Business Development Manager Recruitment & Staffing

Business Development Manager / Business Head Recruitment & Staffing

Experience: 8–15+ years
Industry: Recruitment / Staffing / RPO / Contract Staffing / Manpower Services

Role Type: Business Ownership / P&L / Client Acquisition / Operations

Role Objective

We are looking for a commercially driven Business Development Manager / Business Head who can take end-to-end ownership of the recruitment and staffing business, including business development, client acquisition, revenue generation, recruitment delivery, account management, team management, collections, and profitability.

The candidate should have a proven track record of building recruitment/staffing business from the ground up, acquiring new clients, converting mandates, scaling teams, and delivering profitable revenue.

Key Responsibilities

1. Complete Business Ownership

• Take ownership of the entire recruitment and staffing business.
• Develop the business strategy, revenue plan, growth targets, and execution roadmap.
• Own revenue, gross margin, profitability, client acquisition, delivery, and collections.
• Build a scalable and sustainable staffing/recruitment business.
• Identify new markets, industries, service lines, and revenue opportunities.

2. New Client Acquisition

• Generate new business through direct sales, networking, LinkedIn, references, market mapping, cold calling, events, and industry relationships.
• Identify decision-makers including CHROs, HR Heads, TA Heads, Procurement Heads, Business Heads, and CXOs.
• Conduct client meetings and understand manpower requirements.
• Convert prospects into active recruitment/staffing accounts.
• Build a strong and continuously growing sales pipeline.

3. Recruitment & Staffing Business

Experience and understanding of:

• Permanent recruitment
• Contract staffing
• Temporary staffing
• RPO
• Volume hiring
• Executive search
• IT recruitment
• Non-IT recruitment
• Healthcare staffing, if applicable
• Payroll staffing / manpower outsourcing

The candidate should understand which staffing model is commercially suitable for each client requirement.

4. Commercial & Negotiation

• Lead commercial negotiations with clients.
• Prepare proposals, rate cards, staffing commercials, and agreements.
• Negotiate recruitment fees, staffing markups, payment terms, replacement clauses, notice periods, overtime, BGV costs, payroll costs, and other commercial conditions.
• Protect company margins while maintaining competitive commercial terms.
• Identify commercially unviable accounts before committing resources.

5. P&L & Profitability

This is a critical responsibility.

• Own business P&L and gross margin.
• Monitor revenue versus operating costs.
• Track profitability client-wise and business-line-wise.
• Calculate staffing margins before accepting contracts.
• Monitor recruiter productivity and cost per closure.
• Control unnecessary operational costs.
• Improve revenue per client and revenue per employee.
• Prepare monthly business performance reports.

6. Account Management & Business Expansion

• Build strong relationships with existing clients.
• Increase wallet share within existing accounts.
• Identify additional departments and locations requiring hiring.
• Cross-sell recruitment, staffing, RPO, payroll, and other HR solutions.
• Maintain high client retention.
• Conduct regular business reviews with key accounts.

7. Recruitment Delivery Ownership

• Work closely with recruitment and delivery teams.
• Ensure mandates are assigned and delivered within agreed TAT.
• Monitor:
• Open positions
• Submission numbers
• Interview ratios
• Offer ratios
• Joining ratios
• Closure rates
• TAT
• Candidate quality
• Attrition
• Take corrective action when delivery performance falls below expectations.

8. Team Leadership

• Build, manage, and develop the recruitment/delivery team.
• Set individual and team targets.
• Monitor productivity and performance.
• Recruit and train recruiters, Team Leads, BDMs, and support functions as required.
• Establish performance dashboards and review mechanisms.
• Build a performance-oriented culture.

9. Collections & Cash Flow

• Take ownership of client payment follow-ups along with Finance.
• Monitor outstanding invoices and ageing.
• Ensure agreed payment terms are followed.
• Track DSO and cash flow.
• Escalate delayed payments and take corrective action.
• Ensure business growth does not create cash-flow problems.

10. Process, Compliance & Risk

• Ensure compliance with applicable staffing, employment, payroll, contractual, and client-specific requirements.
• Establish proper documentation and SOPs.
• Monitor BGV, payroll, attendance, invoicing, candidate documentation, and onboarding processes.
• Manage commercial and operational risks associated with staffing contracts.