Time management for a Recruitment consultant
Normal daily routine often requires the recruitment consultant to be keeping his eye on a number of different processes all at the same time. And whilst these processes will all be centred on the recruitment of people to fill jobs, in the normal run of events these processes will all be at different stages and proceeding at different speeds. Like the entertainer with his spinning plates, there is always the danger that a process neglected for just a little too long may deteriorate or even collapse irretrievably. When this happens to the recruitment consultant both the quality and the quantity of his results will go down hill. From a past life, as a sales manager, I recollect on occasions hearing members of my teams observing that they were so busy that there was no time left to plan. As a manager I would often have to respond by advising them to beware of trying to run ever faster and faster without looking where they were going! The fact is that in sales, and maybe even more so in recruitment, it is essential to spend some time just thinking about objectives, and strategies, if you are to produce good quality and quantity results. Consider the following analogy. Suppose you want to make a journey from Land's End to John O Groats. How stupid would it be to just get into your car and drive as fast as possible, without first checking on a map to decide on the best route. Not only that, how stupid would it be to continue all day driving as fast as possible without ever stopping for refreshment and to reassess the situation. It would be to positively invite accidents, not to mention speeding tickets! The fact is that this is a very reasonable analogy. For a recruitment consultant to frantically work all day isn't likely to be the best way to get results. So here are my top prescriptions for effective time management. Start the day by reviewing the tasks and targets ahead, and planning how best to achieve them. Rather like doing the map reading bit before setting out on a journey Choose your order of activities according to their amount that they will contribute to your overall task & targets ... give priority to the ones that contribute most Have regular breaks for coffee, and maybe some fresh air. Use these times to reassess progress and priorities Spend a little time reviewing progress, and planning for tomorrow, at the end of the working day. Then forget it until tomorrow and come back refreshed ... don't take it home with you. Encourage yourself and monitor your progress by keeping a written list of tasks that you can tick-off as they are completed.
Good luck.
About the Author: John Bult runs 7 jobs boards for recruitment consultants in the UK
More articles by john@ukcareers.co.uk
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