Working Your Core: Make your Talent Business Fitter.

A number of months ago I started a personal transformation programme (A12 programme for anyone interested.. its bloody fantastic) – more to follow in later blogs (with possible pictures.. I know … be still your beating heart :)) – but essentially a focus on becoming leaner, fitter and examining just how far I can push this 42 year old shell of what used to constitute a fairly fit young man. At the same time we have decided to do the same with the business. It’s a little younger to be fair so we expect a more limber response to the change inputs and the ability to ‘bulk up’ quickly.

As we have grown the business over the last two years we have had to do certain things faster than we would have liked – the focus was on building strong, lasting and entrenched client relationships which began to examine recruitment and talent in a wholly different way – more consultative, less transactional, more facilitative in how we solve more than just immediate hiring needs. This ‘steroid’ enhanced focus on clients has delivered some simply superb results – but a bit like how I used to train – you did the same 5-6 exercises you liked (the same ones you have been doing for the last 20 years), and you knew would deliver some solid results – but for long term change and to strengthen the foundations of our business, the reason for being, our soul had to be developed further.

As a consequence at our recent staff day we launched our Core Values – I have never been a fan of organisational values unless they actually come from the ‘core’ and they actually add ‘value’ to the business. Seems like a simple statement but they seldom appear to add much to the actual customer experience and few if any staff can actually quote them with any modicum of confidence.

In our case we wanted something simple yet clear that provided an unequivocal statement around our market position, our unique offering and how we want our teams to represent themselves and the business. Our answer was PILLAR – strength, resilience and the support of each other came as a bonus:

• P – Passion: Don’t settle for ordinary, average, mediocre; Approach every challenge with energy and determination.
• I – Innovation: Find new ideas and approaches to please our clients; Become an expert in your talent vertical, stay ahead of the field; strive for creativity
• L – Likeability: Why are more people in ‘recruitment’ not more likeable. We must have more bitter people per head than any other sector. Be nice, try and get on; We are not saving lives.. Usually.
• L – Loyalty: Good old-fashioned loyalty – both to clients and each other – it’s the distance juice, the long game. Over 50% of our clients come from 20-year-old relationships and networks.
• A – Amplify: As one of the smaller talent players we have to amplify what we do at every opportunity. We have 17 staff – lets shout about what we do and how we do it – because it’s bloody good.
• R – Relentless: Connected Talent will succeed because we recruit people who are absolutely relentless. We will outlast and ‘out-try’ every other talent and recruitment firm on the planet. We have stamina – and we are getting stronger every day.

So there you go. Now I know some of you out there will find all of this just a ‘little’ corny – but try some PILLAR in your life – you might just start to look and feel a bit better – you might even transform into a muscular butterfly. 🙂