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YOUR BUSINESS : RECRUITMENT
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As discussed in previous issues, an
effective recruitment strategy and well-
funded resource behind it can deliver
the quickest and most dynamic results,
enabling the most bullish of business
plans to be executed with ease.
But what if your business doesn’t
have the funding to support in-house
recruitment? What if no one in your
company has the expertise and know-how
to approach and attract good people? What
if you make do with people who are not as
good as you deserve, just because you are
unaware of the calibre of individuals out
there in the market?
What is the cost of outsourcing
services and solutions?
The majority of IT Resellers will at some
stage try to demonstrate to their prospects
that using a particular device or piece of
hardware will benefit them in a number of
ways. Combine some software to create
a solution and not only do we now have
a value-add benefit, but the savings that
will accrue over time can be demonstrated
with a detailed Return On Investment
breakdown.
This is the Holy Grail for all salesmen:
the opportunity to engage, sell a solution
and demonstrate cost savings to their client,
while making a significant profit for their
employer and a fair commission for their
efforts. Win Win Win.
It’s then easy to articulate and overcome
the standard objections:
n
“Of course it may cost more quarterly
than you currently pay, but look at the
savings long-term!”
n
“Of course the new solution may be
more expensive, but it will do more, save
you more and make you more money!”
n
“Of course you can buy hardware
and software online, but how much of
your time will it take trying to source the
correct product? What if what you buy
isn’t compatible with what you have? Who
will you need to pay to set up the new
equipment? What are the guarantees?
What if it all goes wrong? How much time
will you waste that should be spent creating
opportunities for your business?”
The same could be said about your
recruitment.
Time is Money
The UK Recruitment industry had a turnover
of £26 billion in 2013, of which £2.4 billion
was spent on Permanent Placements. It
provides a professional sales and service
environment that can be delivered in a
bespoke fashion to facilitate the singular
requirements of every single business. It can
be tailored to suit most budgets. And from
an outsourcing perspective, using a reliable,
independent third party supplier allows
you to maintain flexibility and agility in an
increasingly competitive market.
Recruitment is as simple or as complex
as you need it to be. In its simplest form,
the process goes like this:
1.
Write a Job description and create
awareness.
2.
Advertise the job locally, on job boards,
network etc.
More and more companies now engage their own internal recruitment teams
or, at the very least, task managers with finding their own recruits, so is
the importance of the specialist recruiter on the wane? In the third part of
his series on recruitment, Spencer Taylor draws some interesting parallels
between professional recruiters and IT resellers
“An investment in Knowledge pays the Best Interest “– Benjamin Franklin
Recruitment and the IT Reseller:
The Renaissance of
Recruitment
3.
Wait and hope
4.
Manage the advertising response
5.
Remove the Lunatic Fringe from the
applicants
6.
Speak to the candidates you think may
be suitable
7.
Sell the opportunity
8.
Reject and progress applicants
accordingly
9.
Arrange interviews
10.
Make Job Offer
11.
Wonder if there might be somebody
better out there and wish you had
the time, energy, resources and/or
knowledge to attract them
12.
Start New Employee
13.
Train and Develop
14.
Cross Fingers
At any point you could – and probably
will – be sent back to point 1 and have to
repeat the process.
What is the TRUE cost of outsourcing
Recruitment Services?
Using a third party to deliver your
recruitment is arguably as simple and
obvious a choice as a Prospect’s decision to
use your services for their IT Solutions.
The fact is recruiters do the same thing
day-in and day-out. Good recruiters have
integrity; they embed themselves in their
chosen industry; and they understand the
sector and the companies within it. They
build a reliable and robust network of
clients and candidates and they continually
learn.
Ultimately, there is no reliable way to
determine what the intangible costs are
of doing your own recruitment. You will
need to sacrifice time that should be spent
delivering sales. You will invest energy in
learning new skills, but seldom master
them. You will have some great successes
and some crushing failures. But as long as
your business goals are achieved, you win.
Just bear in mind, the next time you are
on the new employee acquisition trail, that
as in IT Reselling there are specialists out
there who can source what you are looking
for and tailor that solution to your specific
business requirement; they can save you
time on sourcing a commodity that is at
the heart of all businesses; they will do the
grunt work to remove the Lunatic Fringe
from the process; and they do guarantee
that if something doesn’t work properly
they will work with you to fix it. It costs
nothing to have a look…..
Be Mindful. Be diligent. There are still
some Sharks out there….
Recruiters and IT Resellers: we’re not so
different after all…….
Ultimately,
there is no
reliable way
to determine
what the
intangible
costs are
of doing
your own
recruitment.
Spencer Taylor is Director of Blackrock Search.
He can be contacted on 07875 108999 or 01892 527054.
uk.linkedin.com/in/spencertaylor1
