Having a system of rewards for performance is imperative to establishing and continuing a culture of high performance within a recruiting firm.
If individuals and teams do NOT receive recognition for their efforts, then they will NOT be motivated to continue achieving greater results. Acknowledge the end result. Placements are the “W” in our business, and it is important to generate energy and enthusiasm for those who make it happen.
When someone makes a placement in our office, we take a bell and ring it as loudly as possible. Everyone gets off the phone, stands up, and gives a “high five” to the person who made the placement.
The peer recognition for the placement and the management’s “atta boy” recognition all go a long way toward helping to encourage more placements and results.
Performance = Activity
What’s more important, though, is that we equally reward the activity that leads to the placement. When phone time, number of calls, sendouts, and job order targets are met, a reward system needs to be in place to recognize that effort and accomplishment. Results are only the product of executing all of the critical steps in the process—the activities.
Every Tuesday, we take a look at the activity for each individual in our office. Then we point out in a public setting the excellence in activity that will eventually lead to a positive end result. The more an office focuses on rewarding the activities that lead to placements, the better the culture of performance becomes.
When our office has sales contests, we do NOT reward placements. The recruiters already get a big commission check for their placements. We reward activity: sendouts, new job orders, and marketing presentations.
Leadership is crucial in developing and maintaining a strong culture of performance. Any business can develop a performance-driven environment, but it has to be managed.
A good leader will foster an office culture where:
- Winning (making placements) is highly valued
- Individual and team goals are established and focused on
- An atmosphere of friendly competition is encouraged and openly acknowledged
- Rewards are not only for results but more importantly, also for the activity that leads to those results
You can change an organization almost overnight; just focus on changing the culture.
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” —Henry Ford.
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Jon Bartos is a premier writer, speaker, and consultant on all aspects of personal performance, human capital, and the analytics behind them. In 2010, Bartos founded Revenue Performance Management, LLC. The RPM Dashboard System is a business intelligence tool used worldwide for metrics management for individual and team performance improvement. In 2012, Bartos achieved national certification in Hypnotherapy, furthering his interest in learning the dynamics behind what motivates others to achieve higher levels of success. Click here to visit Bartos’s website.