‘The Heck with Value Add . . . We Deliver!’

How many times in the last five years have you heard someone use the term “value add?”  Too numerous to count?  Perhaps.

On a daily basis, I receive calls and emails from owners, managers, and producers who, faced with increased challenges in their marketplace, are looking for an advantage, an edge over the competition.  They are trying to come up with a “value add” that will make them the #1 option when their clients have a need.

The concept of “value add,” providing something of value that goes above and beyond what is expected, certainly has merit.  However, in many recruiting and staffing firms, the search for “value add” has distorted their view of reality.

Fact be known, and it should be known, most companies that are serviced by recruiting and staffing firms would trade “value add” for “just deliver what you promise.”

For most companies in this high-demand marketplace, good people are difficult to find, hard to attract, and many times even harder to retain.  “Value add” has little relevance for them if you cannot deliver good people, on time, every time.

Consider the three things to which your clients attach the MOST value.

First, and most importantly, they attach the highest value to your ability to identify, approach, attract, and deliver qualified employees for their organization.

Second, once the individuals you have delivered have been hired or assigned, they must perform the essential job functions at or above the criteria that define success for the position.

Third, if you have delivered the proper employees to their organization, your clients should be able to retain them for an extended period of time.

For your clients, these should be more than factors, they should be expectations.

As management guru Peter Drucker has stated:

“The most important decisions an executive (manager, supervisor) makes are decisions about people because those decisions will ultimately determine the performance capacity of the organization.”

Of these “decisions about people,” the most important one is the hiring decision.  Depending upon which survey or expert you rely, success in management is 70% to 90% the result of hiring the right people.

If the right people are hired, they will perform well in the position since they are matched properly to the company and the job.  Also, the likelihood of a long-term employment relationship dramatically increases.

Therefore, if you can consistently enhance your clients’ ability to make good hiring decisions, you can say, “the heck with value add, we deliver.”  However, in order to “deliver,” you must do MORE than just match candidate qualifications to client selection criteria.

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Terry Petra, a guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog, is one of the recruiting industry’s leading trainers and business consultants.  A Certified Personnel Consultant since 1975 and a Certified International Personnel Consultant since 1989, Petra has extensive experience as a producer, manager, and trainer in all areas of professional search, including retainer, contingency, and contract, as well as clerical/office support and temporary.  For more information about his services, visit his website or call 651.738.8561.