The search for the perfect candidate is literally the thing every company is doing today! However, this endeavour has created a methodology that is sabotaging your own recruitment strategy.
What is that? The engagement of multiple agencies and how it’s actually detrimental to your search for the right candidate.
In this blog, I go into what is going on in detail, and why it’s happening – AND HOW TO SOLVE IT!
Let me start at the beginning for perspective, with some honesty.
One of the things we do as recruitment agencies are to assess our time, and where we need to be – to be successful in what we do. We can only do that if we put bums on seats. Don’t be shocked when I say, like all companies, we focus on what makes us money.
As a part of that assessment, we take on jobs based on 2-3 factors as a norm.
- Do we know what we are recruiting for? What is the alternative/what can we suggest?
- How long will it take to find the right person? We tend to have a fair idea of this through experience. So we don’t waste our and your time.
- And how much we will charge for this role? Linked heavily to the above.
- My factor is future repeat business too. Building a relationship of trust, with the hope future work comes my way – and you know I am reliable to solve it. This is important to me. These are the fundamentals of doing business.
It’s not as holistic and subjective as people may think. We do apply the science of sorts to it.
However – When any part of those factors is disrupted – we fail to fill, or the process takes a very long time to solve, we will priorities other work.
What does a disrupted process look like?
Take a very typical example and complaint the industry has right now is multiple agencies engaged in filling a role. You’d be forgiven to think, engaging with more agencies – will cast the net far and wide right?
Truth be told, it doesn’t at all.
WHY? Because we have lost control of the process, in turn – disrupts the above factors we know works to fill jobs.
Let me give you a typical example – not exclusively to this issue, but a very common one.
- You give the agency a job, they go off and do their strategy. This can differ from company to company – but the basics is, search, advertise, inform, sell, present. 1 role can take probably 2-3 weeks to start the search to find the right person. up to 12 weeks to get the candidate placed. Especially if the job is not standard, and is skilled/niche.
- During the 2-3 weeks of searching from Agency 1. You start to engage with another agency. With hope, it will speed up the process and find the right person. Casting another net-like troller fishing.
- However – recruitment is like Star Wars. Like Jedi, the first agency starts to sense another agency in the force. They start speaking with the same candidates, and get told “yes, I have heard of this role from another agency” – 2-3 conversations like that, the agency starts to question their time on the role. The “Pool” of fish, are the same waters for all agencies. Why? Well, its to do with Skills, sector, type of role, and location. The higher the expectation, the smaller the pool of candidates. And the agency world is more specialised now.
- What happens next? That 1st & 2nd agency drops you down the priority list, as newer urgent work has come in from a new company/existing business they have successfully placed people with, and has a great trust relationship, and within a reasonable time frame. Meeting their factors, putting bums on seats.
Sometimes at this point, a candidate(s) is presented, and sometimes, the response is “let’s play the field” or they are not quite right, and you want to see more. But the pool of candidates has 2 agencies, standing on each other’s feet. Again, they question their factors “How long will this take to fill?” after that feedback. AND they will ask themselves the first question too, “Do I know what I am recruiting for still?” as they’ve presented the best on the market right now.
It’s like 2 trollers fishing in the same lake. Their nets will be tangled, and duplication is a waste of their time.
Remember they are a business, just like yours. Would you waste time doing the same thing as a competitor and not be paid for it?
You as a hiring manager would say, “I’m not getting what I want from this, I need more candidates” by which point, 2 agencies on it, and so far – they haven’t found the right person? – or they have found a person, but you want more. Better!
Dismayed with the first 2 agencies, you engage with a 3rd, 4th, 5th
- These agencies then do their strategy – Search, advertise, inform, sell, present… but this time, the market has had 2-3 weeks of activity happening. It’s like ripples in a pool. They come up with the same 2-3 people, some agencies discover the market is already worked, and drop the jobs, they have no time to work jobs already being worked by agencies. They will not tell you; they’ll just disappear. Candidates tell the other agencies, “I have been put forward” which could be true – or not, sometimes agencies change their mind, and reject candidates before putting forward. Or find alternative roles for them. Leaving the market thinking they have been considered for a role, but they haven’t been put forward. Why does this happen? Well, it comes back to the factors, Can I fill this role, already being worked on by X amount of other agencies, or is my time spent better, somewhere else…?
