How Can We Safely Expand Our Recruitment Business Without Increasing Headcount?

We have been in recruitment for over 5 years, catering to Middle Management and Top Management requirements with a team of 3 recruiters. We believe in providing quality service in the shortest possible time, and therefore, we don't handle more than 15 clients at a time. Currently, we are looking to expand and would like to know how we can do so rapidly. We are cautious about increasing our headcount immediately due to a previous bad experience where a recruiter ran away with all our clients and a major database of candidates.

We kindly request you to share your valuable inputs. Thank you.

Regards

Expanding Your Company: Strategies and Considerations

When you expand your company, it automatically increases the stress and workload on the current employees. My advice would be to recruit a business development manager and acquire new clients. Then, recruit freshers, train them, and make them sign a contract for 18 months before joining. In the contract, ensure you mention that the information about the clients and candidates should be kept confidential, or else it will lead to criminal charges against them. Most of the freshers would not dare to do something like that; the cost will be less to recruit a fresher. This way, you can expand your company gradually.

Another option is to provide internship opportunities to final-year MBA students who are looking for work experience. You can attract them by offering a stipend of 3,000 or 5,000. Train them for a few weeks, and after the internship, give them an internship certificate. If any interns perform well, you can make a job offer. As the internship will only be for 3 or 6 months, most of the candidates will not abscond.

Best of luck.

Dear Mr. Ramnaresh, thanks for your valuable advice. Just wanted to know if recruiting a business development manager will really bring in more clients, as the client acquisition part is presently being taken over by the 3 recruiters only. Please share your thoughts.

The Role of a Business Development Manager (BDM)

The only responsibility of the BDM is to acquire clients for the company and nothing else. I strongly suggest recruiting a BDM who has a proven track record in the same field with at least 4-6 years of good experience. If this is not economically suitable for your company, then I suggest continuing to use your previous method, i.e., via your recruiters, to acquire new clients. However, hiring a specialist would be a better option.

If no clients are acquired during the probation period of 3 months, simply relieve the candidate, or extend the probation period by another 3 months if you believe the candidate is capable, just to be on the safe side. You will never know until you try.

Preferred Method for BDM Engagement

Being an HR Manager, I would prefer the following method by any BDM:

1.  Contact me by phone, explain the services. If interested, book an appointment and then face-to-face explain the terms and conditions, etc.

2.  If I am not interested, just take my email, send me the company profile which I may use in the future. Follow up after 2 months or so.

Direct walk-ins by BDMs are not recommended by many HR professionals as they are often busy with other tasks and may not be very appealing.

Presently, we are following a mix of the first method where our recruiter calls an HR Manager, explains our services and terms, then sends our details and presentation to their email address. A follow-up is done after a few days. So far, this method has worked well and has brought us good business. There are only a few companies that have insisted on face-to-face meetings, which is why we are concerned about the overheads we would incur for BDMs. Additionally, we operate from a SOHO-type environment which may not be appealing to new joiners.

Considering Freelance BDMs

Is a freelance BDM advisable, maybe on a project basis or based on business volume?

Please guide.

Regards.

Dear Mr. Ramnaresh,

As guided by you, we have started the process of recruiting a Business Development Manager (BDM) for us. If possible, please let us know how we can pitch/contact the HR of companies situated outside our city. I mean, what is the best and most reliable method to do so.

Please guide.

Thank you.