“OK, I need an engineer – can you phone all the agencies?” Typical Manager to HR conversation right! Well maybe not but the effect is the same. Get lots of eyes on it - they will cover the market, they will also be competing so we will get a cheap deal and get someone quick. Sound logic! Well, yes, until you understand the reactionary behaviour this creates at your chosen agencies. A lot of the time this is going to get you ‘a’ result but rarely the ‘ideal’ one. 

Knowing that the role you are working as a consultant is also being looked at by other agencies changes how you approach the task, if you are rational player it has to.

Not sure if this guy is right? Well someone else might send it, So I better do it first!

Want to spend hours deep diving potential source companies and soft head-hunting the passive candidates? Nah, pick the low hanging fruit from cv-library (other databases are available).

Want to spend an hour with this candidate going through their motivations. Well someone less scrupulous might send her over without speaking at all! so I’ll make this a quick one.

I’m sure these are often not even conscious decisions made by a consultant but they happen. Especially when most recruiter KPI’s push you down the volume rather than quality road. (More on this in later blog)

Personally, I always want to find the best ‘few’ CV’s to present to my clients. Ideally within 10-14 days scope to scour all my pools of candidates - Adverts, Recent referrals, LinkedIn connections, On-line cv databases. Can I do it with my competition working in the background? -Yes, and you should strive to but when it’s a case of working an exclusive role or one with lots of competition its always going to be worth putting the effort into a role with an exclusive relationship. Everyone else can squabble over the low hanging fruit. Well all that just makes my life easier – So, what should the Client get for placing their trust in a single consultant:

• Ideally a small handful of candidates, sourced, compared, interviewed and screened for the role.
• A full market search, not just multiples of the same low hanging fruit
• A chance to set a project timeline with your agent that can be measured and adhered to
• Honest appraisal of candidates by someone who has interviewed all of them as well as others that have not made the cut
• No squabbles over who spoke to whom first or who is representing the candidate
• Less fielding of chasing calls from a rabble of impatient recruiters
• Usually – better rates!