Using Multiple Recruiters: A Self-Defeating Practiceby Tom KeoughanSome hiring managers, but mainly Human Resources Managers, like to follow a practice of giving a job search out to anywhere from three to five, or even more, search firms. Presumably they do this because their experience has shown that no one recruiter can be relied upon to give them the breadth of candidates needed to fill the position. Most likely, the reason they've had such experiences is that the recruiters they use are not very good. The best recruiters are shrewd business people like yourself, with a business strategy more like that of a law firm: instead of trying to sell every customer they can, a top flight recruiter's business strategy is, as with a law firm, to sell his expertise and his time - and that time is limited. The best recruiters generally have no trouble landing search assignments and tend to have too much work, rather than too little, which necessitates that they don't take on searches using multiple recruiters. They are not willing to devote seventy-five to one hundred hours on a thorough search, only to have some second-rate recruiter get credit for referring "the low hanging fruit" simply by making a phone call fifteen minutes earlier. The top flight recruiter maximizes his time and focuses on other, more viable assignments. There are plenty of desperate recruiters out there who will work under all sorts of crazy scenarios. The reason that they're desperate is that they're not filling many jobs, and the likelihood of them actually filling your opening is quite low. The company that relies on the second-rate searcher falls into a cycle of self fulfilling prophecy, as weak recruiters yield weak results, thereby making the hirer feel a need to use more and more recruiters. Another problem in using multiple recruiters is wasted resources in time, effort, and technology on the part of the hiring firm. There is much more tracking to be done such as, who referred which candidate, when, and how. There will generally be at least one or two candidate referral catfights in every search. In addition, the use of multiple recruiters by a hiring firm changes the role of the recruiter. Rather than the object being to generate a roster of the best five to ten candidates, the game now changes to how many candidates can be sent, and how fast can they be sent. The second-rate searchers will throw as much mud against the wall as quickly as possible, just hoping that something sticks. In an attempt to increase speed, some of these searchers will not even contact the candidates to see if they are interested or qualified, they just empty their filing cabinets on you. Thus, the hiring manager is wasting time by reading resumes of people who aren't even interested in the job. If you've ever given out a search assignment and received a stack of resumes in a day or two only to find the recruiter making excuses about several candidates backing out of the process, then you've been a victim of this shoddy practice. The best strategy is to find the best recruiter, one who has long specialized in your field, and let him do his work. The best recruiters know that they get paid for saving you time and filling jobs, not for flooding you with paper. A top flight specialist will already know just about every available candidate. He can quickly and accurately deliver a candidate pool with both breadth and depth. He will know the nooks and crannies (i.e. candidates who left your industry two to five years ago who would still be terrific choices). Through a long period of industry specialization he will also have a great insight into the candidates' personalities and whether there will be "a fit" with your organization. The reality is that you can take the Mercedes or you can take five beat-up Buicks. The Mercedes will almost always get you there first, will definitely give you a smoother ride, and generally doesn't cost any more. You've undoubtedly heard how tough the recruiting business has been during the recent economic slowdown. In that case, how can it be that a small handful of recruiters are willing to turn down search assignments, and almost always turn down assignments where multiple recruiters are involved? The answer is simple. They can afford to turn assignments away because they are the successful ones. They are among the top flight recruiters that are placing people hand-over-fist in both good times and bad. Always bear in mind that the recruiter you want working for you, is the recruiter who can afford to walk away. By Tom Keoughan Tom Keoughan, President Toyjobs home page | clients | client resources | candidates for toy jobs | candidate resources © 2001-2008 CPR Group, Inc. Toyjobs™ |
