How to do more with less

The new way of doing business

Headcount is no longer your measure of success. Everywhere you look - from automation to economic policies - the trend is for smaller workforces doing more.

As a business owner, this should be good news for you. After all, leading a more productive team while having to manage fewer people sounds like the dream.

But there is often a nagging feeling that everyone is having to run faster and faster just to achieve the same output.

We end up envying recruitment leaders of the past who could simply increase headcount whenever they wanted to boost revenue. The maths was simple: if you’ve got 10 billers and you want to increase your revenue by 10%, just add another biller.

Of course the simplicity of nostalgia often clouds the reality. It took time to recruit and train the new biller, and maybe half of them didn’t last long… but this wasn’t enough to stop the drive for headcount growth.

But now we’re in the era of doing more with less, and you’re wondering exactly how you get more when the levers you used to pull don’t work.

“Automate!” echo the cries of advice from LinkedIn and WhatsApp groups. And while the new wave of technology is breathtaking in what it can do, adding a ChatGPT-powered tool to your ever-growing tech stack isn’t going to set your apart from the crowd… because everyone else is doing the same.

And remember, the tech tools that aim to reduce your headcount know their value. Would you bet against a big LinkedIn price hike as they bring in more AI?

So you return to the question of how you can drive more revenue - and ideally profit - without adding heads.

One answer: get paid more for the work you do.

In the good old days, adding a biller to a team of 10 might drive revenue by 10%, but it also added 10% more cost to your business. And when you factor in onboarding, your profits were likely to take a hit whenever you expanded the business.

Now consider what you charge your clients. If you can get them to pay you 10% more for the work you do now, you’ve increased your revenue by 10%. But because you don’t have to pay an extra salary, your profits have gone up.

Whenever I meet a recruitment leader, I ask them whether they think they could be charging their clients more than they currently do. The answer is almost always, yes. Which means you almost certainly have the opportunity to get higher revenue - and greater profit - without adding more billers to your team.

In other words, doing more with less.

The last 12 months have been a real-life test of whether recruiters can charge more even in a challenging market. For the agencies I’ve worked with, they’ve been able to increase their fees by 10% and more even when their job flow decreased. I know many other agencies will have dropped their rates in that time, so the value of a good pricing strategy is higher than ever.

If you want to hear how I can help you do more with less, simply reply to this email and I’ll explain more.

Jon

P.S. I’ve been through a fair amount of tech implementation in my time. It’s certainly worth doing, but I can’t say it’s always been the most fun change to make.

Now I can’t do anything to make your automation projects more interesting, but I can help you develop your pricing strategy in a way that feels engaging, valuable and gives your consultants greater pride in the work you do.

If you want to hear how I can help you do more with less, simply reply to this email and I’ll explain more.