Performance Through People

A recruitment business, like many other things in life, is a results game. Goals, objectives and metrics. Some internal, some external. Recruiters strive to achieve results daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

It’s no surprise then they talk a lot about “performance”. How are we doing versus our objectives? Are we down? Up? Achieving? Not achieving? It’s a constant battle.

It can also be consuming, exhausting and incredibly negative. If you’re becoming preoccupied with what you have to achieve, it is very easy to lose sight of why you got into business in the first place.

“We try really hard not to lose sight of our vision. If you prescribe to the work of Simon Sinek, it’s our why,” says Andrew Mears, Director at Solutions Recruitment. “If we can keep being the partner of choice at the heart of what and how we do our business, we think we will continue to succeed.”

Evidence would suggest their strategy is working. In recent years, the business has thrived; growing its headcount to more than 115 people and successfully establishing operational hubs across the UK and US, whilst also continuing to invest in its North East base.

By keeping their vision clear, the business has supported some of the best known brands in the North East region and globally, delivering appointments for clients in more than 20 countries.

“It’s a collective effort,” Andrew reflects. “We are a service business and our people are our USP, they are the ones who bring the vision to life every day. That’s why when we think about performance, it’s not just about capability, its behaviour too”.

In explaining what he means, Andrew refers to the All Blacks rugby team and the book ‘Legacy’ written by James Kerr. In the book, Kerr refers to there being better rugby players in New Zealand who will never pull on that All Blacks jersey, they just don’t have the right behaviours.

He continues: “Our performance as a business has undoubtedly been driven by how we work – our values. The feedback we receive from customers consistently reflects their experience, how it was working with us, and what we are like as a partner. Of course, we get feedback on results, costs and so on, but we’ve seen the focus on those aspects evolve.”

Purchasing decisions are influenced by emotion and not just price or other similar incentives. “Repeat business and customer loyalty are two different things,” says Andrew. “We aspire to achieve the latter wherever we can, only then are we being a true partner.”

Solutions Recruitment’s vision is to be the recruitment partner of choice, based on their core values of knowledge, service, integrity and pride. With their people, they have put their vision and values at the heart of the business and are delivering the performance as a result.