Starting your own recruitment agency, particularly if you’ve been working for one of the big players, can be a huge (but exciting!) undertaking.
Tasks and functions that were once handled by various other departments, suddenly become all your responsibility.
Luckily there are a few different ways you can find more time in your working day for doing what matters most — winning business and placing candidates!
Review How You Spend Your Time
Before you can start to find more time in your day, you first need to assess where your time goes at the moment.
For the next few weeks keep a track of exactly how you spend your time.
It’s essential that you’re completely honest with yourself. If an hour of your day is spent procrastinating then make a note. Took a few hours over a proposal, longer than you’d initially planned? Then write it down.
Once you have a breakdown of how your week was spent, you’re able to see problem areas that could be causing a blockage in your workflow!
Make a Plan
Start each day with a plan and make it as watertight as you can.
Planning out your day sets your intentions, and allows you to align with the business plan you created when you set up your recruitment agency.
Try and get into the routine of creating your daily plan a day in advance. This allows you to start each day on the right foot with tasks and goals you need to complete.
Add a Value to Each Task
As a recruitment professional and business owner you understand how valuable your time is, but have you ever assessed just how valuable?
Ask yourself, what does each task on your to-do list add to your bottom line?
Giving tasks a rough value allows you to quickly identify tasks to ignore or delay and the ones that need to be actioned immediately. Getting into this mindset can be a powerful way to really see your recruitment agency flourish.
Acknowledge Your Own Working Pattern
Though the standard working day is 9-5, that doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
For many people, they find they’re least productive in the morning then come to life in the afternoon and early evening.
Understanding when you work best is important, as it allows you to plan your tasks accordingly.
There is no point forcing yourself to do the hardest parts of your job when you’re least able to focus.
Remove or Reduce Interruptions
Who or what interrupts your workflow on a daily basis?
Sometimes interruptions can seem like a minor inconvenience in your working day, however they can really interfere with your workflow and break your focus on the task in hand.
Once you’ve thought about the interruptions in your day, your next step needs to be finding a way to reduce or hopefully remove them!
For example, if your interruptions mostly come from phone calls, then consider the benefits of a call answering service.
If your interruptions are a result of the realities of working from home, then it could be time to look into co-working space or renting a small office.
Only Handle Things Once
Unless an email requires thinking time or further investigation, then reply or delete it then move on to the next task.
Lingering over tasks or saving small things to do later can actually be counterproductive as it requires you to handle it more than once.
It doesn’t just apply to emails either, put a note on your monitor to remind you to use this logic with all tasks for a few days and see if you create any extra time!
Manage Your Procrastination
We all procrastinate, it’s human nature, however it can seriously impact on our productivity.
If you’re struggling to find more time in your working day, then finding solutions for managing your productivity can be a good idea.
Productivity boosting tips include doing the most difficult tasks first and setting yourself short deadlines that require a quick boost of energy as opposed to a sustained level of concentration.
Take On Your First Employee
This is a big step and can be daunting when you’ve just started out.
However if you’ve analysed how your time is being spent, and you’ve grouped tasks into certain areas, you might identify a need that can help your business grow.
For example, if you’re noticing that you’re spending a lot of time on administrative tasks, you might decide to hire an Admin Assistant to help keep everything in order.
Outsource Your Back Office Functions
If you’re not yet ready to hire an employee, a great way to boost your productivity can be to outsource your back office functions.
This can include payroll management and processing, invoicing and workforce management, all tasks that can seriously free up your time to grow your business.
Here at New Millennia we offer a bespoke solution, ensuring that your recruitment back office solution covers everything you need.
We have years of experience working with both startup and established SME agencies and we’d love to help you free up more time in your working day.
To find out more about the service, click here.
Rest and Refresh
Resting might seem like strange advice when you’re looking to find more time in your working day, however getting a great night’s sleep has been shown to improve your performance at work.
Sleeping well and making time in your schedule to take a break can give you the refresh you need to tackle those more difficult tasks.
Also often when you have less time you’re more productive! And what better way to spend your time than having a little 5 minute break!
