How do you motivate your recruiters?

Dear Community,

I would like to ask you, how do you motivate your recruiters? My example: we work in Europe (I'm not very familiar with the rules in the States, but would hear your cases as well), our recruiters have a fix salary + bonuses, dependend from the placement's volume. But it seems to be not enough. How to push them to work quicker and more efficient? We have other kinds of non-monetary motivation: internal corporate benefits, flexible work hours, friendly team, other comfortable conditions. I know that the money is not the best motivation, but we have both parts of motivation implemented. What else can be done?

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on June 28, 2011 at 7:19am

Lilia,

Do you track their metrics? If you are looking for them to work more quickly and efficiently, you need to be able to measure that and set goals for them to hit.

Also, in the US, most agencies have a commission structure and either a draw or low base. I've found that the lower the base and the higher the commission percentage, the more motivated recruiters are to work harder and smarter. If they have a higher base and smaller bonuses, then there's no motivation to put in the extra effort.

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on June 28, 2011 at 11:12am

Lilia,

If you have to motivate recruiters to recruit you may have the wrong person(s), called a recruiter(s), in the job that actually calls for a recruiter. If they are not self-motivated, with the exception of “growing your own breed of recruiter(s)” that soon catch-on and love it—be wary of who you call a “recruiter”.

Now, I'm not suggesting that pay structures and incentives are not necessary to reward top performances—that’s important. I am saying that if the burning desire to continuously improve in that role (or any role, for that matter) is not there—you don’t have a recruiter—you have the wrong person in that job.

If you have people occupying space with the title "Recruiter"--then they damn well need to be recruiting. Now how I motivated my recruiters is to: make every effort to hone their skills through training; putting them in feeding frenzy arenas like Job Fairs; benchmarking the competition to motivate team spirit; by always attempting to give them ever better access to ever better candidate pools—and by SPOTLIGHTING the high achievers by rank order (metrics).

Monetary rewards like bonuses or cash incentives I minimize to the extent that I do not want to create a band of mercenaries. These can do more harm than good. So I don't want money to be the motivator--I want the discipline and interaction of recruiting itself to be the motivator. I then find creative ways to say, “Great Job”. I’ve found that the best motivator is RECOGNITION, private & public. It calls attention to a dynamo being dynamic.

Investing in cutting-edge tools of the trade and helping a recruiter along the way, in my view, also feeds the fire…but the spark has to be there and it has to be one they bring. Some already have the spark, and the spark can be lit within a newbee to the discipline (young or older), but if you don’t see that spark, chances are you won’t see the fire..and then the union comes in and you’re screwed…but I digress.

Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Wilson on June 28, 2011 at 11:14am

Lilia - I agree with most of what you said, but not everyone is motivated by money to put in the extra effort. I've worked both agency and corporate and the money wasn't the motivator for me. I've worked with metrics and with out them, and find that by tracking and rewarding results seems to be the best results for me. For the most part I want to make a difference and to be trained. I've noticed that a lot of companies want more out of people, but don't know how to train them to get what they need.

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Lovell on June 28, 2011 at 11:53am

I come from the corporate recruiting side and I am motivated not only by an available bonus - but also that my company pays a generous base salary. So I work harder to perform to expectations. I am also very motivated by expressing leadership and the creative freedom to think outside the box and implement new techniques and strategies for my team and see them work. So, if I have a leader that allows me to do so, I am going to work my butt off to show the team that different things can work.

With Metrics - I want to hit them... just for the sake of knowing I did. Recognition for achievement is also very important to me.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Wienbrock on June 28, 2011 at 1:10pm

Curious: What do you each consider a fair comp plan? If a base + commission - what is your definition of a "Small base"? If commission only what then?

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Wilson on June 28, 2011 at 2:12pm

I've also been motivated by a quarterly bonus. - This was based on metrics, time to fill, candidate and manager satisfaction, and 90 day turnover. It made a huge difference to know that you could see how you were doing with the metrics, but also see how well you did by getting paid more for your great work. It wasn’t a huge bonus, but when you think that if you hit target on all of them you could bring home an extra $4K per quarter. (This was a Corporate job as well)

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Wilson on June 28, 2011 at 2:13pm

I've seen a small base being anywhere from $25K to a draw against commission plan.

Heather Wienbrock said:

Curious: What do you each consider a fair comp plan? If a base + commission - what is your definition of a "Small base"? If commission only what then?

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on June 28, 2011 at 2:42pm

When I was getting started we use to get paid a bonus for each sendout over a certain goal each month. Looking back it was a great way to encourage a focus on the key to a recruiters success.

This removed the "make a placement!!!!" pressure as my job was to make sendouts. The placements then, naturally, occurred. To this day I have the same goal and motivation. You really can't "make" a placement. It's the small stuff that makes them.

P.S. It didn't take the boss long to figure out who was faking sendouts.....:)

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Permalink Reply by Lilia Tereshchenko on June 29, 2011 at 1:46am

Dear All,

Thanks for your comments.

So far we have three results from all opinions:

1. Metrics (we have metrics as well) but it follows again...-to the monetary motivation.

2. Bonuses and fees - monetary motivation again.

3. Fire all "non-recruiters"! [Valentino] - this actually is not the best solution. They are good, they are professional, but they are not so efficient I want them to be.

Think about the following: What if your recruiters do not fulfill the plan and are bad according to the metrics results? And not because of themselve, but because of the client, who decides slowly and does the placement slowly. It demotivates them.

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Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on June 29, 2011 at 3:35am

Lilia,

Addressing the hiring manager who is slowing down the process may solve that particular problem. Hiring managers sometimes need to be reminded that they are hurting or hampering the recruitment process by their slow uptake on reviewing & interviewing candidates. I would suggest the recruiter and HR Manager should attend and resolve the reason for the slowdown. Such a get together will also motivate a recruiter because they'll notice it's a team effort in solving certain problems that are beyond their control.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Dimmick on June 29, 2011 at 10:46am

Dear Lilia -

Client management and the management of subordinate recruiters are two different problems although both must be resolved by your top management. One of the essential elements of any incentive plan is the ability of the incentive plan to have attainable goals. If the goals are outside the control of the subordinate recruiter, you can not hold them accountable for the results.

But this does not resolve your problem. Client management can also involve financial incentives. Fees can be reduced or increased depending upon what behavior you are attempting to reinforce. That is clearly a top management decision but there are plenty of ways to structure it so that it can be a winning outcome for everyone.

Lilia Tereshchenko said:

Dear All,

Thanks for your comments.

So far we have three results from all opinions:

1. Metrics (we have metrics as well) but it follows again...-to the monetary motivation.

2. Bonuses and fees - monetary motivation again.

3. Fire all "non-recruiters"! [Valentino] - this actually is not the best solution. They are good, they are professional, but they are not so efficient I want them to be.

Think about the following: What if your recruiters do not fulfill the plan and are bad according to the metrics results? And not because of themselve, but because of the client, who decides slowly and does the placement slowly. It demotivates them.