Struggling to Find Commitment from Recruitment Companies to Deliver the Quality of Candidates You Expect?

Did you know that 70% of the global workforce are actually passively searching candidates?*

What does passively searching mean? It means that the potential candidate is not applying for jobs in the market, but would entertain a conversation with a company/recruiter about a better or more challenging career opportunity/development than they have now.

A retained recruiter will focus 95% of their time in the passive market and a success fee based recruiter will focus 95% of their time on the other 30% of the market of actively searching for a job candidates.

Think about that for a minute........

*Source - Linkedin

Choosing between retained recruitment (i.e. exclusive) and contingent recruitment (i.e. mostly non-exclusive and success based) can be the difference between finding the best talent and just not.

Do you try and go for quality or quantity of applicants? Whilst everybody wants both, you really need to decide which is more important. Cut open retained recruitment and you see partnership between the client and recruiter with equal dedication and commitment on both sides for an optimal result. Do the same for contingent (Success based) and partnership is exactly what’s missing; how can partnership exist? 

Quantity can sometimes be the answer; in a candidate-rich market within a booming industry, a quantity-driven approach can lead to ready, but not necessarily the best, talent in the market. But in a skill-short market with hard-to-find talent, a quality-driven approach is imperative; no corners should be cut. A non-exclusive search means a business is working with multiple recruiters that are probably looking for candidates “at hand” rather than scanning the whole market for the best talent, as that key collaboration between a company and its recruitment partner is missing. It is this, collaboration, which is essential to a successful recruitment process.

Collaboration, built on communication and understanding, between the business and recruiter leads to the best results; this is undeniable in both retained and contingent recruitment. 

However, exclusivity allows greater opportunity for collaboration as you’re working one-on-one. The recruiter will have the opportunity to learn your business inside out, its structure, culture, development opportunities, long-term business strategies, almost to the extent of becoming an in-house talent asset or an extension of your business in the market. Not only does this mean you will then be presented with talent best-suited to your organisation, boosting your company retention, but a recruiter will have the best chance at selling your business to the highest tier of talent within the passive market.

The dated misconception still exists that more recruiters working non-exclusively on one search increases the chance of successful placements. 

It, at first, seems logical; more networks are being tapped into, more candidates are being submitted – this high quantity of candidates surely must lead to a positive outcome? However, dissecting the time spent on the actual search, an exclusive, retained recruiter will spend more time in total. Would a recruiter exclusively dedicate their time to a non-exclusive search? The answer is obvious – they are more likely to be juggling searches because that is the reality of the recruitment industry. Time spent is only one part of an exclusive vs. non-exclusive search; real commitment exists between an exclusive, retained recruiter and their client. The stakes are higher for a retained recruiter as reputation is everything, especially when they are from a boutique, specialist search firm. 

It’s not easy to refuse business but if a specialist search firm worked on every job they were presented with, they simply would not survive. It’s easier to turn down a client that is not prepared to consider a committed working partnership.

When choosing between retained and success based recruitment methods, every search will be different, but if you’re struggling to find committed and partnership-driven recruitment companies within a talent-short market, opening to exclusivity on searches is a no brainer to find the best talent.