Why working with multiple search firms can be a bad thing
When talking about a hiring need, leaders occasionally tell us something along the lines of, “This is a high-priority opening. We need to give this job to multiple recruiting firms to ensure we fill it.”
In theory, that logic makes sense: you ask several companies to work on your super appealing job opening and let them fight it out. By giving this job opening to not one, not two, but three recruiting firms, you’re tripling your output, leaving no stone unturned in the search for top talent. It’s the typical “May the best team win” approach.
However, you often make your search less effective. Why? Because savvy search firms know that you’re all fishing from the same pond. Companies trip over each other in the hunt for candidates, frustrating all parties. Worse yet, you’re encouraging a speedy process while disincentivizing quality. What often happens is recruiters realize the search isn’t all that fillable and they’ll calibrate their efforts accordingly, turning to high-quality job openings where they are the only agency working to fill that role.
The end result can be a company who is dissatisfied with the number and quality of candidates they’ve reviewed, and their critical job opening is still, well, open.
This doesn’t always happen, of course, but I’ve seen it play out many times. Recruiters often work on the activities that make them money, and if they think working on your job doesn’t meet their goals, your job will move down their list of priorities.
An alternate way of thinking about engaging with search firms is to find a partner in the talent acquisition space. If you demonstrate a degree of loyalty to a recruiting firm (or any business partner), they will extend loyalty to you in kind, ensuring your job openings are receiving attention and care until the end.
Research recruiting firms ahead of time, clearly communicate your goals when vetting them, and find the firm that you feel best fits your needs. Don’t hide the ball—be open and transparent about your expectations.
Perhaps you’ve been burnt in the past by a search firm and you have a hard time trusting recruiters. I get it. As a former HR manager, I’ve experienced that pain before. There are unethical and incompetent companies out there, to be sure. But also know that there are a lot of good ones. Ask friends and colleagues for recommendations, understand what you need in a search partner, judge them against those criteria, and monitor the relationship after you’ve agreed to work with them. You’ll find out quickly if you’ve got a good company in your corner.