Management training for your recruitment managers might fall low in your priorities; if it does you need to change it fast. Any recruitment business owner that is serious about growing their company will need to develop its people particularly its managers. Just like others managers in different industry sectors being a manager requires many skills; from confidant to business planning and managing discipline.

Here are 7 core skills that need quick attention as they will set the tone for the results you do or don’t achieve.

1. Communication Skills

You would think that you either do or don’t have this. Not so. Anyone can improve their level and quality of communication. Remember your new manager will be communicating with a range of different individuals and she or he will need to ensure that they are able to communicate a clear message so that people they are interacting with are left in no doubt as to what is required. There is a famous NLP belief that we cannot not communicate. This is a reminder that we communicate at many different levels from our body language, our voice tone and quality and finally the words we use. Our actions also communicate what we stand for. Telling a recruitment consultant that they need to be on time and look presentable and then doing the exact opposite does not enhance your credibility!

2. Time Management

Managing time and energy is a skill. Particularly as recruitment manager, when there is an additional need to hit their own billings and helps others achieve theirs. There are still only 24 hours in a day and they need to be managed wisely. Many new managers burn the midnight oil trying to do everything. A great tip is to teach them some basic time, focus and energy management skills. Starting off with a time log will provide a base line of where there time is actually going. How many of us get to the end of the day and can’t remember what we have done? Making a note of what is happening when and which activity produces results will make a huge difference to results.

A focus on activities that produce the greatest business results makes a huge difference, and not at the exclusion of our own health and concentration. Current research says that working in blocks of 90 minutes followed by a break produces the best consistent results. Couple this with proper nutrition and fluid intake and concentration improves.

3. Delegation

The next logical step from analysing time and results is what can be delegated. So often recruitment managers become a bit macho thinking they can ‘do’ everything. Maybe they can, however is it really the best use of time and skill level to have a manager chasing payment or uploading jobs to LinkedIn and facebook? This can be outsourced at a much lower cost. Delegation has to be thought through as it is not about abdication. As recruitment managers train their recruitment consultants there will be tasks that can be given to others and similar results achieved. This is especially so when it comes to helping recruitment consultants perform at a high level.

In part two we will cover the four skills that involve the more hands on style of Management. That’s, motivation, managing discipline, performance management and motivation.