Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series on building and managing a virtual recruiting team. Jordan Rayboy is a big biller, who, after running his business from an RV, now runs his seven figure firm from a home in rural Oregon. In part one, he detailed some of the mistakes he made in founding and building his firm. Today, he focuses on solutions. This article originally appeared in the December 2011 edition of The Fordyce Letter.
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The biggest mistake I made over the years (besides those from yesterday) was that I DID NOT SET EXPECTATIONS AND HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE.
This should have started in the interviewing process, and continued with an environment based on accountability once on board.
In order to hold people accountable, they have to be pushing towards goals that they have bought into. They will be much more driven to achieve their goals (all that they want to have, be, or do) as opposed to hitting a number that you arbitrarily plucked from the air. Once they’ve shared what their goals are, you should use metrics to establish what activities are required in order to achieve those levels of production.
Here is what the process might look like:
Example: W2 goal = $250k. 50% commission requires $500k billings. $20k average fee = 25 placements. 8:1 FTI:PL ratio = 200 FTI/50 weeks = 4 FTI/week required. 2.5 POEJO:FTI ratio = 10 POEJO’s/wk.
It’s much easier to keep a recruiter focused on a weekly goal of recruiting 10 candidates to present to clients, and setting up four first time interviews, as opposed to focusing on an annual billing goal of $500k.
Communication amongst a virtual team is critical and can take many different forms. Some ways that we keep in touch include:
In my virtual team, we are big on incentivizing performance. Some ways we do this are:
The most important thing to remember is that managing a virtual team is basically about managing a team. Most of the same rules apply.
I’ve made more than my fair share of mistakes along the journey. But as the old saying goes, “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from making mistakes. Mistakes come from bad judgment.” So don’t let the eventual learning experiences waiting for you keep you from taking action.
As Yoda says, “NO — Try Not! DO, or DO NOT! There is no try.”