Recruitment consultant training is often a good first step if you have an under performing new recruiter. Before you head off to Google or pick up the phone to bring someone in to help you need to find out a bit more about the situation. Likewise if you have a recruiter who is quite frankly a pain in the neck just hang back before you cut them out.

First let’s just cycle back a bit too when the person was recruited. What was their induction plan like and what elements where included in their development plan?

 I imagine a number of you might be looking quizzical at the word development plan or induction process. That’s fine as you will join many other recruitment business owners in a similar situation.

The truth is for recruiters to perform at their best they need some help, guidance and consistent recruitment consultant training. Remember they may have been excellent in their last position, however your company is different and they might now even be in a new sector.

When to Coach

After an initial check on personal circumstances i.e. bereavement in the family, substance abuse, rocky relationship. This should always be a first step with any underperformer. The classic skill will matrix needs to be considered. Many people are more than willing they just don’t yet have the skills and are often too scared to admit it. The good news is that you can change this by using your own skills to uncover the key areas that will bring about the biggest shift.

Once this has been carried out you MUST follow up. Create a plan with the recruiter with milestones steps, guides, tutorials etc. Set a time frame and spend time with them and monitor and evaluate their progress. Unfortunately this is the bit that gets missed. It might on first glance appear time consuming, trust me it’s not and can bring you untold of benefits. Learning a new skill or honing an existing one takes time. You will know what is reasonable and fair. They might not get it in the first week, yet with consistent action and application on their part you should see steady progress. Depending on the level and complexity of what you are teaching it could happen in a matter of days.

When to Cut

So you have implemented the coaching and still there is no improvement. Let’s assume you have done the personal check and nothing has come to light. So what next? There is a saying that success leaves clues. Unfortunately so does poor performance. Look back over time and their performance record. If you recruited in a top performer on paper, you check up that they were bone fide.

If nothing is springing out a performance improvement programme would be the next step. Putting it bluntly this is coaching on steroids. The overall outcome is to get an improved performance.

Depending on the size of your recruitment business or team you may have an onsite HR person. If not there are many H.R people that you can contact for advice and guidance for a fee. If you do have your own HR person they are invaluable and will give you the guidance you need.