Building a Balanced Metrics Portfolio

As a staffing organization grows, management relies on metrics to provide the visibility necessary to ensure the company is staying on the right track.  How effectively an organization develops these metrics has a direct impact on critical management decisions, and thereby, on company performance in both the short and long term.  Because the staffing industry relies on individual performance, most staffing companies have a system of metrics in place.  However, having an incomplete portfolio of metrics can undermine growth since it can misdirect management on solving the wrong problems which can further undermine performance. The metrics we use act as the lens in which we view the business, so it’s important to ask ourselves does the lens we use accurately represent reality?  Too often the answer is no. Of all the assessments I have done there is always one common theme, the problems I am asked to evaluate are often not the key issues that need to be addressed.  These disconnects between perceived and real problems stem from either a lack of correct metrics or inaccurate interpretation of what the metrics are saying.  Common sources of a poor metrics portfolio include: Not Aligning Metrics to the Company Strategy:  Many companies … Read More

In Case You Missed It: Metrics that Matter

A couple months ago I was given the opportunity to present on metrics at the SIA conference in Miami.  I have had several requests for the presentation, so it is now available on the website.  You can listen to the presentation or view in pdf format here. Some of the topics covered in the Metrics that Matter presentation are: The role of metrics in managing a high performance organization The different types of metrics that provide a properly balanced perspective The role of company strategy in effectively defining your metrics You can also view two TechServe Alliance webinars on our website as well. Strategy Simplified : Understanding strategy and its role in building an exceptional staffing organization. This presentation is tailored to the executive who must define and implement the company’s long term growth strategy. Drivers of a Successful Sales Organization : Building and managing a strong sales organization includes mastering these drivers. This presentation is a must for executives and line level sales managers Upcoming: For IT staffing companies I also encourage you to sign up for the SIA webinar “Making IT Solutions Work for your IT Staffing Firm” on May 24, 2011. I will be presenting the key success factors to consider … Read More

Relationships Still Rule, But…..

Back in the early 90s when I entered this business, I was exposed to a simple yet accurate description of the staffing industry by Al Dubuc of Oz Enterprises- “People selling people to people”.  The crux of that definition was that this business runs on the strengths of one-on-one relationships with clients and consultants. However, as clients have changed how they purchase staffing services and candidates have change how they look for jobs, the business has become more complex. While the ability to build long lasting trusting relationships is still critical to a staffing company’s success, other critical factors have crept in over the last decade and altered the landscape of how we need to view and manage this rapidly changing business. Developing Internal Talent:  Companies are frustrated by the inability to hire qualified sales and recruiting talent.  Relying on hiring experienced and qualified talent that are willing to leave their current position has become exceedingly difficult for a variety of reasons.  The alternative is to hire less experienced people and train them.  However, most companies are ill prepared to hire and develop inexperienced talent, but you don’t have to look far to see the return on such an approach. … Read More

Letterman’s Legacy

Recently, I stumbled across some articles that made some interesting claims including the “The ten dumbest management trends” and “The ten worst business ideas ever”.  It makes me want to write an article titled “The top ten management articles that make controversial overgeneralizations to drive web traffic”.  I understand why people structure their articles around lists, and if you want readership, then it pays to be as dramatic as possible.  Drama is entertaining.  Also, it certainly sets the expectations that the article is going to be relatively short and what manager wouldn’t want to know the top ten of anything? People love lists.  You see them everywhere on the internet from major news organizations to everyday blogs.  Lists suggest both a level of research and authority.  Initially, many lists were around interesting facts or well researched theory.  Lists are easy to digest, make for good trivia and provide a level of entertainment.  Lists can also provide important structure around management issues that can be difficult to define.  My upcoming webinar incorporates “Five Sales Drivers” is one example of that technique. However, reading these lists on management practices gives me cause for concern.  Lists that make sweeping generalizations are more about … Read More

The End of Management

A couple weeks ago I was browsing through the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal and stumbled on an article titled “The End of Management”.     Contrary to what it suggests, the point of the article is not to rid companies of management, but to challenge the perception of the role of management as it faces unprecedented change.  One only has to look at the hyper-accelerated changes in the marketplace to realize that hierarchal or bureaucratic management approaches are outdated and in many cases are harmful to a company’s ability to adapt.  This dynamic is captured in the following paragraph discussing creative destruction: “Yet in today’s world, gale-like market forces—rapid globalization, accelerating innovation, relentless competition—have intensified what economist Joseph Schumpeter called the forces of “creative destruction.” Decades-old institutions like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns now can disappear overnight, while new ones like Google and Twitter can spring up from nowhere. A popular video circulating the Internet captures the geometric nature of these trends, noting that it took radio 38 years and television 13 years to reach audiences of 50 million people, while it took the Internet only four years, the iPod three years and Facebook two years to do … Read More

Jack’s Big Aha!

