Does focusing tightly on numbers scare recruiters away?

Obviously, you have to focus on activity, and numbers, but when bringing new recruiters on and during the first few years, what balance works best when asking them to turn in numbers?

I've seen some recruiters so freaked out about not hitting the required number of connects that they decide the job is too stressful.

I've seen other recruiters who don't track the numbers and it's not clear if they are making the desired number of connects either, but they are doing well and making placements and not totally stressed out.

What have you seen work best in offices you've been in? Is it better to have recruiters turning in daily numbers and stressing about it, or to have those numbers as a guideline to follow and trusting they'll work towards them and letting the results dictate if it's working?

Would love insight on this.

Thanks!

Pam

Comment by David Sanders on February 15, 2012 at 11:11am: The numbers need to be a guideline. We all have up and down days/weeks. I think you need to track your individual ratios ( how many submits to interviews, how many interviews to placements) and be aware of where you are at. Having said that, I think for a brand new recruiter, focusing on connects is a good first step, but eventually the focus needs to shift to how many submits and how many interviews your getting per week because as you become more adept at recruiting and building your pipeline of candidates, you shouldn't need to make 200 calls per week to get the submissions and interviews.

Comment by Christopher Poreda on February 15, 2012 at 12:44pm: Great post and comment David. Couldn't agree more! I'm a big fan of analytics. It makes it very easy to determine where you and your staff are succeeding and not. That being said, for a new recruiter it's a matter of confidence. What I did in the beginning was allow them to manage the job board traffic. This gives them a captive audience, vs. cold calling and builds their confidence. Of course connects were easy and I would manage that against sendouts. This defines there ability to make a match. And go from there.

To often we manage month to month and give up too quickly. Manage the analytics, think long term and develop. If you do, the numbers will follow.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on February 15, 2012 at 5:23pm: Not being a numbers freak except as it relates to placements. My style is to forget focusing on number of calls and blah, blah. With a new recruiter i give them a job order ..one and tell them to work on filling it. No pressure just think it through, ask questions and go see if you can find some candidates and let's see how you present those that you think are a fit. If they start getting good candidates and get resumes out and start getting interviews on the first one i give them another one and another one and let them build with a focus on hitting the recs and getting interviews. If that happens placements happen. I don't want them worried about filling out call sheets everyday and calling for the sake of calling. I want them to think quality and fill. If it does't start to happen with that protocol then we go back and talk about why their candidates don't fit or they are not getting interviews. It normally does not have anything to do with the number of calls they made or didn't make it normally has to do with their lack of understanding of the job recs, where to look or call and how to present.

I want recruiters to think , find and sell not count. I can hire a number cruncher a lot cheaper than i can have recruiters counting cold calls and being pressured to drive people nuts.