Retainment

This will be old hat to some of you.

I recently worked a retained role. It was thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately many clients are looking to play the numbers game, and engage with upwards of five agencies, as “one of them is bound to deliver”. What’s worse is that often they will tell each recruiter that they are their exclusive partner on this role. We generally have a good sense of what’s going on in our marketplace, and can usually see through this guise when we spot a job advertisement that looks suspiciously similar. It is at this point that many recruiters will become lacklustre in their sourcing campaign. Most likely they will post a generic advertisement, send some emails to candidates and submit a few candidates to clients, having only screened them for five minutes over the phone. This is because those consultants are playing the numbers game too, and rather than waste time on a role they feel unlikely to fill, they will focus on other roles, or sourcing prospective candidates that they know they can successfully take to market.

Reading posts about recruitment on LinkedIn, one will see a plethora of clichés such as “partnerships” and “mutual respect”. This is often not something you feel as a recruitment consultant, making high volumes of calls to people that don’t necessarily want to hear them. While working this particular retained role, that is exactly what I felt.

The very act of agreeing to pay a retainer shows a) a show of commitment and b) faith in that agency and consultant. This in not only flattering, but human nature won’t very well allow you to let down someone who has displayed such confidence in you.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll call this client Keith. Keith’s job went right to the top of my list of priorities, despite the fact that it was by no means the largest fee at stake. Keith and I would exchange calls every couple of days throughout the process for comprehensive update on the incoming candidate pipeline, as well as full debriefs and feedback on the candidates I had submitted.

Retainers not only make our life more enjoyable, but for our clients, it greatly reduces the headache of liaising with a number of different recruiters. It also buys you a discount from our fees. I’m not suggesting that you go and put together a single-agency agreement today, but I do suggest perhaps giving lead time on your next non-urgent role to a single agency. See how they perform. If you like the results, and found you got more urgency and performance out of them, try a retainer next time, and these results will be magnified.

Needless to say, I filled Keith’s role. The candidate is enjoying a pay rise and last I heard, is performing well in his new role.

For an informal discussion on how we could help you fill your next role without stress, call 0141 241 4709 or email me at david.randall@reedglobal.com