What’s the Quality of Your Operating Processes?

At what percentage of your potential do you think your firm is operating? If you're not happy with this percentage, you can significantly improve your results by improving your operating processes. Think of fixing these processes as "low hanging fruit" just waiting to be picked! Putting an emphasis on creating high-quality operating processes is a wise recruitment strategy.

As an owner of two successful recruiting firms over 15 years, I experienced process issues that cost my firms a great deal of money and stress. I learned a great deal from these problems. I've also learned a lot from what many other recruiting firms do. A common denominator of the most successful recruiting firms is a commitment to turn their operating process into recruitment industry best practices.

What do I mean by operating processes? Operating processes are simply how you do things to service your clients and candidates to produce revenue. For example, let's consider the process of using Linkedin to develop new clients. Below are some of the processes you need to design and implement for an effective new client development program via LinkedIn:

• The layout, graphics, and verbiage on your LinkedIn profile
• The steps you take to identify potential prospects to contact
• The verbiage you use on your connection requests
• What to do if prospects accept your first connection request
• What to do if they don't accept your first request
• What to do to develop an image as a firm your connections want to do business with
• What to do if prospects show potential interest in engaging with you

As you can see from the above list, there are many processes (steps) to consider if you wish to create an effective business development program using LinkedIn. A deficiency in only one process can derail your entire program! Is it any wonder that most recruitment firms achieve subpar results using LinkedIn for business development? Yet, I know of firms that achieve outstanding outcomes using LinkedIn to bring in new clients. The difference between the two groups comes down to the processes they use.

The same principles apply to every aspect of your business. Developing top-notch operating processes is about implementing recruitment strategies and tactics that consistently result in recruitment best practices. These practices allow you to turn your success into a science that you can repeat and scale. If you want to be in the driver's seat of your success, what other options do you have?  

How to optimize your operating processes

Your firm's success is based on the skills, knowledge, execution, and attitudes of you and your recruitment tea. Effective operating processes provide the infrastructure to convert skills and expertise into quality results and positive attitudes. It's next to impossible to create quality results and attitudes if your processes are dysfunctional and you don't correct them. Correcting dysfunctional processes is easier said than done. Several obstacles get in the way of improving processes to create the success you desire:

• Lack of awareness about the specific shortcomings that may be derailing your success
• Lack of the skills and knowledge required to create the best practices/ effective processes that you need
• Fear and anxiety about committing to address your process issues

Do any of the above apply to you? The first step in any improvement effort is awareness of the problems. Once people are aware of the specific challenges that stand in the way of their success, they can address them. As a recruiting industry coach and advisor, I've learned the importance of helping my clients implement processes that represent recruiting industry best practices. When recruiting firms do this, they transform their results and experience the ROI that they always hoped they could have. I encourage all recruiting industry owners and leaders to take an objective look at all of their operating processes to determine which are working well and which are not.