Free Training For Recruiters
If you’ve ever googled ‘free training for recruiters’, you’re not alone.
Keyword analysis shows that roughly 10,000 people per month search online for free recruitment training.
And yet the training they are seeking is often sitting under their nose in their own business.
And it is 100% free. So where is this hidden, free training?
It’s the managers who give excuses and tell you that they ‘don’t have time’.
It’s not the responsibility of an internal or external trainer to improve the performance of a manager’s team. The buck stops with the manager.
Managers should be the front line of ongoing development for your recruiters. They are with your people every day and instead of complaining to you about the lack of resources or underperformers, they should be spotting areas of improvement and taking responsibility for making performance improvements every week.
If you need more proof, try Googling ‘Why managers should train their employees’ (2,180,000,000 results in 0.47 seconds).
Or review the blind studies undertaken by both Google and Microsoft that the best performing sales managers have the best coaching skills – i.e. there is a direct correlation between improved training and coaching capability and increased revenues.
I’ll deal with the excuse “I don’t have time to train” later. But, for now, and this is very, very important…
On-the-job-training is NOT training
Let’s de-bunk a huge recruitment myth. So-called on-the-job training is NOT training.
Sure, if done constructively it can help pass on vital knowledge in real-time and it definitely has a value (caveat: if done constructively) – but it’s not training.
It’s feedback.
Training involves buying staff into concepts, explaining things in more depth, brainstorming ideas, allowing time for practice – and commitment to implement what’s been learned.
Three types of managers
So, which of the three types of managers are you regarding improving the performance of your recruiters?
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- THE MANAGER WHO DOESN’T KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING
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- THE MANAGER WHO WATCHES THINGS HAPPEN
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- THE MANAGER WHO MAKES THINGS HAPPEN
Surely, you want to be the manager who makes things happen?
The manager who takes personal responsibility for the people that he/she manages?
The manager who doesn’t give excuses or claim that the job of developing their recruiters belongs to someone else?
But perhaps you don’t know where to start? Well, don’t worry about that. I’ll be giving you some easy-to-implement recruiter training tips in this article. But before I do, it’s important to know that a robust, ONGOING internal development programme for recruiters driven by managers will also help you attract and retain better-quality recruiters.
Surveys consistently show that training is The Number 1 thing that young people want from a new job.
Top 5 things trainees want from a new job
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- Training — 40%
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- Expectations and goals are clearly set — 31%
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- I’m provided all the information needed to do my job — 30%
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- I’m given reasonable goals and timelines — 26%
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- Leaders seem invested in my success — 23%
Source: CNBC
Let’s be clear about this. Induction training is only one small part of learning how to become a top recruiter. Think about when you were a trainee, were you really the finished article after a couple of weeks?
Development of your staff should be ongoing – and this goes way beyond so-called ‘on-the-job training’ (more about that in a moment). Think about learning as a journey towards mastery. As you know, the job of a high performing recruiter entails a multitude of skills – knowledge of our sector, professional sales ability, objection handling, candidate sourcing, new business development, headhunting, taking and filling jobs, exclusivity etc – to list just a few.
Now, consider after your induction many years ago, if you had been asked to rate yourself against each critical skill on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best in the world, would your ratings be 4s, 5s and 6s perhaps? So, how many trainees do you think are anywhere close to mastery after six months or even a year?
Furthermore, how many experienced recruiters do you think can rate themselves close to 10 out of 10 against each critical skill needed to become a top performer?
Weekly development and ‘on-the-job training’
But, as a busy manager you don’t have time to train your staff, do you? Even though the research above says:
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- 40% want training
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- 30% want to be provided with all the information needed to do their job
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- 23% want you as a leader to invest in their success
And even though employee engagement studies prove beyond question that 4 of the top 20 drivers of having a highly engaged team (who go the extra mile for you) include:
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- “My manager cares about me”
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- “I’m learning new things on a continual basis”
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- “My ideas are valued”
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- “I receive praise in the workplace”
So, how would you like to initiate 48 improvements per annum for each person in your team WITHOUT a big impact on your time? Whilst at the same time, giving hungry, ambitious new starters what they want, improving morale, and reducing the risk of your staff being headhunted?
And all for just 30 minutes per week of your time – by you facilitating focused, weekly development sessions that improve one aspect of performance per week for each staff member.
Weekly training (example times)
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- 8:30 am to 9.00 am once per week
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- Weekly ‘learning lunch’
Let’s take a look at how a ‘reactive weekly training’ session could work for you…
Scenario:
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- You observe staff forgetting to ask for candidate referrals
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- You remind staff during the week
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- But, at the end of the week, candidate referral results are poor (your KPI)
What do you think this week’s ‘reactive weekly training’ session should be about?!
Average manager, (thinking)
“I don’t have time to put together a training session, plus I’m not totally confident that my way of asking for referrals is world-class. And, they’ve all been trained on how to secure candidate referrals.”
Top manager, (thinking)
“My experienced staff has stopped asking for referrals and my trainees are following suit. I will facilitate a short session using a video from our LMS on how to secure candidate referrals – and I can brush up my own technique at the same time.”
Example, Weekly training session – 30 minutes
Top manager: “Right guys, for some reason, candidate referrals were low last week. Let’s brainstorm the reasons for that and capture those reasons on the whiteboard.”
Recruiters: “I’m not asking often enough.”
“I’m asking but for some reason, everyone says they’ll have a think about it or they say they don’t know anyone.”
Top manager: “Good work guys, openly admitting in front of colleagues that you’re not doing things is a sign of high emotional intelligence.”
“Let’s pop this video on for 10 minutes or so and look out for things that we are NOT doing or things that we could do better….”
(After 10 minutes or at the point where the manager sees a ‘gem’ and stops the video for a brainstorm):
Recruiters: (commenting on what they’ve seen)
“We are not selling the role enough to candidates to get referrals.”
“We aren’t asking candidates for help – we are simply asking, ‘Do you have any friends looking for work’.”
Top manager: “Excellent. What else?”
Recruiters: “We are not asking for referrals as often as we could.”
“When the candidate says, ‘I’ll get them to call you’ we are not even attempting to turn that around.”
Top manager: “Excellent. Let’s now split into 2 teams and work out what you need to do differently this week.”
Recruiters: “Jim and I are going to remind each other to ask for referrals if we spot each other not asking.” “We are going to implement point X from the video.”
Top manager: “Good ideas. I’ve made a note of your actions. Let’s give those actions a good go this week and I’ll review with you all at next week’s training session. Can you please add your actions to our WhatsApp training group?”
“Finally, did everyone get something from today’s session?”
Recruiters: “Yes, it was a good refresher.”
Top manager: “We’ve only been able to watch 10 minutes of the candidate referral video. Can everyone commit to watching the last 10 minutes in your own time before next week’s session?”
“John, you don’t have good WiFi at home so can you read Chapter X from the manual about candidate refer- rails instead?”
Can you think of any reason why a manager who wants to improve performance, enhance morale and loyalty or refresh forgotten skills would not invest 30 minutes per week with their team whilst at the same time making management easier for themselves?
Here are a few quotes to get you thinking….
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
“Floss only the teeth you want to keep.”
“People ARE your most valuable asset. It’s time to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.”
“Training empowers people to realise their dreams and improve their lives.”
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
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