The importance of set pieces – why recruiters should rethink their approach

In football, set pieces are the secret weapon of a successful team. A team well drilled in set pieces can neutralise the opponent in a defensive dead ball situation, similarly can carve out openings when a game is at a crucial point. Done well this can have a significant impact on results, as seen by England in this world cup so far. Alternately take as a case study, the season Atletico won La Liga, it was achieved despite far less resources than Barcelona or Real. Similarly, in the Premier League, statistically the side being promoted who is most likely to stay up, is the one who is best at set pieces. For this coming season, that would be Cardiff. So what does it take to excel at set pieces? Consider that in most clubs, set pieces training takes up on average 15 minutes per day. So for the side that invests more time, they steal a march on competitors, through investing the energy to practice ahead of time on dead ball situations they can control.

So what does this mean for a recruiter? Out of all the environments you operate in, there are those you can control and those you can’t. Perversely, we innately invest our energy into the arenas that are most uncontrollable, for example a competitive tender for a new PSL, and take for granted the meeting with the client we have worked with for years. What would happen if we did less new competitive PSL tenders and with that time, invested heavily into better understanding the clients we already work well with, to see what else they are doing?

As an extreme example of this, it is has been proven by stock pickers, that every year at least one FTSE 100 stock doubles in valuation. So in the same way, look at your client list and analyse which are the most profitable, find out which are investing for growth and book client service meetings where armed with as much information as you can, your opening gambit is, you want to understand their business as well as you can so you can sell the company to a candidate as well as you can, come the point they have a person they want to make an offer to, who has multiple offers on the table.

Taking the time to do preparation in this way, on an environment you can control, i.e. a client you know, like and already work with, so you can sell that company better to candidates, is likely to be a big difference in a 50/50 situation, and could be the difference between a result and a missed fee.

Vacancy Analytics can help you map out client activity, spotlight areas of growth and highlight trends you should be aware of. For a consultation on how we can help, please contact us.