a great story.

The upshot of this story… He was investigating why this particular national sales organisation was not performing to expectation. They had very low staff turnover, low cost per hire and almost no problem recruiting for growth based on a very successful Employee Referral scheme. I can’t do his work justice here but in essence he was able to identify and show that the very success they were claiming in the success of their ER scheme was the root cause of their performance dissatisfaction. He found that the ER scheme was creating a culture of like-minded, mediocre performers whilst the competitors were hiring a new breed of sales people, more relevant and full of diversity. The competitors were changing and winning! His company was full of mates and their mates but were losing!

Therefore the lesson I took out of Alfy’s work was a cautionary note about Employee Referrals. If you need culture change you may need to change the people! Watch out for the like attract like syndrome.

You should have an Employee Referral programme but its one source of hire to be used in balance, not the panacea!

Nice work Alfy!

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Raise the expectation on your recruitment teams and raise the expectation on your clients. 

Both these tactics lead to better quality and better billing! Both these tactics are the right manuevers as demand overtakes supply in our markets.

The next 12-18 months is not the time for conservative leadership. All our conversations should be aimed at high expectations and outcomes both internally and externally. I don’t mean blind faith, I mean clearly defined, focussed goals that commit all parties to great outcomes.

I’ve been watching the rise and rise of one team in particular in our group, Momentum Auckland, and how their individual and collective results keep soaring. They have a high level of retained assignments illustrating committed clients and they have a large number of very high performing consultants illustrating competent goal driven recruiters.

This team is operating in a market that got smashed in the midst of the GFC yet high expectations are being set and met!

Good on you lot… I think a great example for all of us leading recruitment teams!

And here is a very cool statistic … the job order book has gone from 5% to 52% exclusive retained over 18 months… I just wish I could claim it!