You get loads of calls from recruiters offering to commit their time for FREE. ⌛
They are willing to work on a success basis, so it’s a zero-risk engagement and requires no commitment from your side. It’s even tempting to involve multiple agencies, because why not? It’s all free, and the more agencies working on a role, the more quality candidates you will have.
Then the weeks pass, and you get some CVs and some interviews, but generally it’s not what you are looking for. Your recruiters are not very engaged and do not send any more CVs. But that’s ok because new ones are knocking on your door and want to “partner with you” to find you the best talent on the market. And so the cycle continues… 🔄 Working this way may sometimes work out, but unfortunately, in most cases, it doesn’t.
That’s why I put this article together for HR and hiring managers to understand why this strategy fails more often than it delivers.
First, you need to understand why recruiters are willing to work with you for FREE?
Are they crazy? 😵 Do they have nothing else to do? 🤔
It doesn’t quite make sense if you compare it to other industries. You don’t implement your products and involve your technical team without financial commitments.
The reason why this is happening is that working on a contingency basis (“successful hire” model) means there are no consequences for not placing any candidates. If there is no commitment, the agencies can engage with as many clients as they want.🤠
They haven’t found anyone? So what? They haven’t been paid anyway. Engaging with hundreds of companies gives a higher chance of placing a candidate or two or three somewhere. But it doesn’t matter where and if it’s your company or not.
So why do you need to think about changing your hiring strategy?
1. Brand protection – if you have multiple agencies working on your roles, do you have the confidence that those recruiters can represent your brand well? First impressions matter 😍 and especially in a niche market, we only get one chance to get the candidate’s attention. If they are not sold on the opportunity, they will be even more unwilling to speak to another recruiter about it next time. This brings me to my next point…
2. Chaos 🤯 – this is when candidates get approached multiple times by different recruiters. It’s not great for your brand if someone tries to approach a candidate about your opportunity and someone else does the same thing the next day. “It comes across as desperate,” as one of my candidates once told me.
3. Time and Money 💸 – That’s what you lose with ineffective recruitment.
Time because you are engaging with more and more agencies, negotiating contracts and wasting your time speaking to each one.
Money, because especially in sales, a person who is not hired is a person that is not generating revenue for your organisation.
Whether it’s me or someone else, try to involve a specialist in the market – someone who is normally recruiting for this territory and those types of roles. And someone with strong referrals.
