I occasionally get a call from a client who wants us to conduct a search, but insists on bringing in multiple recruiters rather than partnering with one firm exclusively. I typically turn down those opportunities, as it is in neither my best interests nor the client’s to bring on multiple search firms.

There is a myth that multiple recruitment firms will cover a broader search, and deliver results faster than one single firm. But in fact, the opposite is true.

Here are just a few reasons it is in the employer’s best interests to partner with one exclusive recruitment firm:

1. Better quality search results. If you are pitting one firm against another, they will race against each other (for a brief while) to get resumes to you as quickly as possible. Because of the imposed urgency, you are likely to see a number of unqualified resumes. Non-exclusive recruiters often hope to get lucky and hit a match, rather than putting in the effort to screen properly.
2. Deeper and broader search. Committing to one recruiter will allow that recruiter to spend the time to network and headhunt to uncover the very best candidate for your requirements, rather than just pulling resumes out of a database.
3. Less work for the hiring manager. If you are working with multiple search firms, you will get a lot more resumes than you would working with just one recruiter. However, many of those resumes will not match your hiring needs, which just makes more work for the hiring manager. Not to mention time spent sorting out candidate ownership disputes between multiple firms.
4. Better candidate experience. Have you ever received the same resume from more than one recruiter? It can make your company look unprofessional if more than one recruiter interviews a candidate about the same job. And you may see some great candidates back out of the process entirely when multiple firms are involved.
5. Confidentiality. For a confidential search, working with more than one recruiting firm makes no sense. It will be impossible for a recruiter to keep the company name confidential if there are multiple search firms involved.

If you’re a hiring manager looking for top talent in supply chain and logistics, I hope you will consider working with SCL Search. Check us out. Compare us against other recruitment firms. And choose the one firm that you think will do the best job for you.