Are KPIs useful to businesses?

12-Nov-2008

Key performance indicators (KPIs) force recruitment companies to sacrifice quality in a desperate bid to achieve financial targets. Having worked for two of the country’s largest high-street agencies, I have personal experience of how this approach invariably destroys good recruiting.

I oversaw the London operation of the last agency I worked for. Senior management bullied us into believing that turnover would increase if we set strict targets for our consultants: 300 canvass calls a week to generate new business; five visits and then 50 speculative calls per candidate registered — all in addition to running busy desks! Consultants, afraid of being singled out for non-achievement, made these calls in a panicked and unprofessional way. They were completely unachievable but these targets were put together in ivory towers. They did little to further develop the business but instead drove good consultants — and eventually myself — away.

As a result, I spent a lot of time researching the structures and cultures of recruitment companies in order to make my next move an informed one. I finally decided to set up a health and social care division for a long-established agency, the Zarak Group. The Zarak Group is an owner-managed recruitment consultancy where the management works with and among their consultants in a service-driven environment, not in ivory towers.

The Zarak Group’s Health and Social Care Division operates in the same way — on a genuine consultancy basis with our clients and candidates. It is refreshing that our consultants are treated like adults and not like robots. We buy in expertise with established consultants who can bring knowledge to the company. We work with our staff to empower them, rather than set unrealistic sweatshop targets. If we believe that a consultant is underperforming then we look at ways of supporting or training them. This doesn’t include forcing them to hit meaningless targets!

I am glad that I left those KPIs behind and to be working in an agency with long-standing relationships based on the quality service we provide.