By Jon Rosser:
As an employer or hiring manager, have you had a bad experience with a recruiting firm? This blog could help explain why.
Employers and Hiring Managers, you get contacted by recruiting firms all the time.
Why choose just one?
On the surface it might seem like “the more recruiting firms the better”. If it’s a contingent search, you only pay a fee to the recruiting firm with the winning candidate.
Sounds great, right?
Not so much.
Our style is transparency and honesty. We share perspectives and truths that other recruiting firms won’t. We feel strongly that open, honest conversations about the relationship between employers and recruiting firms can only make them better, stronger partnerships.
5 Benefits to working with ONE Recruiting Firm:
Get the very best service possible:
With our exclusive searches, it is an all-out, relentless effort from our entire team: Phone calls, emails and text messages. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.
Not to mention late nights talking to candidates and sending out messages after kids have gone to bed.
When 5 firms work on a position?
You don’t get 100% from any of them. You just don’t. It’s not realistic.
You might get 100% effort for the first 24 to 48 hours. That’s it. Even then, it’s probably 100% from the recruiter that took the order but not the entire team.
If a good candidate is found in that window, great. If not, they’re moving on to other searches with higher likelihood of closing.
Most of our searches are exclusive. Many have financial commitment from clients up front to launch the search. Like any business, we must prioritize where we invest our time and resources.
What’s unfortunate is most firms won’t be honest about this when engaging and potentially accepting a job search.
Focus is on Quality, not just Speed:
When 5 firms work the same position, it’s all about speed. Find interested candidates, talk to them about the opportunity and get them presented to the client ASAP.
That’s OK if the candidate is perfect.
What if after a week that candidate would be the 6th best candidate found? Would a firm in an exclusive relationship send that resume at all?
Nope.
A recruiter in an exclusive relationship can take the time to do the search right. Properly scour the market, appropriately screen and send only the best.
Additionally, with multiple firms involved you’re often only getting access to the first layer of candidates: those that the recruiting firm already knows and can get a hold of on day 1 or 2 of the search.
An exclusive relationship allows a team to dig deeper. It allows a team to evaluate existing relationships but also search for new prospects and referrals based on details for this specific position.
With multiple firms involved you often won’t get to that layer.
Your reputation:
When a prospect hears from multiple recruiters regarding the same opening, and many of them will, it can make everyone involved appear disorganized.
It can also result in a prospect hearing different versions of the opportunity. With multiple recruiters pitching the same opportunity, it is bound to be communicated differently from each source. This can create confusion and uncertainty with the potential candidate.
With representation from one firm you get a clear, concise message (that you helped craft) to build excitement for the opportunity from initial contact.
What impression do you want candidates to have when they first hear about your opportunity?
Save you time:
Working with multiple firms is time consuming.
Meeting them in person, communicating the environment and culture repeatedly, explaining the position over and over. Not to mention all the emails and phone calls during the recruiting and interviewing process.
Or, you don’t spend time with any of the firms and instead just send out an email with a job description. In which case re-read #1, you’re not getting anyone’s best effort and service.
Investing time on the front-end of a search with one recruiting firm will save you time and money in the long run.
Relationship vs Transactional:
In an exclusive relationship both sides are fully committed to the same goal. It’s a partnership.
A good recruiter will feel a sense of obligation and responsibility to find the very best person for the job. The entire recruiting firm is bought into the search, not just the recruiter taking the order.
The employer is more inclined to spend time with the recruiter making sure everyone is on the same page regarding details of the position.
This is a relationship driven approach.
Conversely, work with 5 firms and you’ll get a very transactional approach.
Ironically, the transactional approach leads to worse service. This leads to frustrated employers. It’s a bad cycle.
When you get into recruiting any job order is a good one. The more the better. Over time and after many lessons learned, you realize that’s not the case.
Same can be said for working with recruiting firms. More isn’t better.
Find one you like for a particular discipline and get to know each other. You will save time and money in the long run. You will end up with better talent for your organization.