I was reading an old sales book recently which is as relevant today as ever. It focused on the saying that: 

“What Gets Measured Gets Made!” 

Let me use a story to illustrate this point for you. 

Picture this… Imagine a small plane flying across the Atlantic, and the pilot suddenly comes over the tannoy and says, “I’ve got some good news, and I’ve got some bad news. The bad news is that the gauges have all broken. 

I’m completely lost, don’t know where we are, not sure how much fuel we’ve got in the tank and, unfortunately, I have no idea what direction we’re going in either. 

The good news though is we’re making really good time!” 

An amusing story maybe, though not when you appreciate that this is how many recruitment businesses fly their own ship too. 

It’s like we scarily don’t know where we are at any one point in time. The challenge gets worse the bigger you grow too as more moving ‘cogs’ enter the equation, and suddenly you are ‘trying’ to control something without the data you need and without being physically present with everyone either! 

Katy and I find the story we share a great analogy as it’s the reality for most businesses that we start working with. 

The fact is they have never had any system in place which helps them to get absolute clarity about what is happening in their business and critically what is delivering results. 

The Power of a Dashboard to Manage Metrics 

So, going back to the timeless comment that kicked off this blog; the thing to know and understand is what gets measured gets done! 

Over the years as recruitment business owners ourselves, Katy and I have identified the key metrics which need to be tracked every week that will enable you to make sure that you’re staying on track, and you arrive on time at your destination: think money, placements and profit. 

The topic here is a vital success factor. You’ll hear it referred to as KPIs or OKRs or performance dashboard figures. 

Fundamentally it’s the handful of specific numbers that you can tell at a glance how the business is doing. 

Every business will be unique with which ones they use. Specific teams or individuals are likely to have different metrics too. 

So, you need to have a business–wide set of metrics, and then each person and each team needs to have their own unique metrics too. 

 

Focus on What You Can Control 

 

So, the thing to know when you implement this process is, to get the results that you want, there is only one thing that you can manage and can control, and that is activity.  

Business 101 dictates that the only way to alter outputs is through inputs. 

Let‘s look at the logic here.  

From a candidate’s perspective, you can’t force somebody to take a job, and from your client’s perspective, you can’t make your consultants get somebody to accept a job if they don’t want it! 

However, what you can control and manage is the activity of your consultants. The law of averages says the better the activity, and the better the volume of activity, the more guaranteed you are to get the results you want, for example: 

  • You can control and manage somebody to send out more CV’s.  
  • You can control and manage somebody to get more first interviews.  
  • You can control and manage somebody to make more BD calls.  

So, this is where your focus needs to be – on activity and critically, how we manage this process so that we’re getting the results that we want, guaranteed. 

On the various programmes we run here at Centred Excellence, we share a scorecard system. 

This is divided into goals, measurements and timelines. 

So, in the measurements, we identify the activities to be measured week in and week out to guarantee that you hit your targets. 

So, we’ve broken this down into specifics. You’ve got next to that, what the goal is that we need to achieve? That goal will be what you need to accomplish every month to guarantee that you hit your target. 

By having this level of focus, we are then able to identify the critical activities. The number can vary, though no more than 15.  

These numbers need to allow you to have an absolute pulse on your business. 

 

What Next? 

So, what are the numbers from that list that you would need, and which would be the most critical ones?  

Remember that every person in the business should have their own scorecard that they track every week; Katy and I to this day still implement this process for ourselves. 

We ask ourselves: 

  • Am I over?  
  • Am I under?  
  • Am I on target?  
  • What are my gaps? 

It is such a simple process which, when you take action and have this as part of your business process, will change your results for the better. 

If you would like to know more about how this scorecard system will work for your business and in your sector then apply for a Profit Accelerator call with one of us here. 

Warm regards,  

 

Katy and Nicky