Why it pays to put all your eggs in one basket

Without a doubt one of the biggest headaches facing the banking, accounting and finance sector today is an acute shortage of staff. The industry is in agreement that in the last 18 months, the market has swung from one in which there are more employees than jobs available, to a climate where firms are struggling to fill positions. The good old days where employers could pick and choose their staff, and didnít have to offer anything out of the ordinary to retain them, have gone. These were the days where personnel departments simply turned to their preferred recruitment consultant to help them pick the right candidate.



In todayís candidate driven market however, employers are in a somewhat more tricky situation. They still need to be able to make sure theyíre not just filling vacant positions with mediocre staff, but must realise that they no longer have the pick of the bunch.

The time has come for employers to re-assess the ways in which they recruit their staff. While the ball is undoubtedly in the candidatesí court, employers shouldnít feel obliged to take on a mediocre workforce, but should be educated in their approach to identifying good quality staff. The recruitment sector is increasingly dealing with a very astute set of job seekers. Itís no good just asking your team to perform a ring round of the market place and make contact with anyone whoís recently submitted their CV. In fact, in our experience, companies that have taken this approach have discovered that it not only weakens the reputation of their brand, but that the quality of the resulting candidates is poor.

A company that approaches its recruitment with flippancy, is not going to carry the same weight as one which uses an executive search firm, with the expertise and knowledge of their industry to find exactly the right potential candidates. One common misconception is that employers tend to consider that the best way of finding a candidate is to sign up with numerous search agencies. But this couldnít be further from the truth. This is one of the few occasions when it really does pay to put all your eggs (energy and resources) in one basket.

In our experience, a number of organisations weíve worked with tend to multi-mandate ñ often asking up to four firms to find potential candidates for the same positions. While this may appear to be the most effective way to fill the position quickly, in truth the opposite is often the case. Search firms work by applying their best resources to the best assignments ñ and when they know that there are others on the case too, itís suddenly not so attractive. The added danger of multi mandating is that potential candidates are hounded by recruiters all begging them to come and work for company X. This approach is likely to make company X look desperate, thereby diluting the reasons for working there. Organisations need to keep the competitive edge, ensuring candidates view the experience of joining that company as a privilege, rather than the other way round.