There’s a UK comedian, Michael McIntyre, who has a genius segment on his show.
It’s called Send to All.
He “borrows” a celebrity’s phone – someone he’s invited and is in the audience. Then he sends a ridiculous text to everyone in their contacts (which usually includes plenty of other famous names).
As the show goes on, he’ll read out the replies that come in…
It’s hilarious chaos.
Great for Saturday night TV, BUT if that’s your recruitment strategy, then you still get the chaos but none of the laughs…
I met one of my clients recently and mid-chat, he said we were;
“The gold standard in treasury recruitment.”
I was blown away by the amazing praise!!!
But then…
He said;
‘When I send you the role, I’ll share it with the other agency we use at exactly the same time….’
Hold on…
You said we’re the gold standard, but you’re giving the same job to the agency so they can send it out to all the people that have the word Treasury somewhere mentioned in their Resume / CV and do a “spray and pray”?
Yes, he said. He then asked,
“Is that OK?”
I had to explain – here’s the problem with the “Send to All” approach in recruitment:
- You get agencies blasting out job specs to every vaguely treasury-shaped person in their database.
- There’s no targeting, no filtering, and certainly no real understanding of the role.
- And they block good recruiters (like us) from speaking to top-tier talent…
Because when a recruiter submits a candidate to a company – even if it’s done badly – the company is often contractually obliged to associate that candidate with that recruiter.
So, if another recruiter (like us) approaches them and presents them properly – with the background info, an understanding of the role and a report about why they are a match – the client can’t officially accept them from us without risking:
- A double fee (if both agencies claim ownership)
- A dispute with the first agency
- A whole lot of admin headaches
So, I said to my client:
“Just give us five days’ head start. That’s it.”
Five days to go out to our network, speak to the right people, and bring back real options.
If we don’t deliver? Fair enough. Open it up to everyone.
But if we do?
Well, then you get what you actually asked for:
Quality candidates, matched to your business, your culture, and the future of your treasury team.
And guess what? He agreed.
Because unlike a “Send to All” text, recruitment should be targeted.
Best regards,
Mike
P.S. If you’re tired of CVs that make you go, “Why on earth did they send me this?”, maybe it’s time to try the gold standard. Give me five days and let’s see what happens.
P.P.S. Mark Wilson (a recruiter, but not in treasury) made an excellent post that really highlights the effectiveness of a good recruiter. Take a look here:
