Question:  Mike, I just listened to one of your seminars where you talked about recruiting metrics and the interview to placement ratio. With a $300k target billing target the expected monthly first interview total is about 8. Did you mean the first time interview? If there are multiple interviews going on with one submittal, it wouldn’t count after the first interview? Am I on the same page with you? Andy, New Jersey

Coach Mike:  You are on exactly the same page with me, Andy. The example you are talking about is for $300k in revenue. I did a quick math on an average fee of $25,000 meaning you would need twelve placements, 12 x 25k is $300k. I just picked a number out of my head that is probably close for an industry average for eight first time interviews, whether by phone or face to face interviews, to a placement.

If you submit over five recruited candidates, that is five submittals. You talk to the hiring manager and you say, “Here is why I think you should interview Candidate A, Candidate B, Candidate C,” all the way down through E and they agree. They interview four. So, that was five submittals.

You arrange the interviews; the interviews actually take place, whether on the phone or face to face. That is four first time interviews and then they bring three of those people back for two more interviews, I am not counting any of that. Some people count second interview to placement ratio. It is not a bad ratio. I just found it replicates first time interview to placement ratio, just on a smaller basis. The more we ask you to track the fewer recruiting metrics you pay attention to.

Since we have more control as the recruiter over first time interviews and we can see the primary recruiting metric to indicate a placement is also first time interviews it is all we need to track.