When hunting for a new employee, it’s tempting to offer the job to several recruiters, then pay the first one to fill the role.

But rather than creating healthy competition, it’s a recipe for a substandard service. It’s much better to recruit through one agency, and here’s why.

Speed vs. quality

The recruitment industry is renowned for being fiercely competitive.

By giving several recruiters the chance to fill a role, you’re creating a ‘first come, first serve’ situation, where the first company to find a candidate wins. This means tasks that take up time can get side-lined. 

By working with one agency you are giving them time to:
• Undertake detailed background checks
• Vet candidates more thoroughly
• Comb through online resources
• Meticulously check candidate databases
• Take a detailed job description in order to find the perfect match

If you work with more than one recruitment company, you’re losing out on this quality of service.

Get more discounts

By letting one company supply you with all of your candidates, you can negotiate lower rates.

If one recruitment company knows that you require a steady supply of candidates, they’ll normally be happy to accept less money for each candidate. Effectively, you can get a bulk discount.

This means that you could end up paying less than if you work with several agencies.

The service just gets better and better

If one agency supplies you with all of your candidates, they get to know your company and what type of skills (and personality) you are looking for.

This means that:
• the service becomes faster
• the candidates get better
• the process becomes smoother

What’s not to love?

You avoid representation complications

It’s happened more than once - several recruitment companies have put the same candidate forward for a job.  When this happens, which recruiter are you meant to pay?

It all gets very complicated. If you only work with one agency, this isn’t going to happen.

Candidates are more likely to stay with you

If you have an exclusive contract with a recruitment agency, they will happily offer a lower rate of pay, and take a profit loss. This is because they know you’ll be coming back for more candidates.

If you don’t have an exclusive contract and you’re offered a discount, to avoid a profit loss, the candidate you’re supplied with will be paid less, too. This means they’re less likely to stay in the role.

By working with one agency, on a long term basis, this won’t happen.