When you’re first starting out building your recruitment business, as a one or ‘two-man band’, you are very pleased when an experienced recruiter agrees to join your team to work for you – especially considering you are just starting out and may be a high risk.    

You don’t want to upset anyone on your team in case that person gets pissedoff and leaves, and this means that you may tolerate certain things or let certain things go that you shouldn’t.   For example, someone being consistently late, not achieving the minimum weekly activity, or not inputting information into the database.  

The thing with this, is that for your business to get from where you are now – Ato where you want to be – B, you need tighter boundaries, processes and structures that your team follow.    

 

Why You Need To Tighten The Boundaries

You need these boundaries and structures in place, because your team will grow and there are not enough hours in the day to monitor and support everyone all the time.    

If you don’t nip certain behaviours in the bud at the beginning, they will manifest and grow over time.   Let me give you an example of this …  

 

Example Of The High Cost Of Team Toleration

One of our colleagues hired a very experienced consultant that was older than him.  This guy was on a good salary and also requested that he leave the office early, 3 nights a week to pick his kids up.   

Now, the request is absolutely fine if you are achieving the level of activity and billings that you need to be.  But the problem was that he wasn’t. 

During the first 4 weeks, this guy’s activity was really low – he didn’t hit his BASIC activity target once.  This continued for the next 4 weeks and the following 4 weeks after that. 

Our colleague friend, the MD, just left him be, thinking that he’d pick it up and get on with it because ‘that’s what I’ve paid him to do…’ and not wanting to upset the apple cart in case he left. 

In the meantime, one of his top billers, from the same team approached him to say that he was really annoyed that he was busting his gut and billing and there was this guy just coasting along, being able to leave early even though he wasn’t billing or hitting his targets.  It needed to be sorted.   

So, our colleague friend,  the MD had a chat with the consultant. This made a difference for a couple of days BUT then he fell back into his bad habits.  

The MD didn’t follow up, review or keep track, he just left him be. 

Eventually, the top biller handed in his notice – he felt business was suffering because of this guy, he was fed up busting a gut and not being rewarded for his efforts and working for a boss that wouldn’t make the tough decisions.   

 

What Are You Paying For Team Toleration?

Have you ever tolerated (or tolerating now) something with your team that needs to be nipped in the bud?  It may be lateness, not hitting basic activity targets or billing or the way a team member behaves with their colleagues. 

Take a moment to have a think about what you’ve been tolerating and jot it down  How much is it really going to cost you if you don’t do anything about it?  

Consider what you’re going to do about it, and then take action, so you can stop paying the high- cost of team toleration.  

And if you like what we have shared with you hereand would like to have a conversation about scaling your recruitment business 50%-250% over the next twelve months, then book a call with one of us here. 

    

Warm regards  

Nicky and Katy