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Helping Resource on Demand Increase Turnover from £494k to £1.2m

Lee & Theresa Durrant
Founders, Resource on Demand

The Situation

Resource on Demand was founded by Lee and Theresa Durrant in 2009 and is now considered the leading provider of Cloud technology recruitment solutions working with some of the most innovative technology companies across the UK and Europe

Previously Lee had worked within IT recruitment since 1999 and had successfully launched a new division for his previous employer, Lee saw the impending big shift in the technology landscape, with cloud software such as Salesforce increasingly being implemented by global companies looking to move their IT solutions to the Cloud.

Utilising Theresa’s management, technical and operational talents, Resource on Demand was born with Lee responsible for sales and Theresa providing invaluable back office support.

As the business grew, it became obvious that Lee and Theresa would need to take that first step into employing a recruiter to support Lee. Over the following 8 years the business grew and by 2015 had
7 recruiters. Despite having a team, it was apparent that a major proportion of billings were happening because of Lee who, at times felt he was a blocker within the organisation as the sales contracts still had his ‘finger prints’ all over them.

At the same time, running a business as a husband and wife team was all consuming and taking
quality time away was challenging as the business was so dependent on both Lee and Theresa.

By 2015, both Lee and Theresa were:

  • Feeling swamped by the business.
  • Were working as hard as ever involving long hours.
  • The team worked any and every job and felt unable to ask for more than a 15% fee.
  • The business was less profitable due to the costs of running a team of 7.
  • Feeling isolated as they had no one to discuss the business with other than each other.

Something needed to change as they were no longer enjoying the business and were experiencing challenges managing and motivating their team. Initially, they considered a Non-Executive Director.
Someone who had been an MD and would be able to give them direction.

It was around this time that Lee saw an advert on Facebook for a programme run by Nicky Coffin.
Lee describes how he felt the advert was speaking directly to him and as a result he contacted Nicky.

In the middle of 2015, Lee and Theresa started working with Nicky and Centredexcellence.

The Outcome Lee & Theresa Wanted:

  • In 2015 the business turnover was £494k. By the end of the 2016 business year, the Resource on Demand had grown to £1.2M.
  • The companies average fee has increased from £5-6K to £10K.
  • Theresa is now supported by a finance person and has outsourced the creation of content and social media. She can also no longer be found with a duster in hand on a Friday evening as the office cleaning is taken care of. She does still make the occasional cup of tea though
  • The focus on performance management led to a turnover in team members and created an opportunity for Lee and Theresa to recruit new team members who were a ‘fit and match’ with the new performance culture and growth ambitions.
  • Theresa’s focus on coaching and individual development has also resulted in one team member turning a de motivated poor performer into a highly motivated strong performer. In fact, as we write this he has billed £40k this month alone!!
  • The company now has systems in place that means only high priority roles are worked. In addition, these systems mean the business is no longer dependant on Lee as the main biller. In fact, Lee no longer bills. Well ok, he does still bill occasionally, but only when a nice juicy deal comes his way. Lee no longer has to bill. That is the key.
  • Lee and Theresa are now able to focus on the strategic side of the business and have identified new specialist niches to develop as well as starting a new contracting division.
  • Resource on Demand has a new recruiting and onboarding process in place. This means that new team members follow a structured training plan that isn’t dependent on Lee and Theresa.
  • The company has enjoyed rapid growth as a result of all the changes that Lee and Theresa have introduced. Their own enthusiasm and enjoyment for their business has returned and they are able to take holidays without constantly being attached to their phones.
  • Having focused on addressing the people, systems and process side of their business, Lee and Theresa now plan to explore how marketing can be systematised such that their team can be further supported by marketing activities.
  • Following the success of the Great Billing Manager programme, Lee and Theresa both joined the Ultimate Recruitment Programme which is tailored to each business and are still completing this as of August 2017. This includes Theresa winning the ‘Outstanding Performer’ award at an Army retreat as part of the Ultimate Programme.

