Tim Jubb |

For the ambitious recruitment firm, KPI management is a must. Recruitment KPIs are metrics that measure specific activities performed by your recruiters. These KPIs allow you to measure your performance, display a clear picture of the where your team is, and implement targeted solutions that boost your top line. In short: KPIs drive your recruitment activity and business growth.

(KPIs can be measure through software, without the need for printing off spreadsheets)

But small to medium firms that are expanding rapidly face some unique challenges when it comes to managing KPIs. As firms expand KPI visibility can become obscured if staff are largely left to their own devices, or divided into sub teams. Business owners and directors can lose the visibility of staff KPIs they enjoyed in a smaller team environment.

Further problems arise when expanding the team to drive business growth. Experienced consultants will have their own way of working, tactics they trust to drive their own personal success. They’ll want to measure things in their own tried and tested way, which may not fit into your firm’s way of doing things.

At the other end of the scale junior consultants may have little or no experience. They are yet to learn which way of working will suit them. They made need to be provided with KPIs to begin with and those KPI’s may need a lot of monitoring.

The key to meeting the needs of consultants is flexibility. Your KPI strategy needs to be flexible enough to measure different metrics depending on the needs of the consultant, managers and business owners. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to measuring KPIs.

 

The importance of accurate sales pipeline forecasting

An often overlooked area is accurate sales pipeline forecasting. And yet, it is pivotal to setting realistic and achievable KPIs. Billing revenue is a top line item in the profit and loss account and is a key determinant of a firm’s profitability. A 5% miss in billings forecast could result in a significantly higher miss in profit.

Inaccurate sales pipeline forecasting means that a number of KPIs could be focused on the wrong metrics entirely. For example:

A consultant has a KPI of 100 business development activities per month. This could be anything from a meaningful phone conversation to a LinkedIn exchange. The recruitment firm believes this activity should be enough to generate new business. But without an accurate sales pipeline forecast, there is no way of knowing if this will be enough. The consultant may have a bottom heavy pipeline, where a number of placements are close to being confirmed, but there is not enough at the top of the funnel to meet target next month.

An accurate sales pipeline forecast compliments a KPI culture. It identifies peaks and troughs in the pipeline and consultant KPIs can react accordingly. Increasing business development activities by 30% this month means the consultant can meet target next month.

 

Measure KPIs in real-time

In the example above, relying on historical KPI data would have resulted in the consultant missing target. Activity for the sake of activity, or even the classic “because we always have”, are examples where historical KPIs can be misleading. Of course, historical KPIs have a role to play. They measure seasonal variances in business, for example. But when trying to implement a KPI culture, real-time statistics can help to get consultant buy-in.

 

Gamification

Gamification can be another tool in the box when it comes to implementing a KPI culture. It is especially potent in recruitment which, after all, is a competitive profession. Where there is internal and external competion for clients and candidates. Using dashboards (like Eploy's awarding winning dashboards below), consultants can see in real time, any number of team or company-wide metrics, sales leaderboards and new client wins.

(Gamification in Eploy Dashboards)


Gamification brings a whole new dimension to implementing a KPI culture. Consultants can compete against each other to meet KPIs/ targets/ goals, with complete transparency across the company.

 

Using Software to Facilitate A KPI Culture

So does a KPI culture boost recruitment revenue? In essence it should- and modern recruitment software can help to implement a KPI culture. Of course, recruitment software needs to do the basics as a fully functioning recruitment CRM. But powerful recruitment software can also measure activity, report on KPIs and drive business growth. From accurate sales pipeline forecasting to gamification, recruitment software can improve the accuracy of KPIs and help to increase buy in with both existing and new consultants.

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