Is recruiting simply a matter of picking the a person and filling a number in your business? I have been working with a number of clients over the last couple of weeks helping them recruit for a new team member. On each occasion, their initial request has been “we need to recruit a admin person (or sales person, or account manager or whatever).
When working with these businesses my first question is a simple one – “what opportunities does this vacancy present for you?”.
A vacancy in a business is an opportunity to improve your business. You have the opportunity:
- to look at your current practices to see if you can improve them,
- to look at your team and correct any weaknesses that may exist,
- to look at your structure and perhaps redefine the role to improve business development; and
- to revitalise your business through the introduction of new and different experience and attitudes.
One client I have been working with has a number of sales people in his team. Over time the sales team has been performing well but there has been a drop off in lead generation. My clients initial thought was to replace the sales person who is leaving with another sales person. After I had worked with him for a period, he realised that he could replace the sales person with a person (or person’s) who could concentrate on the marketing and lead generation aspects of the sales process. The opportunity was there to correct what could have been a serious concern going forward and provide an avenue for further growth.
The above situation doesn’t apply to every business. In businesses with high turnover (such as hospitality) we are basically looking at a numbers game, but this doesn’t mean an opportunity does not exist to improve your business! Another client took advantage of the opportunity created by a vacancy to upskill her existing team and improve their overall ability to service the customer. The overall effect was cost neutral but had a significant effect on return customers – a win for the business, the team members and the customer!
So next time you are looking at filling a vacancy in your business, turn the question around from one about numbers to one about opportunity – it could have some very positive effects.