Recruiter Mistakes #4: Doing Everything Yourself Instead of Delegating and Outsourcing, with Mark Whitby and Leanne Jones Hunt, Ep #: 146

Does your recruitment business feel like you’re running on a hamster wheel?  That everything depends on your efforts and you can’t ever slow down or stop because your delivery to customers (and your revenue) would also come grinding to a halt?

No matter how talented and hard-working you are, trying to do everything yourself is unsustainable. It leads to inconsistent results, frustration and burnout. But what if you could get a lot of tasks off your plate and free up your time to focus on high-value, revenue-generating activities?

The good news is that you can!

In this episode, we discuss WHY you shouldn’t be the one spinning all of the plates even if you are a solo recruiter. We will also cover HOW to get started with delegating and outsourcing parts of your recruitment process. Our goal is to increase your time spent on high-value, revenue-generating activities, and the parts of the job you do best.

This is the fourth of a series of episodes where Leanne and I will share insights that we have gained from working with hundreds of successful recruitment business owners.

Episode Outline and Highlights

• [01:58] Two questions you should ask yourself to assess the value of outsourcing recurring tasks.
• [03:30] Three downsides of doing everything by yourself.
• [06:14] Where to start - do an analytical review of your processes.
• [08:52] Hear the simple actions you can take today to start on this journey.
• [10:26] Teaser for our next episode on leveraging automation.

Should You Hire a Virtual Assistant (VA)? Two Questions to Consider

Here are the two questions you need to answer:

• When was the last time you reviewed your full recruiting possess and identified those recurring tasks?
• When was the last time you analyzed and calculated the cost of your time per hour?

This is a great exercise - calculating your hourly rate will give you the insight to see what tasks are indeed worth delegating. You may simply choose your billings per annum and divide by 1800 which is the average hours of someone who works full time during the course of the year. 

Your job is to figure out how you can spend more time and focus on high-value activities and how to delegate or outsource those activities where you will not be earning your dollar per hour.

The Three Downsides of Trying to Do Everything by Yourself

Why you should not be doing everything by yourself? Here are three reasons why.

• Overwhelm. Wearing different hats and pulling from all directions is not sustainable. 
• The Quality of Service. You may feel that you are not providing the best quality of service to your clients because of so many other tasks falling on your plate.
• Focus is critical to be at your best. If your focus is too diluted, you are not going to be as productive.

This is not going to happen overnight, but I want you to think about outsourcing some parts of your business. This will take one step at a time and will be an ongoing process. 

Simple Actions You Can Take to Start 

The main thing is to not overcomplicate things. Look at your end-to-end process and analyze things you can delegate in the aspects of sourcing, business development, and account management piece. Look at what you don’t enjoy doing, the tasks that are recurring, and what tasks you are currently spending time on that realistically someone else could do for you. 

Keep in mind that as a business owner, your focus should be on high-level activities. We recommend that you hire a full-time VA to support you. 

Our Sponsors

This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.

i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained

 

Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling, and selling your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters in who they can invest. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, back office support, marketing, and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc

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