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CHAPTER 8
RECRUITING MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS
SYSTEMS
As we start this chapter on management and
analysis systems, it is appropriate to discuss this
business of management.
Management is not the
same as leadership; it can never take its place.
Management techniques do, however, affect leadership
and vice versa. Both are very necessary skills for the
supervisor to refine.
Management concepts have
evolved dramatically through the years.
Navy
recruiting, as the Navy in general, has been responsive
to these changes in philosophy. The old management
by results focused on numbers only. Recruiters were
tasked with meeting numbers in virtually every
prospecting and processing category. This fostered
many problems.
Now, recruiting supervisors are
tasked with providing quality leadership by working
on the methods and correcting problems through the
systems. We’ll still look at statistics. They are
important business management tools. We’ll be using
those statistics to find indicators of where to start
looking for problems and solutions. Statistics provide
a method to identify symptoms rather than determine
the final diagnosis. Statistics also show evidence of
success. It is just as important to identify success so
that it will continue.
This chapter focuses on
providing leadership by managing and improving our
systems.
PROBLEMS FOSTERED BY USING
NUMERICAL GOALS TO JUDGE
PERFORMANCE
We mentioned the changes in management
philosophy. Let’s take a look at some of the problems
fostered by the old system of judging performance by
the attainment of numerical goals. Avoiding these
pitfalls will make your job easier and your recruiters
more successful.
Some of these problems are
included in the following paragraphs.
SHORT-TERM THINKING
Recruiters aimed only at attaining the numbers
tended to look at the immediate concern rather than
long-range recruiting efforts.
The request for a
presentation to middle school students was declined so
the recruiters could log a few hundred phone attempts.
There was no incentive to participate in activities that
would benefit the recruiting command in years to
come.
MISGUIDED FOCUS
Focus has become a leadership and management
buzz word The problem with focusing so much is
that sometimes we fail to see the whole picture.
Management by results often focused on one category
of numbers that was not being met without seeing the
surrounding reasons.
Misguided focus results in
frustration at all levels.
INTERNAL CONFLICT
When numbers take priority, internal conflict is
likely to result. The team effort gets overlooked and
people are less likely to combine efforts toward a
common goal.
Internal conflict occurs between
superiors and subordinates as well as between peers.
In a business of sales, such as ours, this conflict tends
to destroy attitudes that account for over half of the
circle of success.
FUDGING THE FIGURES
Focusing only on the numbers to judge
performance results in the temptation to fudge on
those figures. “Well, if they want numbers, I’ll give
them numbers,” becomes a common attitude. We end
up with a lot of numbers with no results to show for
them. When this happens, analysis becomes difficult
or even impossible. Supervisors end up pinpointing
the wrong problem
and training efforts are
misdirected. Tempting people to fudge the numbers
just does not make good leadership sense.
GREATER FEAR
Fear is natural when too much emphasis is placed
on the attainment of numbers. Fear results in poor
attitudes and a catch-22 situation ensues. The more
fear, the poorer the results; the poorer the results, the
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