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Non-Exclusive Recruiting – A Misguided Assumption For 5 Reasons

In the staffing and recruiting industry, one misconception persists. Positioning multiple providers to compete to fill the same positions is a good thing. This can happen in the day to day decision in your company for a number of reasons – many of them based on misguided assumptions that it will cause a change.

Sometimes the demand for temporary staff is so high this seems logical to double the effort to build the workforce. Other time this misconception comes from a well-meaning procurement manager trying to play one vendor against another to lower cost without considering the inevitable reduction in value, and damage to the reputation and brand of his employer in the market. Still Other times a human resources manager may avoid communicating directly with the partner hoping a little competition will send a message (albeit unclear) that there is an issue in the partnership. In all these cases, this is a misguided assumption for five reasons.

Exclusive recruiting produces better results for the long-term, if managed well. Here is why the misguided assumption against exclusive recruiting breaks down in practice.

  1. Creates twice the work. If your human resources team goes outside for staffing, set the requirements for the staffing agency, and manage them to meet them. If you have two agencies, you have twice the work – coordination, selection, direction, and so on. Does your management team have that spare time, and resources to do that?
  2. Under-values your partner’s time. Recruiters work hard for you. Finding the people you need takes time and effort. When you ask two recruiters to compete with each other, you set a perception that your company does not value the service partners it engages. Today, this reputation is hard to change since the internet history lasts forever.
  3. Erodes trust between partners. If you don’t trust your staffing agency to deliver on all your needs, open a dialog with your account manager and work through the issues that prevent you from relying on them to meet all your needs economically, and for operational efficiency, to meet your expectations. Build the trust with your agency that drives success.
  4. Presents a wrong incentive. Recruiters asked to compete with another recruiter to fill the same job, or find the same temporary employee automatically flip to “speed” and may reduce the rigor applied in qualifying candidates. The result can be lesser qualified candidates, lower output, unsatisfactory results, turnover, and increased costs (training and waste).
  5. Abdicates responsibility. Having good partners requires managing the relationship. There are always ups and downs, and when your recruiter or staffing agency delivers well – you thank them. When there is an issue, avoid punishing your partner. That, it is always the wrong approach. Instead, before you call other recruiters, talk to your current recruiter about the issue.

The Golden Rule

Think in terms of treating your partners the way you want to be treated as a partner. Your recruiter is critical to building your organization to produce and deliver on your company’s goals (and your personal management incentives). Treat them accordingly. Get to know your recruiter and staffing firm.

Imagine if your company’s sales force were incented only by how fast they delivered your product or service. Speed would go up, quality would decline. Ultimately value delivered to customers would decline to where prices would fall to match lower value delivered. Revenue objectives would be missed. Use this analogy to develop positive partnerships with your recruiting and staffing partners. Don’t give them an incentive that introduces risk into achieving your own goals through the temporary staff and employees you hire to do the work.

Barton Staffing Solutions from time to time recognizes that we have a miss, or hiccup. Our best partners know that investing in our mutual partnership by letting us know what expectations were under-delivered is the shorter path to change, improvement and results. The results are always surprising, and arrive much faster than avoiding communication and mismanagement of the partner relationship.

Barton Staffing Solutions’ account managers and recruiters are trained to regularly ask our clients “what can we do better?”

Barton Staffing Solutions is ready to help you. We can help you determine what value you need to have to best select a recruiting, search and staffing firm for your needs. Use a clear set of business-based criteria as the selection point to choose the best staffing partner. Pick one and nurture the partnership to deliver results over the course of a year.

If you are not getting results with your current approach , give Barton Staffing Solutions a call now.

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