External Factors - The EX Factor

Why is it the leaders of excellent recruitment businesses are continually looking at their competition?

If they are performing well why do they need a reality check?

It’s because they know what happens when despite having a clear company vision how easy it is for the competition to dramatically impact the success of their business.

For them, competition is not just other recruiters in the same market, geographics or even niches within niches.

To become an excellent recruitment business firstly we need to accept competition is the entire landscape of EXTERNAL forces which will dictate whether our thought-out 3 to 5 year plans will either succeed or fail.

Secondly, we need to be realistic about the way we operate and what we’re prepared to take notice of, commit to and invest in.

External Factors - May the Force Be With You

Does it sometimes feel the leaders of successful recruitment businesses can somehow see into the future?

How come they’re ahead of the curve, surviving disasters and know what new services are entering their market?

The good news is this is not a prophetic gift nor have they discovered a secret to success. Instead, they know the importance of;

1. Looking objectively at the external forces which may impact their goals, knowing that if they don’t, failure will be the likely outcome.

2. When analysing the business environment, they have a reality check by interlinking where they are, where they want to be and how these forces could throw them off course if ignored.

3. Continuously revisiting these external forces and accept and commit to the changes and investment needed to not only stay on track but to retain competitive advantage.

What this means is, quite literally asking ourselves what is the environment like in my world? What’s going on? Ensuring we’re looking up and around – not just down.

PESTLE is the most widely used model for this analysis and great leaders not only apply this analysis to a generic business overview, but to each division within the company.

External Factors - Are you Misbehaving?

“Here’s the directory and pick up the phone” sums up the training many top CEO’s received when first starting out in recruitment.

Typically we might have been given a box of index cards, with “prospects” to ring where previous colleagues had written their notes.

So what does this have to do with being the leader of an aspiring recruitment business in 2021?

Amazon is possibly the most cited company as an example of how by paying attention to their own external environment and changing behaviour, they left their competition behind.

Can you imagine the change behaviours they made from selling books online to an organisation with an online shop for consumers globally, who could can buy pretty much anything they want and it’s delivered within 24hrs to your door?

Do you…

· Know your company vision?

· Ask “what’s going on around us”?

· Align your findings of the external environment to your company vision?

· Prepared to change your behaviours accordingly to reach your growth goals?

Be it 1991, 2001 or 2021, leadership teams striving for excellence, continually analyse the external environment, but also and most importantly they are asking the critical question of what they are prepared to do about it?

Do you consider the insights and influence of external factors impacting your recruitment business and the changes in behaviour you need to make to hit that company vision and goal?

A PESTLE analysis is a framework to analyse the key factors; Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental

Some CEO’s in those “warm prospect card” days took notice when the question “are there any technological changes?” was asked.

They grew up having telephone conversations and meetings with clients and candidates. We know that is the best way to build relationships, but in today’s environment consultants use many forms of interaction utilising technology. We’ve had to adjust what we are doing and how we serve and communicate with our respective markets.

The competition is all around you and once you understand the external factors then the advantage is yours. Discover this outward, commercial focus, and then you can implement a plan of behaviour changes to keep your competitive advantage.