Should I multi-list my vacancy with more than one recruiter?

by Kathryn FitzGerald

It’s a question hiring managers ask me on a weekly basis; “Does having more than one agency recruiting for a vacancy help or hinder a positive recruitment outcome?”

The truth is, it depends on the specific scenario. There have been times I have advised my clients, after undertaking some market research, that multi-listing their vacancy might be to their benefit.

However, nine times out of ten, my answer is that an exclusively listed vacancy is better for all three key stakeholders.

• Employers enjoy improved quality outcomes and reduced investment of time and energy.
• Potential employees receive more comprehensive information and managed expectations.
• Recruiters get better access to information and decision makers; improving understanding of needs, ensuring managed timeframes and safeguarding a quality outcome.

Here’s why…

1. Improved candidate/applicant experience

Having a single recruiter ensures that your target candidate audience gets a focussed, invested recruiter who has comprehensive information and knows they have the time to undertake a high quality, engaged recruitment process on your behalf.

It ensures the recruiter can ‘sell’ your opportunity effectively to the right candidates!

Why is this important?

Consider this…the majority of quality applicants (ie your target market) invest significant time and effort into the application process.  As such, your best applicants are emotionally invested in your vacancy and naturally are eager for status updates throughout the recruitment process.

If you have more than one agency working on your vacancy, chances are they will be less invested to begin with and possibly prioritise a fast outcome in order to compete with other agencies, and less on quality candidate outcomes which hinge on candidate experience and engagement throughout the process.

They are focussing on maximising their own efficiencies without considering the affect this may have on candidate experience.

And research backs this up…

Candidates tell us that to keep them engaged and safeguard their ongoing interest in a position, the most important aspect of the recruitment process is the timely follow up on their application status.

Best practice and industry standards suggest that this should be something that is relatively simple to guarantee, but there is some scary candidate experience research; with applicants reporting that their expectations are not only unmet, but that their perceptions of the employer is significantly and often permanently damaged as a result.

 

*according to Candidate Experience Study conducted by Future Workplace involving 826 job seekers in 2016

By appointing a single agency, you ensure that the recruiter has the information, capacity and accountability to provide better quality communication to your target audience.  They will have better quality information from you and as a result be able to invest more time and expertise in designing and executing an effective, candidate-centric recruitment process.

2. Protects your time

Liaising with multiple recruiters can mean that key pieces of information or context get missed in translation, or that you physically are unable to respond to all the voicemails, emails and requests for information you are likely to receive.

Let’s face it, we all have limited time and commonly our time is stretched pretty thinly across a number of key work objectives.  If you only have 3 hours a week to focus on recruitment and you try to divide that between two, three or more recruiters, the quality of the information each gets will be limited by the time you have.

The results are not only an unmanaged demand on your time, but likely to leave you feeling irritated.

Protect your own time and minimise frustration (both your own and from external stakeholders) by building a genuine relationship with a single recruiter you trust for your vacancy.

3. Ensures your vacancy is never ‘low priority’

Recruiters are always juggling multiple vacancies and are constantly managing shifting and conflicting priorities and demands from candidates and clients.

Your vacancy may be pushed lower down the line as they re-prioritise, based on their workload.

The result can then be unsuitable shortlists or candidate CVs whipped up from a slap-dash process; in turn wasting your own time and having a negative impact on both quality of hire as well as candidate experience.

Exclusively listing your vacancy with a single recruiter means your role will always be high on their priority list and that you have someone invested in getting you the outcome you need.

4. Safeguards accountability

Ever called your recruiter for an update only to find them MIA?

If you, as a paying customer, can’t reach your recruiter for an update, imagine what your potential applicants are experiencing!

By ensuring your recruiter knows you are committed to them and are depending on them to achieve a successful outcome, you will get full investment in return.

5. Protects your organisation’s reputation

As an employer, the organisations and suppliers you partner with inevitably impact your brand.  Who you select to represent your business, is a direct reflection of your organisation’s values in practice.

This is especially true for recruitment as you hand over the control and advocacy of your organisation to an external party.  Therefore selecting the wrong partner to undertake this critical function, either through engaging someone with limited competency or expertise or giving multiple recruiters a limited understanding of what sets you apart as an employer, exposes your entire business to the risk of significant reputational risk.  This can result in limited interest not only for the vacancy you are recruiting for now, but can affect your future applicant pools significantly.

Ensure you engage someone you trust, and engaging them as an exclusive agent means you have a single point of contact to maximise your control and message to market.

6. Improves the quality and relevance of candidates

It probably seems obvious now, but the first five items on this list all have significant impact on the quality of the resulting candidates you have to select from.

By appointing a single, expert recruiter that you trust, you…

• improve the candidate’s application experience;
• increase the time you have available to brief and update your recruitment partner;
• affirm your commitment to ensure your vacancy is treated with high priority;
• appoint a recruiter who is highly accountable and
• enable your recruiter to act as an advocate for your organisation throughout the application process.

Exclusively listing your vacancy with a skilled recruiter you gives you the best chance of attracting, engaging, selecting and appointing the most suitable and skilled candidate for your needs.  In the end, does anything else matter?

 

For further information, contact Dixon Appointments on 03 9629 9999.

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