It is a truism that recruitment is simple but not easy. Sophie’s book helps to cut through the clutter and make it that little bit easier. With relevant examples, easy to follow checklists and well thought out arguments, “Secrets to Running A Lucrative Temp Desk” is an awesome tool for both those new to recruitment and those who are old recruitment dinosaurs, like myself. The focus of the book is temp recruitment, but we use it as a training tool for contract and permanent recruitment as well, as many of Sophie’s lessons are transferable across all types of recruitment. Sophie’s book is part ‘How to’ guide, part motivational pep-talk and part manifesto for a better, more ethical recruitment industry. I genuinely think it is an essential read for any recruiter.

I couldn’t recommend Sophie’s book more. As an inexperienced recruitment consultant over ten years ago, I leant on Sophie’s guidance and advice shared in this book to develop the traits of a high performing consultant. Fast forward to my role now as a business owner and I ensure that all of my temp team receive a copy of ‘how to run a lucrative temp desk’. Their enthusiasm for the book is as strong as mine was as a consultant!

With solid tips, tricks and strategies on how to gain loyalty from your temp staff to how to develop business develop strategies so that your clients will never leave you, this book is jam packed with information and I highly recommend it to anyone working on a temporary desk!

There are very few reference materials specific to temporary recruitment consultants. Most references are in a passing section of more permanent orientated recruitment books. Secrets to Running a Lucrative Temp Desk starts out with a great series of insights into the mindset of a successful temporary recruiter which set the tone and context for all the very helpful advice and procedures that follow. Each section is easy to read and clearly set out with case studies from Sophies past experiences backed up with examples to help visualize the benefits of each piece of advice as well as explaining clearly how to put these into practice. When reading books like this I like to fold the corner of any pages which had helpful tips that would benefit myself and my team in the future. I stopped this process after a third of the way through once realizing I would end up with a book with every other page corner turned! As a result I have since purchased copies for all of our temporary recruiters and their managers to use as part of our induction process with results already being seen with candidate retention increasing and new clients coming on board as a result. The most impressive factor since implementing Sophies book into our business has been the speed at which new recruiters have been able to convert their training into real world results. A fantastic, concise and knowledgeable book which I recommend being used by recruitment companies around the world which adds value and most importantly confidence to anyone working within the temporary recruitment market whether they are fresh to the industry or have years of experience.

I ended up buying a further two copies of your book, three in total to give to two new consultants in my team. It is being used as a great learning device, with the three of us reading certain chapters every few days and then sitting down collectively and discussing what we learnt and what we can implement. New staff through to experienced Directors can learn from this book. I can not recommend it highly enough.

I have just finished reading your book: “Secrets to running a lucrative temp desk” and, provided the opportunity you left at the end of the book (ie your email address!), I thought I would reach out and get in touch to thank you! I found the book very inspirational, easy to read and understand and relate to and most importantly it felt like I was sitting in on a great training/seminar session! What a great read and so much to take on, so many logical steps and thinking about this industry. Sometimes you get so caught up in everyday errands and administration of running a desk (among other underlying factors that keep you busy all day!) that you can forget to take a step back to think about the value adding side of things… Or maybe you are never really taught to always have that as a priority and forefront of all your business practices? Your perspective is truly recruitment CONSULTING. And I love it.

Sophie Robertson’s book “Secrets to running lucrative temp desk” has been the staple diet of anyone who’s commenced their career as contract recruiter for Consultive. It’s often referenced in placement celebrations, solving a problem, or when someone is crediting their learning on promotion. Thank you Sophie, and we look forward to getting a copy of the revised version.

“Sophie Robertson is quite simply the Queen of Temp. Sophie’s “Secrets” on how to run a lucrative temp desk simply work.
Across our teams it is common to hear the effects of Sophie’s book and Sophie’s training like “eat the frog”, “multiple temp locations”, “specificity”, “Service, service, service and the money will follow”.
Whether you’re a white-collar desk or a tech desk or a blue collar – if you follow her rules you cannot fail.”