What type of L&D function does your business need?
Recruitment can often be seen as an as industry where one approach works for all and where everyone works in the same way, however this couldn’t be further from the truth, and it transcends into the L&D professionals and teams that you will need to make your approach to recruitment successful and to help your business grow.
These nuances across businesses can be culture, business goals, or even just the values that you represent and the outside view you want people to have of your business.
From speaking with hundreds of recruitment leaders, here’s 3 different types of L&D I have seen across the industry that might open your eyes to what your business needs from L&D.
The Academy Hiring Model
This model is likely the most common that you’ll see and but also the most common misconception for what an L&D Department does within your business.This setup is one where a business looks to consistently hire in junior talent and grow from the ground up, opting to train talent in its own ways of working rather than bringing in experienced talent that may operate in slightly different ways compared to your current business.
It requires someone from an L&D perspective who can design, create and deliver programmes surrounding the core competencies of recruitment (often referred to as ‘Recruitment 101’). It focuses on that initial6–12-month journey for a consultant to get them setup for success and then allows managers of teams/divisions to take on further development needs after this period. This usually hosts a strong classroom training structure initially, with longer term desk and 121 coaching coming into play to correct and develop certain areas.
While this model is usually highly successful at helping businesses to implement their values and ways of working form day 1, it also relies on a solid Talent Acquisition plan to hire the right type of person when it comes to their motivations and culture fit.
The Sales Floor Coach
This model is one where businesses have an L&D professional who is extremely motivating, and a driving force for consultants and leaders to take advice and notes from at any time whilst on a sales floor.
It’s often seen more commonly in fast paced industries or contract focused markets, where time is of the essence and having that figure in the room at sat at desks with consultants can help to drive quick wins at the desk, while spotting development themes across the floor for which they can build and deliver training programmes to help mitigate and improve performance across.
This L&D person will often be seen as a crucial part of the SLT, allowing them to understand the goals and desires of the business from the top down, and therefore enabling them to put this into practice when working with consultants 121 day in day out.
The Process Expert
A lot of recruitment businesses will find that they are actually performing really well from a sales perspective and they may feel that they don’t need anything from a typical L&D department. However what comes with good sales success, usually comes with a lack of organisation and a messy CRM/tech stack (we all know admin is a recruiters least favourite task).
A process/operations focused L&D expert could help clean things up, get everyone working in one direction and also help find that extra 10% of revenue, whether it be from an organised talent pool allowing quicker access to candidates, or a solid BD target list meaning better consistency when it comes to client communication.
These are just 3 different approaches I have come across when hiring for recruitment agencies, but each of these models have nuances that allow businesses to use L&D teams to make them more successful and ultimately, more profitable.Every business has a different need and even those early in their journey could benefit from L&D, yet they just don’t know how or have only assumed L&D is a one-way street for training rookie recruiters.
If you’re interested in learning more about how your business compares to other agencies we have helped support in finding the right L&D person for them, drop me a message on LinkedIn or reach out on my details below.