It’s never a bad idea to look at strategic principles through the lens of proven business leaders such as Jack Welch. Jack started at GE as a chemical engineer in 1960 and by 1980 he was promoted to CEO where he proceeded to grow the company from $26B to $130B with a market value of $410B. To learn more about Jack’s story, feel free to read more detail of his accomplishments here. In his book Winning Jack outlines three key success factors when crafting company strategy: Come up with a “big aha” for your business- a broad idea that’s smart, realistic, and able to deliver a sustainable competitive       advantage. Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the “big aha” forward. Relentlessly seek out best practices to achieve your “big aha” from inside and outside your company then adapt them, and continually improve them. The “big aha” is the focal point of a company strategy, and every company regardless of size, benefits from a clear understanding of how they compete in the marketplace. However, company’s often think their “big aha” has to be a transformational strategy that radically changes how business is conducted giving them an overwhelming competitive … Read More

What Drives Your Sales Culture?

In the last blog article, I discussed how the Global Workforce Study on workforce culture reported the highest level of employee dissatisfaction in the study’s 23 year history. Employee dissatisfaction can be especially damaging to a company’s sales culture, threatening client relationships and overall company growth. There are many companies that have compelling products and services and good people to sell them, but have a weak culture that undermines performance. Understanding your sales culture is required in order to determine what changes are needed to make a team more effective. The first step is to determine the drivers of a company sales culture, and the threats to its effectiveness. What is Culture? Before we dive too far into the drivers of a sales culture it’s important to understand what culture is and how it impacts team productivity. Company culture can be described as a set of unwritten rules that determine employee behavior and decision making. Culture determines what is appropriate and inappropriate for interactions between employees, their managers, and clients. Measuring the impact of an effective culture is very difficult, but anyone who has witnessed both high performance and low performance organizations understands its impact on company effectiveness. Internal Drivers … Read More

The BP Spill: A Consequence of Bad Strategy

“A company can’t prioritize everything, and while BP was prioritizing PR and acquisitions, it wasn’t prioritizing operations.” Holman Jenkins, WSJ A preventable catastrophe is unfolding along our Gulf shores and much of the region is going to suffer for years.  Who’s to blame? The easier question may be who isn’t to blame. However, one thing is clear; a combination of bad politics, policy, and corporate leadership can claim a significant portion of the responsibility. My concern focuses on corporate leadership, and their role in allowing such a massive operational failure. The Weekly Standard has an excellent article titled “Beyond Pathetic”.  The Standard is a conservative magazine so be prepared for jolts of politics throughout the article.  However, from a business perspective the article is a fascinating study on poor executive leadership and how its failure to prioritize operations into the company strategy has led to an unmitigated disaster. Much of this is from Oberon Houston’s perspective.  He was an engineer who resigned from BP in early 2004 for reasons summarized below. “In short, Houston no longer trusted the company to do the right thing. As someone who grew up idolizing the company, he came to the reluctant conclusion that BP itself … Read More

Are You Selling to the Right Accounts?

An effective sales strategy starts with well defined segmentation of your current and target accounts.  However, many companies struggle with defining the right criteria to build an effective account pipeline, which then significantly reduces the productivity of their entire sales process.    This post will discuss three examples of how to qualify the accounts you decide to pursue; the existence of vendor programs, the match with delivery capabilities, and account productivity. Vendor Programs Most fortune 500 buyers have implemented some type of formalized vendor program. The key considerations in pursuing programs are the strength of relationships a staffing company has with corporate decision makers, along with any differentiators a company can illustrate to the account such as industry vertical expertise, diversity status, or technology expertise.   If your organization can manage long term corporate relationships and/or can provide a unique differentiator then pursuing large vendor programs could prove to be fruitful. Selling outside of vendor programs either means avoiding companies that have them or providing services that can capture spend outside of the program.  To avoid vendor programs completely translates to an aggressive prospecting strategy that target mid market companies and buyers that have SoW or some other mechanism to bring in … Read More

Eliminate Waste: How Staffing Firms Can Deliver More Efficiently

Do you know who your most profitable clients are, and do you respond to their needs accordingly? Are you paying for work that has little to no chance of providing revenue? How firms manage and deliver against job orders significantly impacts it’s competitiveness and bottom line. Studies from Lean Six Sigma consultancies estimate services firms who do not actively manage against waste  are wasting up to 50% of their costs. With the latest downturn, the percentage of waste  may go down temporarily as companies focus on productivity. However, as the economy recovers, waste will rear its ugly head if its root causes are not addressed. So what are the things that staffing companies need to look out for to ensure they are maximizing the speed and efficiency within their delivery organization? Effective Account Management The biggest factor to successful delivery for a client is effective account management that influences the clients buying cycle.  There are many sales people that do this naturally, however formalizing account management within your organization can help ensure your entire team is managing their accounts effectively. The impact on waste by effective account management can be significant as measured by submittal to hire ratios. It is … Read More