Final Words from Lee & Theresa About RockIT and Centred Excellence

Working with Nicky and the Centredexcellence team have helped us transform our business. Nicky and Katie have been there and done it. They understand what it’s like to be a business owner.
Nicky helped us figure out why we came into the business and what we now want. Then she helped us see how we could take our business to a new level and supported us to make it happen.
When you are a couple working together in business, there is only each other to talk to. When we joined the Become a Great Recruitment Manager Training Programme we suddenly had access not only to Katie and Nicky but also a group of likeminded business owners for support and ideas.
Nicky also has access to an industry network that where ever you are at in the recruitment business life cycle she has a partner she can introduce you to help. Knowing that someone is at the end of the phone is invaluable. If Nicky doesn’t have the answer, she inevitably will know someone who does.
We have also valued the fact that Nicky and Katie are a good team, the balance of Nicky’s coaching approach and Katie’s: direct, ‘do this’ approach has really worked for us.

Implementation and Results

The first programme that Lee and Theresa joined was, Become a Great Recruitment Manager Training Programme . This involved a combination of workshops, online learning and 1:1 coaching calls with Nicky.

As a result of attending the monthly training, Lee and Theresa would return to the office with a list of actions to implement which they did with consistency. These are outlined below:

  • At the time, the team at Resource on Demand worked any and every job that they acquired. This stopped. Lee introduced a system developed by Centredexcellence where jobs are prioritised according to potential. Lee and Theresa also decided to target more senior roles that allow them to charge a higher commission fee.
  • Introduced 90 day visions where each team member has a vision of what they wanted to achieve over the 3-month period. This encouraged the team to think “big” and aspire to higher levels of achievement.
  • A performance management system was introduced that includes each Consultant having
    KPI’s. They are supported to achieve these with weekly team meetings and monthly one to one reviews.
  • Weekly team meetings and daily stand up meetings were designed to focus the team on business development, review progress and share experiences and success as they implemented new ways of working.
  • A key factor in the growth of the business was that Lee and Theresa needed to ensure that each consultant and desk performed at the level that it could. The sector that Resource on Demand operates in is a high growth market with high candidate demand, and yet they did not realise the potential. To enable and empower the team to develop their performance and results, Theresa took the lead on coaching each consultant.
  • To create time to invest in coaching and supporting each consultant, Theresa needed to delegate parts of her role. This was also part of Theresa no longer be solely responsible for ‘all things’ back office.
  • When reflecting on their previous recruiting process, Lee and Theresa began to understand what had led to some of their managerial challenges. They realised that recruiting someone because you liked them and got on with them at interview wasn’t always the best strategy. Instead, they developed a process that included profiling tools that have made a significant difference to the type of person they are recruiting.
  • As a coach, Theresa has taken the time to develop a closer working relationship with consultants, including understanding their strengths and motivations with the help of one profiling tool.
  • They created a clear pathway document to highlight what any employee at any level needed to achieve (both financial and soft skills) to trigger a conversation about a promotion to the next level. They also put their most senior person (Shaylina) onto the BGM course with Nicky to help develop her career as a leader.
  • They put the onus of bringing new people up to speed with other senior members of the business rather than trying to do it all themselves. This is a work in progress, but by having the team nominate ‘champions’ for particular areas of the company processes, they have identified the best people to train new and struggling people in those areas.

Through networking with the other delegates on the courses Lee and Theresa gained some great insights into how other recruitment businesses (not within a competing sector) were motivating their employees – ideas stemmed from go home early Friday targets, celebrating company milestones and team building charity events such as Bake Offs and Xmas present wrapping for local children’s hospitals.

The Challenge:

The key objectives were:

  • To be able to grow a successful business that was not solely dependent on Lee and Theresa.
  • To introduce systems and processes that the team can follow.
  • To develop team members who were capable of increased responsibilities and making decisions that allow the business to continue to move forward.

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