Should recruiters be rewarded solely on their billings?
Says David Leyson, writing in Recruitment International, Feb 2010
Now here’s a debate. Should big billers be promoted into senior roles because they are big billers? Are big billers always the best managers? While no-one would argue that recruitment is a performance driven culture, disengaged
employees, managed by poor leaders, are far more likely to underperform. If the recruitment industry wants to be taken seriously in terms of offering career paths and career development then shouldn’t the sector be looking at being a bit more innovative in terms of their reward strategies and bigging up their employer brand?
Traditional forms of reward in the recruitment sector are almost always based on ‘hard’ targets but in my view, in order to retain your best people, there needs to be a qualitative (behaviour based) as well as a quantitative measurement of success. This not only engenders goodwill amongst your consultants and your clients but is also a great tool in ensuring that your staff become rounded business professionals, proud of who they work for –and not merely motivated by the size of their pay packet.
For too long there has been an accepted view that the biggest billers are promoted the fastest. I can’t remember how many times I have heard the statement “This is a sales role – the only thing people are interested in are billings and commission. There will be many of you reading who agree – but they will not be the ones who engender client loyalty, help develop and mentor your people, or truly add value to your business.
The building of talented workforces and lasting customer relationships is absolutely key in driving competitive advantage. Furthermore, sustainable business success can only be achieved through competent managers who are also critical for retaining the best talent. Consequently, encouraging an approach that leads to a purely monetary focus will always be at the expense of softer skills such as teamwork, staff development and customer service – not forgetting leadership and management development. By linking financial rewards to behaviours, recruitment businesses can really lift performance across all areas of their operation.
How do I know? Because we have done it. We introduced a new performance management scheme which links 40% of our staff quarterly bonus to the achievement of both hard objectives and behaviours. These are:
- Self development ( and the development of others)
- Drive for results
- Teamwork
- Problem solving and decision making
- Customer focus
- Managing and influencing change (for Managers)
- Organising & planning
We have a set of key indicators to reflect performance against each of these behaviours – basically a set of evidence. These, combined with the achievement of management objectives determine a performance score which subsequently determines the level of bonus.
It’s about looking at the bigger picture – and not just the short term financials. If you have a sales driven team who are used to being rewarded on financial results then I can’t pretend you won’t lose a few people – we have and that included some big billers but that’s often no bad thing. It tends to remove people with poor attitudes or questionable values. Moreover, it avoids having an environment when being a great financial performer or producer can excuse bad behaviour.
On the basis that behaviours are generally value based – you end up with a far more cohesive team that strongly outweighs losing the odd high performer. Often it’s those high performing sales people who are promoted into management roles when in fact, they lack the basic attributes required to manage your most valuable asset – your people.
Building on the behaviour model, we also launched a ‘good boss programme’. This involves getting 180 degree feedback from sub-ordinates in order to determine gaps in management behaviour. By using 1-2-1 coaching, we have been able to address the management weaknesses and drive performance together with achieving high levels of employee satisfaction – our employee satisfaction surveys demonstrate a 95% + satisfied rating.
In the words of one of our managers: “ I’ve completed the company’s good boss programme which is superb as it makes you look at your behaviour as a manager – and how you can get the best out of yourself and your team. In other companies I’ve found that people can get away with bad behaviour just because they are top performers – that just wouldn’t happen here as you are judged on a number of things – not just the level of fees that you make.”
So what’s the bottom line? Is it measurable? Well, in our case, we can clearly demonstrate that sales have increased by around a quarter since implementation of the new behaviour linked performance management scheme. In addition, on-target and objective delivery has increased by 36% and key accounts have grown by 42%. From a qualitative point of view, we have experienced a far greater buy-in and application to business improvement actions and in up- skilling across all levels.
In summary, I believe the lack of sophistication in managing performance within the recruitment sector has been to the detriment of building sustainable and quality operations because of the overwhelming emphasis on short term financial results. Behaviour linked reward schemes ensure a holistic approach is taken to developing and harnessing valuable talent.
Our customers are driving change – isn’t about time you changed with them?
David Leyshon is Managing Director of specialist technical and engineering recruiter CBSbutler
