A Heart-felt Thank You to Contingent Recruiters Everywhere!

Much has been written of late about the many flaws in the contingent recruitment business model. Last week I experienced first-hand just how seriously poor the model is. Those that promulgate it and try to run their recruitment businesses with it will ultimately fail their businesses, clients and candidates. They also act as the best advertising money can’t buy for those recruiters who operate with better proven exclusive and ideally, retained models. The case story follows;

Preamble; Mindset only operates on retained exclusive recruitment and selection assignments. We will walk away from non-exclusive jobs and only work on a retained basis as we like to be paid for the work we do. The client in question has an exclusive retained services agreement with Mindset that commits them to use Mindset exclusively for all their recruitment activities for 12 months, in return for a set competitive fee structure. This is not a preferred supplier agreement but an exclusive supplier agreement. Mindset has many such agreements with its clients.

We are currently recruiting a State Manager for just such a client. Mindset has advertised the position and has also carried out a parallel search process to uncover suitable passive candidates. On Wednesday I commenced a first interview with a candidate who had responded to an advertisement. The first thing he said to me was “you should be aware that I was already interviewed for this position by another agency on Monday”. Further investigation revealed that a contingent recruiter without permission of the client had advertised the position and was interviewing candidates, telling them that he represented the client.

The client was duly forwarded a copy of the web advertisement and was rightly furious. He issued an immediate request to the contingent recruiter to immediately cease and desist all actions “on their behalf”. The MD and owner of our client is a former practicing solicitor and prior to running the business was partner in a major Melbourne law firm specializing in commercial law. He believes that the actions of this recruiter may well indeed be fraudulent as he is misrepresenting to candidates (and others) that he represents Mindset’s client.

Further it then transpired that Mindset had interviewed a candidate that we had uncovered through our search processes. This candidate had been “floated” to the local manager of our clients business a week or two earlier by the said recruiter. This local manager had met with the candidate but no offer had been made. No contract had been entered into either as the local manager does not have the authority to commit to such contracts.

The contingent recruiter then started to send threatening and unpleasant emails to our client about “his” candidates and that even if they were employed via Mindset (by no means a foregone conclusion for either) that he would be invoicing our client. The more these emails came in, the more the MD hardened his attitudes towards him and better yet, the more professional and ethical Mindset was perceived to be! Naturally the legally-trained MD wasn’t the least bit perturbed about the contingent recruiter’s threats. He was more annoyed that his time was being wasted by him.

Reading these emails it became clear to me that this contingent recruiter had assumed that ALL recruiters work with the same non-exclusive competitive model that he operates under. His thinking was so set that he was unable to conceive of an alternative way to run a recruitment business. He refused to accept the definition of “exclusive”, let alone “retained”. This recruiter also had 22 separate positions listed on a major job board. It needs to be asked; how could a client possibly get a quality service from someone with allegedly so much work on their desk already? How many of these jobs were even legitimate? Our client’s listing certainly wasn’t!

To summarise the effect that the non-exclusive contingent business model has;

  • Candidates are pissed off as their time is being wasted and their hopes dashed by recruiters interviewing them for jobs that they either don’t have or don’t exist.
  • Clients are pissed off as most MDs would prefer to select the company that represents them in the marketplace.
  • Clients get poor service as the clear focus is speed of getting a backside on a seat, not necessarily the right backside!
  • Antics such as the above give the recruitment industry a bad name, but conversely make the ethical professional ones that create real value look fantastic.

I recognize that there will be shonky operators in any industry and trust that market-forces will ultimately weed them out. However in the meantime I thank them profusely and encourage them wholeheartedly. They entrench our clients with us and drive new ones to us in their scores. Once they are with us they don’t leave!

Views: 206

Comment by Fran Hogan on November 2, 2009 at 9:01am
Congratulations Aaron on your outstanding success as a retained recruiter.
It is also good that you recognize there are "shonky" operators in all industries.....I assume you are including the retained search firms as well.

I would hope you can maintain your success without having to climb on the backs of contingency recruiters. To use a rant against another business model to drive new clients to your services seems cheesy to me. But then I'm one of those who has been running "seriously poor business model" for 35 years.

What was your motive to trash an entire group of independent recruiters? To justify how much better your business is? I don't usually bite back in public forums because it is a waste of my time but your snide tone compels.
Comment by Jacqueline Bozorgi on November 2, 2009 at 2:42pm
Wow. Putting down contingency recruiters without even trying to mask that your only purpose for doing so was to advertise your own business. Well, I have a couple things to say to that!

Not all contingency recruiters are unethical. Not all contingency recruiters operate on an entirely competitive only basis, and when they do it isn't generally a bad thing.

I have had a public company come to me and sign an exclusive contract on a contingent basis after working with a retained search firm- not naming names but they were up there with Robert Half. They came to us, a tiny contingency search firm, because of how unethical the retained search firm was. The firm took way to long to find the executive that they were looking for, and then after placing that executive they proceeded to recruit them out of that company into another one. Now I am not saying all retained firms are unethical. Because that would be stereo-typing and is as ignorant to say as it is to imply that contingency recruiters are all unethical.

This company that came to us was looking for the exact opposite and voiced their satisfaction over the retained firm after each successful placement that we landed. To me, a client deserves the best of the best and they should not have to pay my fee if the candidate I present is not worth it.

I choose contingency over retained searches in fact because I am confident in my success, I do not need a retainer to be able to prove that I can fill my clients position with their ideal candidate. I also like the thrill of contingency and do not mind competition. I know that I can satisfy my clients needs and I am not getting paid unless I do so. I'm focused on my clients and because I am a contingency recruiter I am determined to fill the position.

I think many people know that those who work for commision only are a different breed of 'salespeople', 'recruiters'...whatever you want to call them. They are the most aggressive and determined and they have to satisfy their clients to survive. You could say contingency recruiters have a very aggressive 'Mindset', which is one of the best qualities a recruiter can have.

I find a lot of irony in a blog that focuses so on ethical recruiting, written by someone who needs to put down someone who provides a different type of service in order to make their own business look better.

Maybe it is just me, but I prefer to get my search firm out there by providing clients with the satisfaction that the candidate my client just hired through me is exactly the structure beam my client needs to thrive and grow. Making the competition look bad through negative semantics is not ethical in my opinion, I personally choose to prove myself through actions and results.

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