How best to work with external recruiters

As an executive recruiter with over 20 years of experience, I have worked with virtually every type of organisation, from top listed companies to small private businesses, not for profits, governments and government owned corporations.  There are attributes in the way I and my company work that have allowed us to develop and maintain excellent relationships with our clients and deliver great work.  Yet for a few reasons that I will outline in this article, the way that most companies engage with external recruiters does not foster great relationships and quality of work is compromised.

Here are three tips to allow you to best work with external recruiters: 

1. Always work on a retained, exclusive basis with one recruitment company 
   Unlike virtually any other professional services industry, most recruiters will work on a contingent basis, where they are only paid based on a successful placement.  Often these recruitment companies are competing with other firms, and even internal recruitment teams, on the same role.

   Could you imagine what a law firm would say if I asked them to defend me in court, where they would be competing against five other firms and only the one which got me the lowest sentence would be paid?  Or if I asked five accounting firms to prepare my end of year tax return and I would only pay the one that got me the highest tax return?  They would tell me to “get lost!”

   However recruitment companies do this all the time.  As a result, they might do a cursory search for candidates on their database plus throw an advertisement up and pray the right person applies.  They will send through candidates that don’t meet the brief, who is many instances haven’t even been interviewed properly.

   If you want excellent service from your recruitment provider, you must retain them (i.e. pay a percentage of their fees up front) on an exclusive basis.  This is the only way you can ensure that you will get the commitment and quality you are looking for.

2. Always make sure you are fully briefing the recruitment company on exactly what you are looking for
   The best predictor of future performance is past performance.  You want to hire someone who has “done it before, done it well, and is motivated to do it again”.  Most position descriptions are fairly generic and list a few basic bullet points as to the criteria required.  However, each time you recruit a role into your business, even though the position may be the same, the key deliverables will probably vary depending on the current circumstances.

   Be absolutely clear with your recruiter about what success looks like in the role.  What will this person need to deliver in the first three, six, twelve months and beyond in order for you to be delighted with their appointment?  Make sure this is documented (we call it a Performance Profile) and then insist that the candidates presented show evidence of previous performance.

   Make sure this briefing is delivered by the hiring manager (plus other key stakeholders if required) rather than HR or internal talent acquisition, who will often only have a rudimentary knowledge of the role themselves.

3. Ensure that your recruiter demonstrates that they are headhunting
   The best candidates are not actively looking for a new job.  They are in jobs that they like, they get on with their boss, and they are relatively well paid.  They are not looking at job advertisements or replying to LinkedIn inmails.  These candidates are passive and if you want to attract them, they must be headhunted.  This means that they need to be called directly in their workplace and “sold” your opportunity.

   Most recruiters (internal and external) don’t headhunt.  It’s very time consuming plus they generally don’t like feeling rejected.  If you want the best talent, make sure your recruitment company commits to headhunting.  Whilst headhunting used to be expensive and take a long time, fortunately there are now firms that offer headhunting far more quickly and inexpensively than ever before.

By following these three simple points, you will achieve far greater success in attracting top performers, when using external recruitment companies.

Written by Richard Triggs.