If you’re an employer with a shiny new job vacancy just waiting to be filled, there are two immediate options that spring to mind: conduct the recruitment process yourself or enlist the aid of a recruitment agency to do the leg work for you.
As a recruitment agency ourselves, Talent Wing knows all about the cornucopia of benefits of using a recruiter. However, like with most things in life, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
In the pursuit of a speedy hire, you might be tempted to shop your position around more than one recruitment agency. After all, many hands and all that - right? WRONG!
Advertising your position with numerous recruitment agencies at the same time may seem like a great way to shop around your role and get eyeballs on your new vacancy, but it can actually have a number of negative side effects that are actually detrimental to your recruitment process.
How so? Read on for the inside scoop on why using multiple recruiters is bad for business.
Time Wasting
Any successful business will know just how precious time can be. After all, as Benjamin Franklin so eloquently once quipped, time is money... which is probably why you’ve decided to use an external recruiter in the first place.
With that in mind, it’s worth remembering the golden rule of job advertising: the more recruiters you deal with, the more recruiters you’ll have to deal with! Briefing and communicating with an agency may not seem like a big chunk of time in isolation; however, multiply that process by numerous agencies and it can and usually will amount to a hefty block of your time.
While this may seem like a minor inconvenience on the surface, it can eat into your schedule and take valuable time away from other areas of your business. Before you know it, what was initially done as a means of saving time has all of a sudden developed into pulsating mass of emails, phone calls and correspondence from a thirsty platoon of carnivorous recruitment vampires, sucking the very lifeblood out of your timetable and bleeding your schedule dry like a thirsty time leech!
Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch but you get the idea. Remember, time is money!
As if that wasn’t reason enough to think twice about approaching numerous agencies, in addition to all that, multiple agencies advertising the same position can also result in duplicate submissions from the same candidate, once again equating to more time wasted and less time focused on where it needs to be. Worse still, if that candidate isn’t a good fit, you’ll waste even more time having to explain this fact repeatedly to multiple recruiters.
Bottom of the Priority List
Another factor that’s worth keeping in mind is that the more agencies that you invite to the party, the less important your business becomes to all these agencies as a whole. Think of it as going out for a romantic meal... and inviting several dates. It’s probably not going to make for a very positive outcome.
If you’re playing the numbers game with your recruitment partners, there’s a strong possibility that said recruiters won’t value your business as much as those companies on the books who have placed their faith solely in their agency.
By fraternising with multiple recruiters, it essentially tells your agency partners that you don’t fully trust that they are able to fill your role. As a result, it can naturally have a negative impact on the client/recruiter relationship and subsequently devalue your business in the eyes of that agency.
The relationship between client and recruiter is mutually beneficial and one that benefits from commitment. The more time and energy you devote to an agency, the more time and energy they will devote to you. Like any relationship, loyalty can go a long way and the world of recruitment is no different. This really is one scenario where less definitely is more.
Instead of enlisting several agencies and lowering your worth to the entire collective, have faith and commit to one recruiter. Not only will you endear yourself to your chosen recruitment partner by such exclusivity and lay the foundation for a healthy working relationship going forward, you’ll also reap the rewards by being treated like a higher priority in return.
The Personal Touch
Creating a familiar relationship with a recruitment agency can be a positive experience that truly pays dividends. By getting to know you, your business and your needs, an agency is well-equipped to find the right candidate for your company as well as the role itself.
By casting the net wider and enlisting the aid of numerous recruiters, this level of familiarity is often lost as a result. After all, who has the time to meet and get to know a dozen different reps from a dozen different recruitment agencies?
Worse still, with mounting competition from those other agencies advertising the very same vacancy simultaneously, careful business insight is often replaced in favour of urgency to fill a role, with the personal touch being by-passed in favour of speed.
Now, don’t get us wrong, speed may be considered a good thing and a swift process may indeed be the dream ticket for many employers. However, speed very rarely translates to quality and this is especially true in recruitment when it comes to rushed applicant acquisition.
By rushing the recruitment process, there is naturally going to be less attention to detail which can result in candidates being put forward who are either not fully suitable for the role or just plain not suitable for your business. By taking the time to meet, converse and get to know you, an agency is far more likely to be able to identify a candidate that compliments your business and your team.
Putting Off Talent
From an applicant’s point of view, seeing your job ads dotted around multiple recruitment sites can be off-putting. After all, if your vacancy has been shopped around multiple audiences, applicants will naturally assume that the number of applications will be far higher thus reducing their chances of ultimately getting the job.
Job applications can take time and effort, particularly when they involve bespoke application forms tailored to a specific employer, and if that role has already received a tonne of submissions, chances are that some candidates might think twice about devoting their job seeking time to an apparent lost cause.
What’s more, seeing a job role scattered across several different job boards can also impact the way a candidate views your company as a whole. Desperation isn’t a good look for any company and having the same vacancy littered liberally across internet job boards is a sure-fire way to create just that impression.
Advertising a role with a number of recruiters can make it look as though you are in urgent need of staff which, in turn, raises questions about why that would be the case. Nobody wants their business to unwittingly create the impression that nobody wants to work for them. Nip that issue in the bud by keeping your job ads special and there’s no better way to do just that than by opting for an exclusive recruitment agency.
Does your business have a job role you are looking to advertise? Call Talent Wing today and speak to one of our recruitment specialists directly for more recruitment advice for employers and online job advertising tips.