They may find 1 new candidate, but more than likely it’s the same people being submitted because the candidate at this point last spoken too was months ago.
“But Mark, I don’t expect an agency to just find people on the Market, I want the people, not on the Market” – I agree, and a good agency will spend that time doing that too. In the “Search” part of the strategy. But imagine, you just said to them “let’s play the field” after spending 3 weeks head hunting that candidate – they question how much time they have spent on the role, and will they fill it?
- At this point, the time frame has now gone into months, not weeks. We’re 2-3 months into the process. And about 5-7 agencies engaged. Maybe more. The candidate pool is now very much worn away, with 6-7 agencies day in day out calling, emailing, headhunting – a fair few agencies are on the case, but not working the role(s), when they discover – how engaged the market is about you, your role. Candidates start to notice this. Speaking with a candidate recently they said “I’m sorry Mark, I can’t apply for that role, 4 agencies have approached me already, it looks a bit of a mess, to be honest” they know. They can see what is happening, with so many engaged agencies, it’s a feeding frenzy of agencies and they question the decision making. They too are wondering will they be wasting their time.
The first candidate submitted months ago, would (and in real life has) said to me “Am I still on hold with this job? I just spotted the 8th agency advertise it” – They have disengaged now, and probably further down the road with another company – waiting for an offer or found a role. We’ve lost the first-choice candidate, which might be a great candidate.
- The candidate pool is not a ripple anymore, it’s full-on choppy water of activity, with the first agency, not even engaging anymore, and probably all of the agencies only doing 1 thing. Advertising the role. Which may or may never yield that type of person you seek. But probably all lost interest because they have jobs quicker filled.
6 months past. And still engaging with more agencies. And still no sign of the right candidate.
You’re thinking “this sound extreme, this doesn’t happen” well, it’s happening now. 12 jobs I have picked up over the past 6 months, where I have come in at the start or late to the party, and discovered this company(ies) have lost count of how many agencies they have engaged? some companies – and I don’t want to point the finger here, will tell me “no Mark, you are the only agency I am engaged with” which is true – if you are the first agency. Month in, you discover 5-6 have been engaged.
This is what we call in recruitment “contingency recruitment”. Multiple agencies engaged – in the hope to find the right people. Where it works well – is when the role is multiple. Like for example – you need 100 warehouse staff to fill a warehouse, by tomorrow, grab 5-6 agencies and the quickest finger first! But when the role is a niche/specialist role. That candidate pool needs work, it needs a search, that has time/energy put in. Agencies will not spend that time and energy – if its duplication of where their competitors have been.
What can I do, to repair this problem? And not fall into the trap of the future.
First – pick one agency, per role. And work with them. Now it’s up to you if you want to go down the retained route, where you pay them for their time upfront – Normally a 1/3rd of the fee. But importantly – you need to have a real conversation with them. Beyond the job spec.
- Have you prepared the agency for this long game? Why you need the candidate to have XYZ, then get the agencies perspective if this is achievable. The agency will agree, or challenge what you are looking for. They’re doing it because they want to know if they can solve your problem. Remember the factors they will have.
- How many candidates do you want to see demonstrating what you need? Where do they come from? Competitor? Allied sectors?
- What is the time frame?
- We will have to create an SLA with you too, so that when we get to a certain date, and no additional candidates are found, what will happen? Do we move forward? Do we review the role, and start again?
- We’ll need to discover how important is this role to be filled, in a time frame? Are you losing money the role not filled? Is it a priority for you? Do you need this role filled in 2 weeks? 6 months?
- Once we have all this, we can plan, build a market attack strategy, and find the right people – with no fear of a rouge agency or 10 – already churning up the water ahead of us… People won’t get missed, and the market will be engaged pragmatically.
If you have this problem right now, and this blog has shed light on what could be going wrong. Sack all the agencies, write to them all, and tell them the job is closed. Close the job. Regroup and bring in 1 agency to discuss the problems, pains and see if you can discover between you both – what to do next. You need to work it out. And you need to be patient and stop engaging with more agencies.
If this is something you are interested in hearing more about – and feel I can solve this problem for you, then please reach out to me, mark.hopkins@thomasleerecruitment.co.uk – 0121 661 6578.