Competencies Of a Recruitment Consultant

Part 1/12 – Planning

Planning

Planning is relevant to everything that a recruiter does. Too many are so busy just ‘getting the job done’ that they don’t see planning as an activity that is essential to their job role.

I myself used to feel guilty if I took myself off to a quiet corner and spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do next week, month, quarter, year. What totally convinced me was that the interviews that took place to determine the key competencies found that 100% of successful consultants interviewed, planned.

Purpose

A recruitment consultant needs to plan in order to create themselves time for sales and service. The overall purpose is to make sure that they meet the needs of the business, their customers and their own goals through their planning.

Questions to determine planning competence

Tell me about the types of planning you carry out in your role:

  1. What period of time do you usually plan for?
  2. What are the keys steps in the planning process?
  3. What activities do you give key priority to?
  4. What do you find most difficult when planning anything?


Tell me about a successful activity or event that you planned recently:

  1. Talk me through the background to it?
  2. How did you approach it?
  3. What were your first steps?
  4. What specifically did you do to ensure its success?
  5. What did you learn about planning as a result of this exercise?


Tell me about some of the longer term planning you have carried out:

  1. What is longer term for you?
  2. What are you usually planning for?
  3. What do you still find challenging about longer term planning?

This is only 1 of 12 competencies that we’re going to cover in our blog posts. We’ll be publishing 1 a week moving forward so make sure to follow us on our social media pages so you can read them as soon as they’re posted, we’ll be sharing them on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.

About the Author

Angela Cripps is a globally experienced trainer, management consultant, executive coach, board advisor, mentor and performance specialist who has been working within the recruitment industry for over 30 years.  

Her aim is to make companies more successful and profitable through the development of their people and processes – with a current focus on APac companies. She has worked with over 150 SMEs throughout the world in 16 different countries and her LinkedIn recommendations are a testament to the impact she can have on a business.