Why Exclusivity is a Hiring Manager’s Secret Weapon
Today’s recruitment landscape is candidate-led. There are more jobs than there are strong, quality candidates to fill them, which means that there is more competition than ever to pin down top talent for a role. Exclusivity helps to solve this issue for recruiters and hiring managers alike.
Sourcing
75% of the workforce is made up of passive candidates. These people are not looking on job boards, they’re not asking their network about opportunities, and they’re not interviewing anywhere else. However, only 15% of these people are not open to a new opportunity if approached.
Although it’s not necessarily true that passive candidates are preferable to active ones, it’s hard to ignore such a large slice of the workforce pie.
If a recruiter is working on a contingency basis, competing with multiple agencies on numerous roles, they are unlikely to have the time to spend reaching out to candidates who may or may not be interested. It becomes a ‘CV race’. As the recruiter will only get paid should they successfully fill the role, particularly niche or hard-to-fill vacancies will almost certainly be overlooked in favour of low-hanging fruit. Here’s where exclusivity comes in.
If a recruiter is tasked with filling a particular role on an exclusive basis, they’re going to give it 100% of their attention. They have time to conduct a thorough and exhaustive search, and are able to nurture passive candidates and present a much more organised approach to the process.
For hiring managers, this is an ideal scenario. They don’t have to deal with multiple agencies, there’s no need to spend time sifting through numerous shortlists, and they know that their recruiter is devoting the time and attention required to find the best quality hire possible.
Quality of Hire
A big part of achieving high standards when it comes to quality of hire lies in the collaborative process between the hiring manager and recruiter. How can recruiters hope to deliver if they’re not quite sure what the hiring manager wants?
Working on an exclusive basis gives recruiters the opportunity to connect with hiring managers in a more meaningful way, and it’s in both parties’ best interests to communicate clearly throughout the hiring process. Cutting out the noise by only dealing with one dedicated recruiter means that hiring managers can give valuable input regarding previous pain points, what works and what doesn’t, and the process suddenly becomes a partnership.
With this invaluable information, a recruiter can map the market, and turn over every proverbial rock in the quest to find that A-player: the employee who will thrive, and who won’t leave after 6 months. What’s more, the recruiter is now accountable and answerable for the quality of candidates they supply. They can explain their reasoning behind why each candidate on a shortlist will be an excellent fit/ innovate existing processes/ generally outperform the hiring manager’s expectations.
Can you say that about each recruiter from the 5 agencies you currently work with?
At Solutions Driven, we pride ourselves on only undertaking exclusive assignments from our valued clients. We believe that our clients deserve the best from us, and that our recruitment team deserves the best chance to deliver extraordinary results. If you’d like to discuss how exclusive recruitment can work within your organisation, why not contact us today?
Sources:
LinkedIn, Recruiting Active vs Passive Candidates
Forbes, The Real Reason Employers Love Passive Candidates
Talenytics, Can Tech Solve the Candidate Quality Problem?
