Candidate Question: Do companies normally use multiple staffing agencies for the same position?
Q:
Is it common for a company to have more than one recruitment agency working on a position for them?
A:
Yes, it′s very common for company to use more than one recruitment agency. Recruiting firms come in two flavors - generalists and specialists. My agency is a specialist firm - we only fill positions in PR, marketing, and sales. Obviously, companies may have recruitment needs in other areas, so it makes sense to partner with several agencies with different specialties to cover the needs of the entire organization.
The issues arise when companies work with multiple recruiters though for the same position. This strategy tends to backfire.
Contingency recruiters firms only get paid for their efforts if they successfully fill a position. Many companies think there isn't a financial risk in using several agencies since they are only going to have to pay for the one candidate. After all, the more recruiters out there working for them, the quicker the position gets filled, right? Not necessarily. This is when the mess begins and it usually goes one of two ways.
Scenario 1: Multiple recruiters start calling the same people. The candidates are left with the impression the company is desperate and there must be something wrong.
If a candidate is interested in the opportunity and is contacted by a few recruiters, he may or may not know how to handle the situation resulting in duplicate resume submissions by different agencies. Here′s when it gets really ugly. The recruiter may blame the candidate for not being honest about working with another firm on the same position or the company may think the candidate is desperate and won′t want to move forward at the risk of a lawsuit by the fighting recruiter companies. Nobody wins.
Scenario two: The candidates tell the recruiters they have been receiving calls from others about the same position. Since the staffing agency is only getting paid for a successful hire, it must evaluate and prioritize its searches based on the realistic chances of filling it. Recruiters lose interest in searches that don′t seem like viable placements and the company ends up with an unfilled position and nobody working on the search. Most recruiters won′t bother telling the company they aren′t working hard on the search because someone might pop up they can submit with little effort and they can still look like heroes. The company thinks they have an army of recruiters working on their search when in reality nobody cares anymore and the company believes recruiters are useless.
It's a safe bet if you are receiving calls from lots of recruiters, this is what is going on. If you decide it is an opportunity you are interested in, it is common courtesy to let the other recruiters know you are already in the process with the company through another recruiter. Make it clear you do not want your information sent to anyone without your approval.
The rule is simple as a candidate: Work with only one recruiter for a position with the company.
Date: February 17th, 2009 / Author: Lindsay
Posted in Candidate Question / Tags: Contingency Recruiters, headhunters, Recruiter Etiquette, Recruitment and Staffing
3 Comments - Add yours!
Lindsay Olson (February 17th, 2009)
Donnie, in my experience, it’s actually quite the opposite. Being submitted by multiple firms for the same position hurts the candidate in many ways. First, if a recruiter knows the candidate has been submitted by another recruiter for the same position already, they will most likely going to walk away from trying to present you. So really, the only time it might happen is if the candidate isn’t honest about where he or she is interviewing or has been submitted to when presented with the opportunity by recruiter #2 or the recruiter doesn’t care how they appear to their client and decides to chance it.
When a company sees the same candidate from more than one search firm, they question the integrity of the search firm and the candidate. Nobody wants their integrity questioned. And the company just may as well say they don’t even want to consider the candidate because of the mess they might get into if they were to hire the candidate with the two search firms.
Scott (May 10th, 2012)
I applied to two different personal services companies in Germany and I think they are the same job, but the second company hasn’t told me yet which one it is. Do you have any general advice for my situation? Thanks:-)
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This blog is to share my recruiting experiences and discuss thoughts on the job market, PR industry and technology.
Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.
Donnie Hall (February 17th, 2009)
It seems to me that it would be a good thing for a candidate’s resume to be submitted twice by different recruiting firms.