School is back in session, and the thoughts of school supplies and report cards are back on the minds of students and parents alike. “Back in the day” when I was growing up, besides walking to school 20 miles, in the snow, uphill (both ways) while fighting lions, report cards were a big part of my life. They kept me motivated, let me know if I was on track, and when my grade fell, especially if it was lower than my siblings, I worked hard to bring it up. While in today’s culture, we tend to be a little more sensitive to each others’ feelings, when we sometimes need a report card, even as adults, to tell us where we are doing well, where we need to improve, or what things we can do to be even better.
As a leader, we might feel like we are killing it in our industry or our role. When in reality, our clients, vendors, or our team members may have a different view. On the opposite end of the spectrum, being extra-hard on ourselves is almost ‘modus operandi’ for most of us. So how do we tell when that voice in our head is lying or correct?
Outside perspective goes a long way to help solve the problem. But who should you ask to gain the right perspective? We might ask our friends, but the challenge there is we tend to hang out with people like ourselves, and they tend to agree with our views. A spouse or life partner is a great sounding board, but what about people from work? From time to time, we can all use a report card from those we work with, those we serve, and those who serve us. WHAT? A report card from a vendor? Yes, I often ask my vendors how I am doing as their partners. If you have good vendors, they should feel more like partners than vendors, and they will give you some valuable feedback. They may even share their views on how you are doing in the industry and how you might improve. If your vendor only calls you to sell you something new, beware. They may not have your best interest at heart.
So, what are we doing at SmartSearch to support this? You guessed it, the Report Card. Our clients will soon be receiving a monthly report card, but it is not your typical report card. It will start by sharing how many issues you have reported, how many were resolved, and what is pending. We do this because we want you to get the greatest return on your investment so you can maximize your recruiting efforts. Better recruiting leads to better business results.
We will also provide you with valuable information on how well you are using the platform. i.e., Forget to disposition the candidates properly? We will let you know. Resume data a little stale? We will even give you feedback on the quality of your data. Closing all those jobs, or do you have jobs that are 10-years old still on your career site? We will provide data on how long your jobs have been posted on your career site.
We will give you insight into how you are doing compared to others in your industry, providing you with benchmarks to measure against or work towards. It can let you know if the number of emails you send to candidates is lower than the average emails sent per month or that you are doing fewer social media job posts than others.
You will not be the only one receiving a grade. We will also be providing our clients with a link to grade us and let us know how we are serving you and our user base, and we welcome the feedback.
Honest feedback is one way we help our clients, and we encourage you to seek it out from not only your customers but also your partners and employees. When we embrace feedback from all areas, growth is bound to happen.
Thanks for listening, and don’t let your dog eat your homework.
All the best,
LJ Morris
President & CTO
SmartSearch
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