Getting off to a good start--how many calls a day do you make?

You've just hired a new recruiter and want them to see success as soon as possible, to keep them motivated and excited and making money.

I was having this conversation just the other day with a good friend who has hired her first employee and as I'm getting ready to do the same, we were brainstorming, trying to remember back to the days when we started and how we worked then versus now.

We both agreed that having a daily plan is crucial, as is having set productivity goals. Our former boss used to tell us to focus on the numbers, that 'the numbers don't lie', meaning when you track your productivity, it's down there in black and white and you can really 'see' what you've done. If the numbers are there, the sendouts and placements will follow. Ever have a day where you feel really busy and time flies, but at the end of the day you're scratching your head wondering what exactly you accomplished? That's being reactive, versus proactive.

So, we agreed that we'd want our new hires to focus on activity, on generating interviews, and submittals and sendouts...

Where does it all start though? With calls. E-mails are great, and important, but calls that lead to interviews are key.

So, how many calls a day should that new person shoot for? I've seen many an article that says 80-100. And that sounds good and all, but how realistic is it? I remember when we had contests for calls and what happened was that people would 'pad' their calls, they'd make them, but they wouldn't be smart targeted calls, they'd just be dialing anyone to get the call credit.

Not a good use of time....

So, rather than focus on number of calls we settled on a goal of one submittal a day. Which means interviewing anywhere from 3-5 people.

But, we still are wondering what the ideal, effective number of calls per day for a rookie to focus on?

What has worked for you, or in your offices?

Pam

Comment by Jerry Albright on March 16, 2008 at 8:13pm: Hi Pam. You and I come from the same school. Make. The. Calls. Period.

But so much has changed since those days. At least for me. I myself get frustrated with voicemails all day long. The real key is to connect - which is hard to do with today's "you can't catch me!" technology.

I would maybe think about setting a number of conversations with new people as the goal. Maybe those won't all be found by phone calls alone. Some might be from a job board. Others might be from a blog. And still others would probably come from dialing the phone.

I've got to admit - if I had to start today I might look at things a little differently than I did in the 80s.

Good luck with your new folks!

Comment by pam claughton on March 16, 2008 at 9:00pm: Thanks Jerry! It's so true how times have changed. When I started recruiting, there was no internet as we know it...no job boards. Hard to imagine now. Newbies were given stacks of old applications, and my first placement came from a reference off one of them.

And we used to fax resumes! Am really dating myself now...

:) Pam

Comment by Mack Will on March 16, 2008 at 11:22pm: Pam,

You are a busy bud :) but i admire your insightful advice back on ERE.
I, not having a long history in recruiting have found out both job boards, cold calling aroune 30/day and blogging is essential. I belong to several IT blogs and have unearthed passive candidates and you can blog later after work but i still belive those cold calls are the key to continued business. That's my 10 cents :)

Mack

Mack