Should I Use Multiple Recruiting Firms for the Same Role?

Some companies take the “throw it at the wall, and see what sticks” approach to engaging external recruiters.

They have a key position they need to fill, and basically open up a free for all amongst their “approved provider” recruiter list. There are probably many reasons for taking this approach that seem to make sense. Reasons like:

“If we have more recruiters on the job, there is more of a chance that it will get filled faster.”

“Recruiters will be more motivated if they know that others are working on it as well.”

Here are a few things I would recommend considering before you take this approach:

It May Be Confusing to Candidates

Think about it from the candidates point of view. You go to Indeed.com to look for a job, and you see the same job posted 5 times by several different recruiting companies and the hiring company. Candidates may not even know exactly what is going on. So, they just pick one at random. It just seems weird to the candidate that there are so many jobs looking for the same position.

Even worse, multiple recruiters may be reaching out to the same potential candidates. So, if you are a candidate and get emails/calls from several different people about the same job, it can be confusing.

I recently received 3 different emails about the same job posted by three different recruiting firms. It’s not a good look.

It Could Impact Candidate Experience

What do you think the candidate experience is for those candidates who are contacted by multiple different recruiters?

Have you ever put your information in looking for insurance quotes, or anything of that nature. All of a sudden, your phone starts blowing up, and you get contacted by every insurance company under the sun. It’s annoying.

It's not exactly the same, but you can imagine what it would be like to be called or emailed by several different recruiters about the same job.

For this reason, using multiple recruiters may not be the best approach for your candidates.

There may be times when it is helpful to engage multiple recruiters. However, I think consideration should be given to the potential impact to the

candidate experience.

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