5 reasons to avoid a multi-recruiter strategy

5 reasons to avoid a multi-recruiter strategy and attract the right candidate quickly, at the right price, and enjoy a smooth, efficient process.

Let’s start with some myths that are simplyNOTtrue:

• Exclusivity only benefits the recruiter

• Finding a special candidate, quickly, needs more people searching

• Creating competition makes recruiters try harder

Now let’s look at whatIStrue:

1. Your recruiters will estimate the ROI and do will do less work! Recruiters get paid on commission. On contingent assignments, if they don’t make a placement they’re paid nothing. They’re also usually very busy – at least if they’re any good. Put these two factors together and you can be sure that, when you brief multiple recruiters, each will spend less time and effort – not more – on filling your position. After all, no one likes wasting time on work they’re less likely to be paid for. Add to this the fact that many clients also put their own resource into finding candidates, then the chances of placement for the recruiter become less and less. From a numbers point of view, for every additional recruiter you engage you will receive a proportional percentage of effort.

2. The focus will shift from quality to speed. If a recruiter chooses to work on a multi-recruiter brief, then they’re in a race. Many will aim to get their candidates’ CV’s sent across first, so they can ‘lock it in’, irrespective of whether their candidates are suitable. This results in more CV’s for the hiring manager to review and undermines the value of the recruitment process itself, which is to screen the candidates first. In fact, some less scrupulous recruiters even send CV’s without having interviewed or spoken to the candidate – just so they can log their name first!

3. You will pay a higher salary than needed!Your engaged recruiters are very likely to be fishing in the same pond. The perfect candidate you are looking for receives a call from the first recruiter, who asks what salary they are looking for and are told £30k. By the time the candidate is contacted by the second and third and so on, he/she is realising they are in demand and their perceived value increases with every call. By the time you receive the CV, the candidate is worth £35k!

4. It’s bad for your reputation.The more candidates you interview, the more that are rejected and whilst that’s the name of the game, candidates can (and will) tell their industry friends about their negative experience. Briefing one partner recruiter will result in a smaller number of far more relevant candidates to interview.

5. You’ll eat up a lot more time in admin. There’s a lot of double handling involved when employers brief multiple recruiters for the same job vacancy. You are better investing time in one recruiter who understands your company, the culture and what makes a successful candidate. Who needs more ‘paperwork’, which just adds time and costs? You will also invariably be dragged in to adjudicate over multiple recruiters claiming to represent the same candidate. This never ends well, with double invoices or, worse still, litigation. The easiest solution can be to pass over the candidate altogether and choose someone else.

If you’d like to talk through how to make the right decision on which recruiter to work with, do call me on 01789 451510.

It doesn’t need to be us by the way, but we want to encourage the Marketing and Creative industry to move to a partnership recruitment strategy, and therefore raise the standards in the Recruitment industry - even more important in a candidate lead market with a shortage of good quality candidates.