The real reason your recruiter is asking you to work exclusively

‘Exclusivity’, in recruitment language, means that a company works with just one recruiter on a particular vacancy - You may be doing your own direct recruitment, but also partnering with one recruiter.  

I often hear clients say that they just can’t work on an exclusive basis because “this role is business critical” and they “need to find someone ASAP”.  It’s interesting that people assume that by going out to three recruiters, the role will be filled more quickly.

Unfortunately, quite the opposite will happen! 

Imagine the following scenario: You call your third recruiter and brief them on the role. You think that you now have multiple recruiters all prioritising your role and doing all they can to find you brilliant people.

In reality, with every brief, each recruiter assesses the risk on the investment of their time. With every layer of competitiveness, the more risk is applied and they will align their activity accordingly. In reality, briefing multiple recruiters will often result in a quick search across their database and a brief dive into active people, out there in the market. The candidates will get a short briefing call and then, if interested, they will send their CV over to you as fast as possible, before the other recruiters do. Activity will stop there. So you get a lot less effort from every recruiter and a low quality qualification of candidates, which can cost businesses dearly, in time interviewing, potential counter offers and fall-outs. 

Now picture this:

You call Beyond The Book to brief the role and after gaining confidence that they have all the tools, platforms and network to exhaust the market in their own right, you agree to work with them on an exclusive basis. You have the time to go through an in-depth briefing with us, and we come away with a really good understanding of your business. Armed with solid information about you, the role, the opportunity, cultural fit and more, we can champion you in the market to anyone we speak to (a little free PR for you!). Knowing we have your full commitment; we can now give you ours in return and your job automatically becomes a priority (over and above any that are competitive). Our activity is extensive and unrelenting and our impartial qualification of candidates is in-depth and thorough. You will get to meet a small selection of very strong candidates, from which one will be the perfect match.

What can go wrong? Well, we can’t work with an unrealistic brief, and you do need to be agile in the current climate, but with good consultation, an agreed process and armed with a realistic and compelling brief - it won’t go wrong.

Your time is money, and the wrong new employee can cost dearly, so next time you go to pick up the phone to multiple recruiters, perhaps talk to us first. We will be honest with you if we feel we can’t deliver, so it can’t hurt and could be a very pleasurable and successful move indeed.

Here are a few more things to add!

• You won’t always find that perfect person within the first few days (if it was that easy, you wouldn’t need recruiters!). Sometimes candidates arrive on the market a few weeks after we start looking and, by briefing two or more recruiters, you risk all of them giving up the search before that happens.

• The perfect candidate could be working exclusively with a chosen recruiter they trust. With the market as busy as it is, candidates can ill afford the time to invest in more than one recruiter - consider carefully which recruiter you believe discerning candidates will migrate to. Ensure they specialise and have a good reputation.

• The days when recruiters are grateful for any job that lands on their desk and will work anything that comes their way are very much over – certainly for specialist recruiters. The investment needed is significant, to find and engage with candidates, using multiple devices, and dispersed across multiple platforms and groups, and with a very short window to attract their attention.

• A brand candidates can trust is also essential and so investment in our own brand and content strategy is vital. Return on investment is vital and any good, specialist recruiter has to choose their clients as much as the other way around, just like any other business. ​

So, if you choose one recruiter to work with, you would be making a smart move. If you choose us, then we would be very happy to provide a positive and successful experience. We can provide references if needed.