Recruiters frequently ask me “why am I not successful?” and I tell them this career path
is about many process driven activities, it is about passion, planning,
perseverance and a lot of dedication to beginning with the end in mind. What it is not is 9-5. While trying to convey
this to one recruiter we mapped his day out and we found some scary practices
which I have seen duplicated in the past by so many others. So I had an
epiphany and I thought I would share some thoughts with you. I have been a recruiter and I have supervised
recruiters and I have seen the things that cause many recruiters and sales
people to be unsuccessful.
There are approximately
260 working days in a year and approximately 22 working days in the average
month. Yes, 12x22=264 but the difference is a holiday here and
there. OK, now, let’s look at working days lost over a period of a year.
1.
Two
weeks’ vacation is 10 days lost.
2.
Three
personal days is 3 days lost
3.
Average
sick days = 6 days a year.
4.
15
minute break in morning and afternoon is 16.25 days lost.
5.
For
some of you, ….. 6-8 breaks ( i.e.: smoking, wandering) a day this is
over 60 days lost
6.
One
30 minute errand a week is 3.25 days lost.
7.
15
minutes before lunch and 15 minutes after lunch (whether you leave the office
or not) is 16.25 days lost.
8.
Family
emergencies and special events average 6 days a year.
9.
15
minutes late to work once a week is 1.62 working days.
10. Personal calls,
business and general ineffectiveness of 30 minutes a day is 16.25 days gone.
11. First 30 minutes of
the day in hellos, coffee and office gossip is 16.25 days lost.
If
we add up these times, it amounts to 94.87 days to 154.87 days lost a year
because of these habits. So if we subtract 94.87 days form 260 we have
roughly 165 days left. Divide that by 22 and there are only 7.5 months
that we even have available for work. And if you are in the group that takes
6-8 breaks daily you only have 105 days to sell out of a year or divide that by
22 and you only have 4.77 months to sell OUT OF A YEAR
Now,
if we are ineffective during that 7.5 months (unenthusiastic presentations, no
daily plans, not selling hard, calling dial-a-prayer) then we can see that many
of us are producing our year’s volume in less than four months’ time.
WOW,
can you believe these numbers? I could not until I did the math.
Some
of us do not exhibit all the traits listed and some of us have even more.
The idea is to understand the compounding effect that any these habits have on
our yearly performance.
Now
let’s do some simple math, with simple numbers….. Let’s say you are producing
10k monthly and you do that with the dramatic example the 6-8 break person @
4.77 months worked:
Today
with current habits in one year you are averaging 10K monthly only REALLY
working 5 months out of the year, producing $120,000. You would have an
addition 6-7 months of production you could add to your production/income
equaling an additional $70,000 in production/increase. At
40%commission that’s an extra $28,000 in your wallet.
If
you are a headhunter, you average 15K monthly over the course of a year with
the non-productive behaviors under the above math or scenario in 5 months
producing $180,000 but with extra focus you gain an extra $105,000 in
production and your income goes up another $42,000 at a 40% commission.
So
what do you think… no matter you can see we all waste some daily valuable time
and effort, can we reduce this… heck yes!
