This post by Tory Giguere, Search Consultant at Anderson Recruiting (ARC), is part of our blog series, “The Recruitment Rule I’d Break”.
There’s an old rule in agency recruitment that says when a new recruiter isn’t placing anyone, you tell them to make more calls. Raise the call target, raise the CV target, and the placements will follow.
I’d break that rule. A new recruiter can hit every call and CV target and place no one. More calls won’t fix a problem in a later stage of the funnel. I keep the activity targets in place. I stop treating them as proof of progress.
The KPIs for a new recruitment consultant fall into two groups. Activity KPIs count outreach and interviews. Progress KPIs track the ratios between stages: interview-to-submittal, submittal-to-client-interview, and interview-to-hire. Start with activity to build a pipeline. Add the ratios to see whether that activity moves toward a placement.
This article shows agency owners and managers which numbers separate a busy recruiter from a recruiter who makes progress, and how to coach toward progress with the activity targets in place.
I am a Search Consultant at Anderson Recruiting Consultants (ARC), a boutique firm that places Sales, Recruiting, and Back Office Leadership talent for search, staffing, and solutions firms. I led consultant teams at Randstad for years. I took over a team with one direct report and grew it to 3, then 8, then 14. That team ranked in the top 10 company-wide for three years.
What KPIs should you track for a new recruiter?
Start with activity and outreach. I want to know how many candidates the recruiter contacts and how many interviews the recruiter conducts each day and each week. At this stage I look for consistency and pipeline development.
Once the recruiter feels comfortable in the interview, I add ratios: interview-to-submittal, submittal-to-client-interview, and interview-to-hire. I want to see a progression from activity to quality conversations, to submittals, and to placements.
This is the traditional view, and many agencies share it. A 2019 OneUp analysis of 35 agency clients found that CVs sent and interviews booked were the two most-tracked targets, at 24 agencies each. Keep those numbers on your dashboard. They show effort. They do not show direction.
Why do activity numbers hide a struggling recruiter?
Activity counts effort, and effort looks identical whether the recruiter improves or stalls. The Recruitment Network makes this point about consultants: they can be “praised and in effect, rewarded on being busy but not necessarily on being smart and effective.” A recruiter who makes the required calls and sends the required CVs passes every activity check when no candidate reaches a client interview.
Ross Clennett describes the usual reaction to an underachieving consultant: “do more” or “we’ll get you more training.” That is the old rule at work. Either may help. Neither tells you which stage of the process is broken.
Clennett’s example is a consultant whose numbers show a large gap between candidates referred to clients and interviews that take place. The problem in that case is conversion, and more outreach at the top of the funnel leaves it untouched.
When a busy recruiter closes nothing, what’s the first ratio you check?
Check the stage where the recruiter’s numbers fall short. I start by asking how the recruiter stays busy, and I follow the funnel from there:
- Outreach without interviews. Review the search criteria and the messaging. Does the recruiter target the right candidates? Does the outreach give a candidate a reason to reply? Confirm the recruiter uses several methods, including phone and email.
- Interviews without submittals, client interviews, or hires. Review the quality of the candidates and the interview itself. Is each candidate a fit? Do the interview notes and submittal write-ups give the client a reason to take interest?
- Right activity and strong candidates, but nothing closes. Review the search: compensation, client expectations, and the client’s feedback speed. In some searches the role is the problem, and the recruiter is not.
The third check keeps you from coaching a recruiter on a problem the search created.
What shows a new recruiter is earning a client’s trust?
Client behaviour shows it. Trust starts when the recruiter proves they understand the position by finding strong candidates for the role search after search. Once the recruiter understands the company, the culture, and the role, the relationship changes.
Watch for these signs. The client shares more company intel. The client gives more candid feedback. The client asks for the recruiter’s opinion. The client brings the recruiter into searches in other departments, and may offer leads or introductions to other hiring managers.
At that point the client has stopped using the recruiter to fill a position and has started trusting the recruiter as a recruiting partner. Count these signs the way you count calls. A call log cannot record them.
How do you coach a new recruiter to raise quality without cutting activity targets?
Keep the activity targets and improve the quality of each activity. I listen to the recruiter’s candidate interviews, review the outreach and the submittals, and find where quality breaks down. I coach that one area. If a recruiter conducts plenty of interviews and the candidates never reach submittal, I look at the questions the recruiter asks and how the recruiter qualifies candidates.
Small, measurable goals help. I once onboarded a recruiter who came from another industry with no recruiting experience. I broke the work into steps. The first goal: find 15 candidates the recruiter believed qualified for a role and add them to a pipeline. I reviewed those candidates with the recruiter, and we sent outreach that day. The next goal: schedule five prescreen calls. The next: submit three qualified candidates to the client. Every goal carried an activity number and a quality review.
That is why I’d break the rule. When a new recruiter isn’t placing, more calls is the easy answer. Find the stage that’s broken and coach that stage.
Let’s Make the Right Introduction
For a look at the role a new recruiter grows into, read What Is a 360 Recruiter?
If your agency needs to hire a recruiter, a sales leader, or Back Office Leadership, Anderson Recruiting partners with search, staffing, and solutions firm owners through Direct Sourcing and relationship-first recruiting. Let’s Connect!
