Don’t Gamble on Your Next Hire

Don’t Gamble on Your Next Hire

Traditional Agency Recruitment.

At best Naïve, at Worst Downright Lazy…

 

The Talent Assassin continues to be amazed at the number of otherwise strong, progressive businesses in the market who quite simple ‘donate’ their recruitment needs, in their entirety, to the dreaded 20 strong PSL list of traditional agency recruiters. So what happens in practice:

  • Step 1: Agency Preferred Supplier list is created (calling it ‘preferred is already problematic as agencies unfortunately talk and when they realise everyone is ‘preferred’ your ‘value’ as a client is radically and immediately downgraded). Traditional agencies are also relentless… HR/Recruitment and Office Managers will feel lost if they don’t receive a proposition call at least once per day. Often this sales onslaught just results with the client contact ‘giving up’ and allowing entry to the PSL.. anything for a quiet life.
  • Step 2: Everyone is successful in getting onto the list including the couple who happened to stop for a picnic in the staff car park the day before. The assumption is made that the bigger the list, the bigger the field of candidates from any role ‘going live’. The client agrees to no win, no fee model which at first looks like a zero risk approach… I mean what could go wrong?

What Actually happens: Big PSL lists and the ‘right click issue to all’ approach ensures traditional agencies ‘might’ work the role for you. Statistically agencies will fill two out of every ten roles procured via this route… 20% success does not look like success. Worse still they will simply stick the job into their candidate database (again an out-dated so called USP with the advent of social media) and onto one of the local job boards – a hit and hope approach which is some distance from finding you the best talent in the market. In reality limited search of the passive talent market is conducted… as this would, quite simply, be too much work. After all.. ‘it’s just a PSL’

  • Step 3: The client begins to get candidates in a 100 different formats. There is a huge overlap in both the candidates put forward (as they all replied to the same six job board adverts from six agencies promoting the same job… which really looks slick in terms of the clients employment brand) and the candidate calibre/ quality is massively inconsistent. Some agencies take the scatter gun approach and hope that they hit something and others send nothing at all. Often the long lists received ensure that the client hiring manager has to weed through 100’s of irrelevant and inappropriate CV’s. The loss of focus on other core business responsibilities while the recruitment process proceeds is a given.
  • Step 4: A shortlist is finally created. The MD and hiring managers find no one of the appropriate quality. The recruitment process has to re-start, the hiring project lead faces operational and management backlash.. or worse still the entire recruitment process is shelved.

The above is unfortunately not uncommon in the broad market – and the bad behaviour of those agencies massively damages others committed to raising the quality and client care around talent management and recruitment.

What Works Better: Small perfectly formed PSL’s are much more effective. Better still appoint one agency to deliver your talent needs within a prescribed timeframe before allowing a second agency to enter the fray. There is nothing quite like the threat of competition to an exclusive relationship to drive strong client care, fast response times, and the flow of quality candidates. Better still look to more radical alternatives like micro onsite RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) solutions which involve the provision of a recruiter on a daily rate who not only works your roles but becomes entrenched in your corporate culture, champions your brand and lives and breathes the talent you actually require – certainly beats paying 15-20% for every hire right?

So in short if you have 10 or more hires per year be more thoughtful about how you might meet this headcount requirement. Don’t go for the catch all PSL, do your research on the agencies you decide to bring in to attract your most important asset and don’t always opt for the bigger players.. there is much less chance they will make you feel special!