Why do agency recruiters have such a bad reputation?

Ironically, I think the biggest problem affecting the staffing agency industry is the lack of seeking and hiring top internal talent. Salaries offered to would-be talent is often low with less than attractive commission and bonus plans. Therefore, seasoned recruiters often opt to go to professional and executive search firms or corporate recruiting environments; leaving agencies with high turnover industry newbies and lazy or less skilled recruiters.

 Today I was speaking to a manager at “Brand X” recruiting agency regarding what seemed to be a high stress, high volume mid-level recruiting role. Though the position initially piqued my interest, I was turned off as soon as the conversation switched to compensation. Apparently nearly four years of experience, a BA degree, a personality and a strong understanding for the business earns you a salary in the rock-bottom $30’s with a chance to make an additional $2k annually in commission.

OOoooh! Really!? Please, sign me up!!

I can understand if a position starts in the $30’s with an opportunity to double or triple the base in commission as a performance incentive– but with the structure offered, “Brand X” will either get a very green or very “status- quo” recruiter that probably will not ultimately serve the company’s goals and will turn over in 6-12 months. Apparently this branch of “Brand X” needs some TLC and can’t “afford” to pay a higher pay package. What I don’t understand is why such a large organization would not invest the money in a strong, seasoned recruiter to help boost that branch, which in turn would offer a much stronger ROI? I hate to break it to you, “X”, but a weak or green recruiter is probably not going to get the job done.

Unfortunately it seems that low salaries and unattractive commission plans are the culprits of why many agencies and recruiters have given the industry a bad name. As far as I can see, that is the root of all the agency evil.

I have found that most agency recruiters are over-worked, under paid and have very little training in what they do—and little to no training in what their clients do. Sure, there are obviously companies that are exceptions to the rule, but I am looking at it as a whole. As a result, recruiters are constantly pushed to “call call call”  and “sell sell sell” and often don’t have the time needed to get to know their clients, their clients business and  their applicants. This practice comes across to clients and jobseekers as rookie form, or unprofessional—or even worse…completely annoying.

And what is the incentive? Work work work, and maybe you’ll earn that $200 commission this month! After one follows this model for so long, with so much client rejection, so much applicant over-load and so little compensation, he or she eventually burns out and another recruiter takes his/her place. This cycle continues over and over again. Shocked? Surprised?

I offered the question of bad agency recruiting as debate to my list of contacts at www.LinkedIn.com and the answers literally flooded in. Apparently there is a wide-spread negativity in regards to agency recruiters– which all points back to, in my opinion, the hiring process and compensation. My hope is that with awareness, there is change. The good recruiters and companies out there need to set the example, not be an exception to the example. Let’s take our industry back! Let’s change the negative image of agency recruiting!

Here’s what some clients and jobseekers had to say in regards to agency recruiters:

[Recruiters have a] “Pushy attitude and little concern for actually arranging a ‘good fit’. Fill the job and get paid and do it as fast as possible seems to be the motto.”

-James M. Koenig AIA, Registered Professional Architect

“Like others, I’ve been finding that modern recruiters are (a) clueless, (b) rude, (c) ineffective, and (d) black holes. Worse, I have some historical perspective—recruiters that did that ten years ago were considered the bottom of the pool, but there were many recruiters that were attentive, intelligent, informative and showed a willingness to build a relationship, get to know their clients and contractors, and make good fits. Unfortunately, these days it appears that the only thing left is the bottom of the pool.”

-Ken McGlothlen, Information Technology and Services Professional

“Agency Recruiters for the most part are completely technically inept. They are usually poorly trained and are there to make sales. For these reasons, they do not provide quality. I find that they like to try the ‘throwing crap at a wall technique’ when sending CV’s – ie some of it might stick. They do not read CV’s properly, they lie to candidates and their clients, they are pushy and aggressive and untrustworthy. They also provide a completely unnecessary service in this day and age as hiring is easy.”

Emmanuel De Lophem, Independent Consumer Electronics Professional

“From a recruiter perspective, depending on the firm you work for, the companies focus on numbers vs. quality of placement. 

From the candidate side, it truly depends on your recruiter but simply not following through with what you said you would do or not being upfront and honest.”

-Denise Shea, Online Account Manager-Media Advisor at Sign On San Diego

“As a job seeker, receiving floods of e-mail about jobs that do not match my qualifications and then seeing the same agency has suitable openings they posted to job boards but didn’t send to me. Also getting cheery, impersonal messages about how much they want to help me while rarely receiving any response to expressions of interest in jobs they’ve circulated.”

-Leah A. Zeldes, Journalist, writer and editor

“As a client perspective, when they don’t really listen to my needs. Sometimes it’s really obvious that they are trying to place someone desperately, even when that person is not the best fit for my organization. As a jobseeker, I hate it when they say things like we’ll keep in touch. I’ll update you periodically on what we are working on. Nine months later and I’m six months into a new job that I found on my own, they call and present me with an opportunity or two that they have for me. Recruiting relationship?????????”

-Doug Hering [LION], Creative and Fun Strategic Leader

“I work at the Big Four. Very frequently, there are blind cold calls immediately jumping into what it is that THEY need, rather than trying to establish a relationship, and find out what it is that I might be interested in or who I might be able to put them in touch with. Why would I recommend someone, when the person on the other line is just ‘trying to fill a spot’?”

-Tajana Surlan-Mesic, MBA, Senior Associate Global Tax Compliance

“Dishonesty! Daily phone calls to make sure that you’re still available because the client loves you more than anyone they’ve ever interviewed and then, silence and a refusal to take your calls. I don’t deal with agency or independent recruiters unless I know them very well after several of those. I don’t understand the purpose of tactics like that. It doesn’t seem as if it serves their client, the job seeker, or their own long-term needs.”

Joy Montgomery, Process analysis, development & documentation

 About 50 more answers to this topic are posted here: What Annoys You Most About Agency Recruiters?