4 steps to 24% performance increase

What would a 24% increase in your performance mean to your agency this year?

It would be great right, but probably not possible.

What if I told you that this is a reality for some agencies.

These agencies changed 1 thing, and have never looked back.

This isn’t a piece of tech that will ‘guarantee’ success.

It isn’t the way you word your emails.

It’s not using a pattern interrupt in your calls.

The change doesn’t focus on your social content.

It is far more impactful than any of that.

The truth is, that focusing on the learning and development of your team has increase the performance of agencies by 24%

When we talk about investing in L&D, this doesn’t just mean putting on some in house training sessions, or paying out for courses. It is far deeper than that. It is a shift in culture and approach. You need to build it into your every day operation of the agency.

But how do you do that?

There are 4 steps that you need to take to navigate this journey.

1.        Goals

This seems like an easy one right?

You have goals for your business, so this one can be ticked off and move onto the next step. But can you?

What are your goals? Are they clearly defined? Where are you now compared to the goal? How big is the jump? How will you know when you are there? How long will it take to get there? What is your deadline?

These are all questions that you need to ask your self when you are creating your goal. If you don’t know these answers, then do you have a goal?

Once you are clear on your goal, and can confidently answer these questions, you are ready for step 2.

2.        Insights

Now we need to look at how we are going to track progress.

What metric are you going to use to track your agencies progress. Are your current metrics a good indicator of how you are doing against your goal?

There are many metrics that you can track in recruitment. It is easy to get lost in the numbers and forget what the goal is. You can spend time fixating on activity numbers and aim for more volume, but does that actually help you reach your goal? You need both quantitative and qualitative metrics to get a full picture of how you are doing. Most agencies don’t focus on the qualitative metrics.

What qualitative metrics could you start to look for that align to your goal. How are you going to get the data and track it?

Once this is in place, you are able to start making progress on the goal.

3.        Taking ownership of learning

A real pain point for agency leaders is that the recruiters don’t action the training they are provided with.

This was something that I struggled with when I was a PT and a recruitment coach. I was proving them with everything that they needed to reach their goal or target, yet they weren’t doing it.

It was only when I was made to do training that I realised, you cannot, coach someone that doesn’t want to be coached. The great coaches know this, and overcome this obstacle by getting the person they are working with to take ownership of their learning. How do they like to learn? Where do they feel they need development?

By getting them involved in the process, and taking ownership of it, you are getting their buy-in. Once you have their buy-in, you are able to give them what they need.

You are now able to move onto the step where the magic happens.

4.        Empowerment

This is the stage where the seed starts to grow.

By empowering your team to implement the learning, you will start to see the change happen. This is the step that most leaders and coaches don’t do, and therefore don’t see the results that were expected.

For this to happen, you need to do a few things. You need to put the support mechanisms in place. Where is are all of the sessions and content stored, for them to revisit? Most people don’t remember everything that they were taught the first time. They need to review it a few times to allow it to sink in. They also need to be allowed the time to do that revision, otherwise it won’t get done. Allow them to block out a certain amount of time to do revision and focus on how they are going to implement the learning, and you will be surprised by the results.

They are far more likely to retain the information an the action it. With out that time and resource, they will forget and revert to old ways.

Your last part is following up with them in 1-1s and reviews, to see how they are implementing it and what else they need.

By implementing this into your core operations of the agency, then you will not only increase your agencies performance, but you will increase employee retention and start to grow your agency, not only in revenue, but head count too.