Posted: Fri 28 Oct 2011
Today’s recruitment companies have to cope with many challenges: Leaner, smarter teams; unpredictable market conditions; global markets that move and change at a speed never witnessed before - and the need to continue to attract the best talent in order to grow. Undoubtedly, leaders and management teams will be tested beyond comparison.
Many of these leaders and management teams may be recruiters who have become 'accidental managers'. These managers have not necessarily chosen the leadership route, but may have been given the responsibility as they were the most experienced members of a reduced team, or as growth once again became a key part of the strategy. In one of our recent team leadership courses, 85% of delegates said they had not chosen management as a career path. This being said, more and more people in recruitment are looking for clear career paths via the management route.
So where should our focus lie? How can we help our people as leaders?
To look at answering these questions, Lander Associates brought together 16 top business leaders in recruitment with a passion for leadership including Tony Goodwin from Antal International, David Leyshon from CBS Butler and two visiting professors from the Henley MBA programme. They exchanged their view points on the extensive challenges for leaders in 2011/12 and beyond and shared ideas on potential solutions to successfully resource the next generation of leaders to face those challenges and opportunities.
The resulting White Paper* identified, through this shared knowledge and expertise, the priority challenges that leaders/managers were to face in the coming years.
The Leadership team at Lander Associates revisited those conclusions over time and asked (through extensive surveys) current billing managers and team leaders what new leadership challenges they were now confronting. We discovered that a new approach to leadership training was urgently needed - one which addressed the needs of not only traditional new managers but also those ‘accidental managers'. Whether planned or accidental, what’s crucial is that organisations give the right resources to these first time managers – investing in them now will be absolutely key to engagement and retention strategies for the future.
What became clear was that the training should be accredited so that managers were also rewarded with a qualification – one that was not only relevant to recruitment but which was internationally recognised.
The only chartered body specialising in management and leadership is the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
The CMI firmly believes that bad management is harming UK plc and that it is up to employers to take responsibility and start doing something about it. In fact CMI research has found that:
- Only 1 in 5 of managers are qualified
- 63% have no formal training
- 36% of employers say their managers are not proficient
- 70% of managers have witnessed bullying in their workplaces in the past 3 years
- 30% of managers believe the management style within their organisation is authoritarian
- The top 3 prevailing management styles in the UK are authoritarian, reactive and bureaucratic
By partnering with the CMI to become an Approved Centre we can now deliver an internationally recognised, recruitment specific, leadership qualification gained through a flexible suite of courses delivering real time skills.
One recruitment firm which is already benefitting from the new suite of courses is HR Search Consultancy, Oasis Recruitment. Andy White, Team Leader at Oasis said “I wanted to step up to being a manager but I had experience of both being managed badly and being managed well. I wanted to make sure I had something other than gut feel and theory to guide me. So often courses focus on theory which leaves you empowered for a few days but then it’s all forgotten. These courses are extremely well structured and look at real life scenarios. I’ve done four courses now and really feel as though I’m in a much better place – I’m managing and I’m managing well."
Director Mark Barnicoat agrees: “We wanted to link promotion to real qualifications as well as internal targets - I have sat in as an observer on some of the series and it has made me challenge some of the things I do myself as a leader!”
Laura Drysdale, COO the Change Recruitment Group, commented; 'We started rolling out a bespoke version of the CMI leadership programme with Lander Associates in March this year. We have involved all our existing managers, as well as our next generation of leaders. Not only had this pulled the leadership team together but also helped in bringing them up a level. It has been beneficial to the management team and had a positive impact on the entire Group. She went on to say, 'Innovations and ideas which managers and team leaders have developed together through the training, have been successfully implemented, engaging the whole company. Programmes such as this, especially when specifically designed for the recruitment sector, identify and fast track rising stars.'
Laura added, 'We see the programme continuing to contribute over the long term, through managers building on relationships and developing their profile as leaders throughout the Group.'
Antal International, the global recruitment firm with 100 offices in 32 countries, is making a tailored version of this leadership programme readily accessible to their management teams. An international ‘roadshow’ has already been taken to the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Spain enabling their international ‘rising stars’ to gain the CMI qualification. The programme will roll out across a flexible timeframe of 1 to 2 years, driven by the country MDs, to accommodate speed of growth, market conditions and business demands.
John Palumbo, Country MD for Germany/Netherlands, commented "this is a very, very educational and thought provoking programme. We will be better people for it and there is already an immediate lift here in the office."
No matter where people are based, the leadership challenges are similar for first line managers, with many common to all, such as attracting and successfully onboarding new, top talent and sustaining that all important employee engagement across all teams.
The leadership road show will be moving on to support the management teams in China in the coming months.
Graeme Read MD of Antal International commented "Our business is all about our people and equipping our leaders and the next generation of leaders to develop both personally and professionally. Lander's excellent leadership programme has already given us the edge in many of the markets where we have rolled this project out to. It is giving our global management team the knowledge and skills to really back up our growth plans."
ReThink Recruitment, part of The ReThink Group (an AIM listed recruitment and consulting group based in the UK, Ireland, Dubai and Singapore), is offering a bespoke version of the CMI leadership series to both their current front line managers and the next generation of talent who have a desire to move into leadership roles.
They offer a choice for people attending the programme; to complete the CMI certificate or to just apply the learning gained. 90% of the participants have 'opted in' to the CMI certification.
These ‘rising stars’ have been given the rare opportunity to have a real voice in the company and have influenced strategy and policy across the whole group through their expanded CMI project work, in such areas as employee engagement, induction and onboarding, as well as training and development implementation.
Team leaders and managers who successfully gain the Certificate in First line Management not only develop their skills and improve team performance, they get company wide recognition for their achievement and commitment to personal development.
Andy Lord, Managing Director said "the recruitment industry has been crying out for a more formal approach and to professionalise an industry that, quite correctly, gets some bad press for being frankly amateur in its governance. With a strap line of "Being Different" I wanted that to mean something for ReThink from the very foundations of our business. This leadership programme is helping us to make this difference.
Michael Bennett the Director responsible for Learning & Development at ReThink commented “we are delighted that such a high proportion of our current and future leaders have actively wanted to be part of this development program and to take the formal qualification. We believe this will allow us to attract, develop and retain the next group of leaders as we grow organically and by acquisition. And the project work they are taking on is directly relevant to our company growth plans”.
Recruitment companies that offer leaders the right training and development, either internally or by working with an external training partner will be able to ensure that their managers not only lead by example fulfilling their operational tasks but also, build high performing teams through applying relevant leadership competencies appropriate to their vital front line management role. By constantly building on their existing skills and knowledge over time and implementing the right actions as leaders, they will ensure best leadership practice for their organisations which in turn leads to an engaged workforce and improved business performance and results.
As seen in ONREC magazine
*If you would like a copy of the White Paper please email julia@landerassociates.co.uk or call on 01582 791 838. For more information please visit www.landerleadership.com
Next course: Stepping into First Line Management 16th November 2011 Find out more