What metrics should you use to track consultants?

Satnam Brar

Satnam Brar looks as some practical ways to help you manage your team’s performance more objectively.

If you’re a managing director of your own agency, then performance tracking and business metrics are likely to be a key focus. Why? Because management information (MI) lies at the heart of all good business decision-making. Measurable data helps you to identify and reward your highest-performing consultants and also helps you to develop (or manage out of the agency without falling foul of a tribunal) low-performing consultants who aren’t doing their job. At the heart of recruitment agency MI lie questions such as: how exactly do you measure what your consultants are doing; how can you monitor performance; and how can you track performance?

Recruitment is a targets-based industry where commission is provided in return for exceptional performance. But most managing directors will know that a consultant’s performance can often encompass other factors, skills and experiences that provide more holistic benefits to the agency. These intangible qualities obviously need to be assessed and measured alongside hard numbers, but how can this be done? How on earth can you assess your consultants’ strengths and weaknesses objectively and in a measured way? Are your consultants actually doing their job? How can you know for certain? What you need is a performance measurement framework that captures a range of performance indicators and evidence.

Making objective assessments

Phone statistics are a useful source of consultant activity data. Use a telephony system that tracks call times, duration and successful calls. Ensure that every consultant has a clear set of targets and deliverables to work towards, but decide early on whether you want your consultants to focus on their targets, or whether there are values and behavioural indicators that you want them to develop too, such as building the employer brand, supporting an internal business project, mentoring a younger member of staff or learning new skills in social media. You may also want to invest in technological systems that allow consultants to enter their own metrics about meetings, outcomes, referrals and corresponding new business.

Consider that broader measurement frameworks will tend to drive a broader and more encompassing set of values and behaviours, as well as clear business results. Remember, this can provide a range of business benefits (considering that targets-only cultures can often drive negative behaviours that do not serve the team, or wider business, well in the long term).

Daily meetings are a great litmus test for how your team is performing. Objective and numerical data will provide a raft of vital information for analysis, but nothing quite equates to sitting alongside your team and asking them to talk about their day. Make a point of attending these meetings; find out what your consultants did on the previous day. Do not simply accept a short, non-committal answer: engage in conversation and show your interest and enthusiasm. Ask for the specifics about what was good in their day and what wasn’t. Don’t be afraid to dig down into issues, make notes and follow up on problems.

Commit to attending these meetings and show that you are taking an active role in consultant assessment and management. This will help to set the expectation of strong management and performance assessment. At the same time, do not make the daily meeting feel like a check-up. Use it as an opportunity to share knowledge, discuss ways of doing things, build your team morale and celebrate success. Take individual issues offline rather than investigating them as a group if necessary; focus on the positive and keep morale high.

Building a measurement framework

Performance management will generally be assessed across measurable and hard data such as phone statistics, generated income, contracts signed and new business leads, alongside soft data such as coaching, willingness to work within a team, ability to boost and maintain team morale, positive attitude and so on.

Consider implementing techniques such as role play in the daily meetings to help newer recruits model and learn new behaviours and ways of conducting their work. Role plays can be powerful at generating behavioural change – and they can add an element of fun to the proceedings.

Organise a monthly sales meeting so that you can discuss collective and individual performance in greater depth and also ensure that team managers are having regular one-to-ones with their teams and recording actions. Remember too that referrals and feedback from candidates and clients are a perfect way of building up a clear picture of your consultants. You may also want to consider tools such as 360-degree feedback, which gives a rounded view of your most valued consultants and helps to identify weak spots or areas that can be improved. Additional tools such as Myers Briggs and leadership style frameworks can also be beneficial.

Satnam Brar is director of IT recruitment company Maximus IT