Running a balanced recruiting desk, no matter if it’s good times or bad, is the goal of many recruiters. What do I mean by that?
I mean that the job orders that these recruiters have are spread across a number of different client companies. That way, if one company decides to implement a hiring freeze or stops issuing job orders for some other (insane) reason, then the recruiter will still have job orders to fill from their other clients.
“Riding the gravy train” of just one or even two clients can be a dangerous proposition for recruiters. Basically, a recruiter is putting “all of their eggs in one basket.” However, it can be a difficult situation from which to break free, especially if one client company is overloading that recruiter with job orders.
It’s a predicament with which recruiters have been dealing for years. As such, we thought it would be a good question to pose to the membership of Top Echelon Network. And we did, in the form of a poll question. The question that we asked was this one:
Of the job orders you’re currently working, how many clients do they represent?
Results:
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters who selected each one:
- One (1) — 12.8%
- Two (2) — 8.5%
- Three (3) — 26.6%
- Four (4) — 18.1%
- Five (5) — 12.8%
- More than five — 21.3%
Summary:
As you can see, the vast majority of recruiters who responded to the poll have job orders that represent three or more client companies. Only 12.8% have job orders representing a single client. Perhaps most telling is the percentage of respondents who have job orders representing more than five client companies—21.3%, or over a fifth of all recruiters who participated in the poll.
The most popular answer, though, was three (26.6%). That still does not represent the best full desk recruiter balance in the world. What if one of those clients disappear? What if two disappear? The good news is that another 18.1% have job orders representing four clients and 12.8% have orders representing five clients.
Analysis and Conclusion:
Job orders from five or more clients represent a full desk recruiting balance. Losing job orders from one of those companies would not dramatically impact the overall production of a recruiting firm. It would hurt, for sure, but it wouldn’t mean the end of the world . . . or at the very least, the end of that recruiting firm.
One thing is certain. When you’re a recruiter and you’re making placement after placement with just one or two clients, it is exceedingly difficult to market enough to get job orders from other clients. That’s because you’re wrapped up in these searches and the placement checks are flowing like honey.
So—what do you think? Is job order balance important? If so, how important? How many client companies do your job orders represent? Are you looking for more balance than you currently have? Or are you satisfied with where you are?