Do you tend to adopt the strategy of approaching a few different agencies when trying to fill a position… expect a certain level of service, but find the response to be quite poor?

Recently, Discovering People attended a breakfast seminar, where Greg Savage, one of Australia’s most experienced recruitment executives, headed discussions about one of the major obstacles in the client/ recruiter relationship. He spoke about how during his career he has constantly been faced with the "erroneous belief" by clients, that they would get a better result if a number of recruitment agencies are competing to place a position.

Further discussions revealed that clients commonly have the belief that by having a few agencies work on filling a position, that this would open them up to being presented a larger pool of candidates, be offered more competitive fees and would receive a better level of service. Unfortunately in reality, this is not the case. They are in fact finding that they are being forwarded unsuitable candidates, and are receiving a lower level of service.

When clients do not offer their consultants "exclusivity" when filling a role and instead have a few agencies competing, the normal recruitment process is speed up and turns into a "race." One may think that this is an advantage, as clients will be presented with candidates faster, however often in this race to get resumes across to the client, speed wins over quality.

In this race, some steps in the normal recruitment process can often get skipped, as timing becomes more important. Consultants may not have time to pursue all avenues available to them when sourcing quality candidates, resulting in the client being presented with a spread of unsuitable and not necessarily the best possible candidates.

Another issue that arises with getting a larger "spread of candidates" is that these days most job seekers have registered with a number of agencies in their local area, and do apply to numerous advertisements in the local papers. When you have a number of agencies advertising the same position, in the same newspapers or websites, you will ultimately be working with the same pool of people.

The expectation of receiving a greater quality of service isn’t necessarily valid either, as you will generally find that a recruitment consultant will devote the majority of their time, and maximum efforts, to servicing a client that offers exclusive jobs. It makes a lot more sense to look after a role that you have a 1 in 1 chance of filling, as opposed to a role that you have a 1 in 6 chance of filling!

So next time you have a position to fill, carefully consider what you want to achieve from approaching your recruitment agency/s. Consider the thought that by offering your recruitment agency exclusive jobs/ assignments, it will be to the advantage of all parties in the recruitment relationship.

Source: RCSA Breakfast Seminar & Shortlist newsletter

If you have any questions, human resources issues to discuss or would like to give any feedback in regards to this newsletter, please don't hesitate to email me - mnovotny@discoveringpeople.com.au