Planning recruitment to service growth

When your growth strategy pays off the challenge lies in servicing that growth and often that will mean building your team.

You want to ensure you can take care of the new clients whilst continuing to provide a premium service to existing clients. This will prevent any leakage, which could neutralise the steps you are making in terms of growth.

It is an essential part of a successful growth strategy to plan your recruitment strategy alongside it to ensure you recruit the right people at the right time.

Cost of doing it wrong

The impact of not planning who and when you want to recruit can mean

• Recruiting someone/anyone just to fill a gap and not someone who fits in with your culture
• Recruiting someone with the skills for now but not for the future plans of your business
• Recruiting too early – incurring costs before you have the revenue to support it
• Recruiting too late – when you are too busy to integrate them properly and customer service suffers

Every one of these issues will cost you time and money when you should be focusing on consolidating your growth.

To combat these issues you should consider the following:

Skill requirements

The skills required may be very different to past requirements especially if you are expanding in to new services. An aligned recruitment strategy will ensure you know in advance

• The skills you need in the areas your business is growing and not just another pair of hands.
• Clarity over whether it is bespoke industry skills you require or administrative assistance to support the team.
• An understanding of the scale of recruitment enabling you to decide in advance when you may need management skills.

Recruitment Triggers

Recruiting at the right time is a challenge so when building your strategy you should;-

• Review your internal processes and how you deal with clients to ensure the team is working at its most effective
• Establish your current capacity in terms of what the existing team can deliver now it is at optimum profitability
• Identify when you will hit your pressure points
• Work backwards from these to build in time to recruit and average notice periods.

This should mean you start looking at the right time and thus get the right people in at the right level with the right skill base.

Cost of recruitment

It seems obvious to factor the costs of recruitment in to your plan but consider not just the recruitment fee but also the time you or your team will need to invest in writing clear job specs, interviewing candidates and providing a solid induction.

Working with the right recruitment team will ensure an efficient process in terms of your time keeping you focused on growth. A properly planned induction will mean your new starter is up to speed quickly and working in line with your values but it will take time investment from you or your team

Effective growth planning 

In summary aligning your recruitment strategy with your growth strategy is crucial in delivering growth .To do this effectively consider the following elements.

Helen Fleet works as an outsourced Finance Director for companies striving for growth in both turnover and profits. Contact Helen if you wish to discuss more at helen@helenfleet.co.uk or 07960 564203.

Related Articles:

Planning for Profitable Growth

What insurance do you need to start a recruitment agency?

Why You Should Have a Technology Plan for Growth

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