HEY LeBRON, CONSULTANTS ARE SUPER ATHLETES TOO!
The subject of this post is not about LeBron James, ok!
There is a great article written by Dr. John Sullivan on the recruitment of LeBron James. You can read the article here!
I will confess right now that I am simply trying to grab your attention by taking advantage of the hype so that you can focus on something that has application to you!
The National unemployment rate is still hovering close to 10%. Typically during a period of high unemployment the supply of quality job opportunities decrease while the supply of available suitable job applicants increases. With those statistics combined with technology, one can easily assume that recruiting top talent should be “so easy even a caveman could do it”.
Why? Because resumes can be easily found on the Internet! In fact, job openings advertised on a major job board such as careerbuilder.com will generate between 150 and 300 resumes per job. This is certainly a good return on investment in recruitment spend for the typical HR staffing leaders; however this is not the case in the employee benefits consulting Industry.
The employee benefits consulting Industry is a very unique one indeed! It consists of mostly talented individuals from some of the finest educational institutions in the country. These individuals act as consultants or subject matter experts in various disciplines of employee benefits. Quite frankly, they are intellectual capital; the signatures of the well known business phrase “our employees are our biggest asset”.
From a business model perspective, they function as trusted advisors to some of the largest employers in the country, with objectives of helping those employers maximize revenue, reduce cost and operate more efficiently through best practice human capital strategies, otherwise known as employees.
It gets even better. Unlike most employees they are not on the expense side of the balance sheet. Instead, they generate their own salaries through fees charged to clients that are billed at an hourly rate. The hourly rates charged are significantly higher than the amount they are paid in annual salary when calculated as hourly.
The top consultants in the game perform in a similar fashion to professional athletes; because this is an Industry where the survival of an organization depends strongly on capturing a bigger share of the market. And that begins with being able to weaken your competitors by successfully recruiting away their best players.
If you are consultant in that Industry, here is something you should really consider:
• Can your organization successfully win more business without having strong players at every position?
• How will their most valuable asset, “YOU” get recruited? If so, do you have to apply on-line like most that are on the expense side of the balance sheet?
Fundamental principals of building a consulting practice involve hiring the talent that is capable of growing your business. Unfortunately, top talent won’t apply on-line for your job; top talent must be recruited.
Being recruited is the fastest path in advancing your career especially in tough economic times. And it is certainly more effective than standing among the unqualified and unemployed hoping to be discovered.
Hey! why aren’t consultants being recruited like LeBron?
