Case 5 – Personnel Development
Background
A privately owned recruitment consultancy, specialising in the technology sector and offering contract and permanent placements across the state was experiencing poor and inconsistant performance, low moral and high staff turnover.
Client dissatisfaction was escalating due to inconsistant practices and a perceived lack of concern for their needs. Consequently jobs were ‘farmed out’ to multiple service providers, each competing on price.
Core issues
Staff had little understanding of responsibilities and performance expectations. Operational policies and proceedures were ambiguous and staff training was negligable.
The majority of the consultants came from human resource backgrounds with little or no training in sales; and therefore struggled to engage clients and progress the sale.
The pay/compensation structure and competetive social norms prohibited collaboration and promoted a culture of opportunism. The lack of administrative support further hindered sales efforts.
Solution
A clear understanding of roles, resposibilities and expectations was established. KPI’s were defined with feedback and support providing a framework for success.
Administrative support personnel were engaged enabling consultants to focus efforts on client management and solutions development.
Performance compensation was restructured to retain competetive focus as well as encourage teamwork and client satisfaction.
Skills development programs were implemented covering sales process and client development. This enabled consultants to effectively engage clients, develop credibility, assess client needs and drive the implementation of solutions.
Critical success factors
The consultants were able to gain an understanding of client needs, source the ideal candidates and successfully broker a solution.
Team collaboration became the norm, with clients now having the full resources and expertise of all staff. The increase in quality of candidates presented to clients was matched with increases in performance and moral.
Results
The company experienced a complete turnaround in staff satisfaction and productivity.This was reflected by an increase in retention rates from 55% to 88% over the following year.
Within a year, the company had established strong ‘ partner’ relationships with the majority of its clients and exclusive agreements with some. Consequently annual revenue increased by 55% for the following year.
More case studies are available by selecting from ‘listbox’ below:
