A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the "Placement Dance" as per the DVD series from Recruitment Juice. I guess the idea of something the celebrates a placement is that it's self congratulationary, personally motivational and also motivates the team to work as hard (or harder) than you.
I think I said that the company where I used to work had a bell which was rang when a placement was made. What I didn't mention was that year's later, in a particularly lean period, a colleague created "the motivator" (to be said in the style of a voiceover man!). It was based on The Totaliser (originally created by Blue Peter - check out this image). He spent the weekend on it; sawing wood to create a corporate colours box, cutting the holes for the targets to be displayed in, printing figures onto OHP paper and then wiring a lightbuld into the base. It looked great (honestly!) and it was with great pride that we slowly lifted the panel to reveal lit up figures as we hit the various targets on the way to the BIG ONE!
Again, enough reminiscing - it was motivational.
I think nowadays that type of thing would be seen as naff, possibly insulting to the team and definitely cheesy.
But, in your face things like this can work as motivational tools.
For example... I recently had coffee with Tony Dandridge who runs SABER. They are a company who has created an analytical based system for recruitment companies for "powering of profitable performance". The basic idea is that the management get accurate, relevant and real-time performance information and through various graphical representations the recruitment salesforce know how they are doing in relation to their peers; teams know how they stand against each other (and/or against comparative branches).
As business activities become "transparent" performance achievements can be shared and the success celebrated.
The system can include long term motivational schemes, short term competitions, really whatever you find motivates your team best. .
I think it sounds great. It's only going to work for sales driven recruitment teams - where you need to know the figures for individuals or teams and can motivate them against targets and each other, and whilst Tony spoke of around 70 clients who are using Saber to generate internal competition, I know of at least one executive search firm who use Saber to provides a global motivational link for the company.
As well as the whole package they are offering the most motivational and inspirational part of the solution as a kind of taster. This is the live KPI management bit – screens on walls, manager tools to ensure live that KPI’s are being achieved, consultant’s personal KPI dashboard etc). The cost of this is £7000 (which for many companies will be less than the fees of a single placement).
Tony gave me some great figures when we met - including a number of clients who have increased sales performance in excess of 40%!
If you want more information just give Tony a call on 07912 881467 or email him at tony.dandridge@saberanalytics.com, Feel free to tell him I sent you! (Alternatively, Saber’s new website will be available in a few days at www.saberanalytics.com, the old website is available and does contain a wealth of information)
Another great post from Louise -thank you! This tool from Saber is simply brilliant. Years ago as a manager with 25 people reporting to me it would take me a month of sundays to compile figures for monthly summaries
/forecast meetings. the information was often wrong and out of date as soon as i had it written up on my presentation. I would have bitten your arm off for this tool. I am a big fan of Saber and recommend it to my clients who need accurate realtime figures and analsis and want to make individual performance / results public as a motivational tool.
Posted by: Roy Ripper | 16 July 2010 at 04:54 PM