20 Questions You Should Ask When Vetting A Search Firm

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The sad thing is, most companies don’t know, they just select the search firm that will accept the lowest rate and hope everything works out.

In my 16 years of recruiting I have been thoroughly vetted by only 4, yes 4 companies in 16 years. But I am proud to say we are 3 for 4 in those cases.

I don’t know about you but only being thoroughly vetted 4 times in 16 years is concerning and quite frankly the numbers don’t get any better. I spoke to 10 of my most trusted colleagues in the recruiting industry and they all agreed that they rarely get vetted. 

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My question to that statement is always, “then why are we talking?" and "how’s that going for you?”

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And hell, when companies are paying 5-figure fees, your solo, kitchen table recruiter is happy to knock down 3 or 4 of those per year and be perfectly content because the low hanging fruit is easy to fill.

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1. They don’t know how to. No one has ever taught them what questions they should be asking when vetting a search partner.
2. They only care about getting a search firm to work on their search for the lowest fee possible and NEVER even think, because no one told them, that clients get put into A, B & C buckets.

The A bucket is a client that has paid an engagement fee or has given their recruiting partner an exclusive. These clients get first priority and are given access to all of their search partner's available tools including a recruiting team, not just one rookie recruiter, a research associate, a marketing plan, etc.

The B bucket gets some attention but chances are they are going to have one recruiter working the job, and they might get a minimal marketing effort on their search.

Then there is the C bucket. You don't want to be in the C bucket. This is where all the companies land that are using multiple agencies, and beating their search partner up for the lowest fee possible land. These clients get no love and very little attention. As a matter of fact, if your recruiting partner can’t find a decent match in their internal database or on the job boards within 48 hours they move on to the lower hanging fruit.

That’s the reason why when you have hired the low price leader recruiter who submits 5 mediocre candidates in 48 hours and you decline all 5 because let’s face it they suck, the recruiter disappears into thin air, never to be heard from again.

I know you’re laughing because it has probably happened to you more than one time, am I right?

Anyway, before I go off on a random tangent because I talk about this for hours, let me list out the questions you should be asking your potential search partner during the vetting process.

And for the love of god please stop hiring 4 contingency recruiters and asking them to work for free. All you are doing is rewarding speed over thoroughness and that is a TERRIBLE recruiting strategy.

Now let's give you the roadmap you need to properly vet your next search partner.

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1. First, ask them to tell you about the last 3 or 4 placements they made. What were the titles and what kind of company did they recruit for? Don’t ask for specific names here but sometimes the recruiter will divulge that anyway.

2. How long did it take them to place that candidate from the day you took the search to the day they started?

3. Next, ask if they have an off-limits list….and if so, what companies are on that list? Most ethical recruiters aren't allowed to recruit from their client companies usually for about a year after their last placement with them. 

Keep in mind…..the longer the off-limits list the fewer options you have available to you to find your next All-Star. That's the reason why the larger firms are not necessarily the best firms to work with, because they've got an off-limits list a mile long. Now, if they don't have an off-limits list I would RUN because that means if they don’t have an off-limits list they may be putting people in your front door and taking them out the back door.

This is HIGHLY unethical, and unfortunately, a lot of search firms allow this. Here at Ventech, we have it in our agreement that we won’t recruit out of your company for a minimum of 12 months after our last placement with you.

4. Ok next you want to ask about metrics? 

Ask, how many searches they fill compared to how many searches they take? Pretty simple, right? Here, you want to find out what percentage of the time they successfully complete a search. Keep in mind, the vast majority of contingency search firms average between 20-25%.

Now, when you, point-blank, ask a contingency recruiter this question they will stumble and bumble all over themselves and probably say something like 40%, 50%, 60%, you get the point….Anything over 20%-25% is BS.

Conversely, if you are considering an engaged firm, which you should, where you put some skin in the game in the form of an engagement fee or exclusive, you're typically going to see a success rate of about 80% to 90%. Big difference right? That’s because you are sharing the risk and allowing that search firm the time they need to map the market and do a thorough search. 

5. Next ask them what their interview-to-placement ratio is? Now, this can vary pretty wildly, but when comparing firms, it is a pretty good metric to use. Just know the industry average is about 8 to 1 and our ratio here at Ventech is 6.7 to 1.

6. Next……ask them where they source their candidates from? 

Here you are assessing their metrics of passive candidate to active candidate placed? You want that skewed towards the passive side, somewhere in the 85%-90% range. I mean why pay a 5-figure recruiting fee for a job board candidate that your HR team can find on their own.

Now listen closely here.....if they start talking about a proprietary recruiting process that is super top secret. That’s bullshit and you should RUN.

7. Next, ask what their stick rate is?

 Stick rate is the percentage of placed candidates still employed after one year.

8. Next you want to dive deep into their search process…….you know that super-secret proprietary process they have????

Again if it is a super-secret proprietary process, you should RUN

I want you to Dig deep into this process…Ask them to describe their process in detail. SHOCKINGLY, when I first got into this business, my first recruiting trainer gave me some very bad advice. I was told to never show our clients what our process really looked like and to keep what we did a mystery. 

That advice never really sat well with me. I've always thought that we should open the hood for our clients and to show you exactly what we do, why we do it, and how we do it, otherwise, you wouldn't see the value in what we do if all we did was show up with a stack of resumes.

So again, ask to see the recruitment process in detail, excruciating detail. 

9. Ask them……How are you going to map out the entire market? What does that look like?

And once every potential candidate is mapped, how are you going to determine who the top performers are? 

10. How are you going to engage these candidates? 

Is it going to be digital, new school engagement? Analog, old school engagement? Or both?

11. What distribution channels will they use to connect with the market? 

12. How are they going to assess interested candidates? 

13. What's their selection process? 

14. What's going to be their knockout criteria? 

15. Do they employ video marketing? And if so, at what point in the process? 

16. How will they present shortlisted candidates to you? 

17. How will they ensure that the candidate is onboarded correctly? 

18. How are they going to make sure that the placed candidate retained during the guarantee period?

Ok WOW, that’s a lot! 

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19. You want to ask your potential partner about the landscape of your market. 

The best way to assess if a recruiter, who says they specialize in your market is really a specialist, is to ask them detailed questions about the market. For example, one of our specialty markets, industrial automation:

If you were looking for a Director of Automation in Boston….. you could ask, "How many people approximately would fit the bill in Boston?" Obviously, there's no real right or wrong answer here but they should at least be able to map the market and have the data readily available.

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Please don’t try to play gotcha here and ask the recruiter to describe technical concepts only a Director of Automation would know. 

20. Next you should ask “how they plan to sell you as a leader, your company, and your opportunity? 

More to the point, how do they sell your employer value proposition (EVP)? And do they understand your employer value proposition (EVP)? My suggestion is to imagine you were a candidate on the fence, and ask them to put together a pitch and sell you on the opportunity. 

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This list will get you started, but it's certainly not an exhaustive list, however, it's enough to get you started so you can effectively vet the search firm of your choosing.

I hope you got a ton of value from this article and if you want to find out more about how you can pick the right firm to work with and how to completely de-risk your hiring decision, and consistently hire the top 10% in your industry just shoot me a message here on LinkedIn.

You can also book a call with me directly here https://calendly.com/jayveniard/callwithjay15

Find out more about Ventech Search Group here https://ventechsearch.com/employers/.