All recruiters have the same candidates – so who cares?

All recruiters have the same candidates, right? So how much does it really matter who you use???

Some of our placement data from the last 2 years (*Jan 2022 onwards) kicks up some really interesting trends.

<25% of our placements came from someone applying to an advert (i.e. someone at home reasonably proactively looking for a new position).

Another 16% came from job boards or CV databases (again reasonably active people when it comes to current job-seeking activities).

So, if we call that group 40%, in reality you would expect a decent number of those people to be on a decent number of radars (if specialist recruiters are doing the job & everyone’s advertising was the same quality – which it isn’t but that’s for another day!!)

But that still leaves another 6 out of 10 placements that came from proactive searching and headhunt / sourcing / recommendation / referral / our internal CRM and personal networks.

Well, if we dig into that we collated data that showed more than 25% of the people (28% for the geeks like me!) we placed last year didn’t have an updated CV at the point we brought the job to their attention. 

They pulled the CV together in response to the approach and their interest.

All recruiters you work with in this type of market will be needing to headhunt and proactive source as part of their shortlisting – but you need to have absolute trust that they are doing it appropriately, hyper diligently, with the right quality and the right degree of thoroughness.

You need to be confident you are a high enough priority for those searches to be being carried out mega comprehensively.  Particularly if it’s a slightly tricky role to fill for whatever reason.

If you add into the mix confidentiality of a search or any potentially sensitive info you need to be really confident that the recruiter (and the colleagues around them that see your job on their job board / system) is managing that info in the right way.

As an example, more than 20% of our positions last year were recruited under formal NDA process because of sensitivities around exit plans, PE involvement, office relocations etc.

Lastly, and crucially, you also need to be comfortable that they are presenting your role properly – your recruitment partner should understand in detail what the ‘selling points’ are but also they need to be someone you trust implicitly to present the role to the right audience with honesty & candour.

Good recruiters are an extension of your brand and a window into your business – they can do an amazing job on your behalf if they are credibly drilling your highlights into the market.

There’s zero benefit in them completely sugar coating your role during the sourcing stage and then candidates arrive to hear a different picture being painted during interviews.

Lastly – your recruiter needs the expertise required to know what a sensible curveball looks like.  They are your eyes and ears in the market and having the knowledge to understand why a candidate that is slightly ‘off spec’ might be great to include is hugely valuable (we placed loads of left field candidates post pandemic!) and we’re proud of that!

There are some amazing finance recruiters in the market – we’ve worked with lots.  But we genuinely would advise anyone to select rather than use one of many at random because you can get MASSIVE (sometimes not immediately obvious) value when you work with the right one over time.

Have a great run up to Xmas everyone, good luck to those with financial year end looming!

The ARG – 01246 541 927