Here is a question most hiring managers never ask: if you have briefed four agencies on the same role, what is each one actually doing?
The honest answer? The minimum.
Not because they are lazy. Because the maths forces it.
The 15-20% Problem
When you open a role to multiple agencies on a contingency basis, you are not getting four times the effort. You are splitting one effort into four.
Each agency knows the odds. If four firms are working the same brief, each one has a realistic 15-20% chance of filling it. That is before you factor in slow feedback, competing priorities, and the inevitable moment when the role goes quiet for two weeks.
No sensible business invests significant resources into something with a one-in-five shot. So agencies adapt. They move fast, not deep. They send CVs quickly rather than consulting carefully. They volume-play because volume is the only rational response to those odds.
The business that set up a "competitive" arrangement gets exactly what it created: quantity over quality.
What the Best Candidates See
Here is what nobody talks about.
The candidates you actually want - the senior engineer, the principal architect, the engineering lead who is not actively looking - they know their market. They talk to people. They notice things.
When a passive candidate gets approached by three different agencies about the same role in the same week, they do not think "this must be a great opportunity." They think one of two things: either this company cannot find what they need, or this company has no idea how to hire.
Both are damaging. One signals disorganisation. The other signals desperation.
You are trying to attract the best person in the market. That person has options. They are not going to get excited about joining a business that cannot manage a hiring process.
First impressions matter before you ever meet a candidate. The way you go to market is a statement about who you are as an employer.
Brand Damage You Cannot See
It goes further than candidate perception.
Multiple agencies working the same role means multiple versions of your company being pitched to the market at the same time. Different salary ranges. Different framings of the role. Different answers to "why should I look at this?" Some agencies will be accurate. Some will guess. Some will say whatever gets a candidate interested enough to submit their CV.
You have zero visibility over any of it.
Your employer brand is being shaped by four different conversations you are not part of. And by the time the wrong message reaches the wrong person in a small market like Australian tech, it spreads.
Undoing that damage is harder than doing the search right the first time.
Why Agency Behaviour Changes on Exclusive Briefs
This is not about loyalty or sentiment. It is about incentive structures.
When a recruiter knows they are the only firm on a role, the calculation changes completely. Now depth makes sense. Now spending two days mapping the right market segment, crafting the right approach, and having a genuine consultative conversation with a passive candidate is worth it. Now the role gets prioritised over the contingency briefs sitting underneath it in the pile.
The recruiter can also protect your brand. One consistent message. One controlled candidate experience. One person managing the process and accountable for the outcome.
Exclusive and retained arrangements do not just change what the recruiter does. They change what is possible.
What Quality Actually Looks Like
At Talent Aligned, we send three to four CVs per role. Sometimes fewer.
That is not a limitation. That is the point.
Every candidate we put forward has been properly assessed - technically, culturally, and motivationally. We have already had the conversation about their career, their situation, and whether this move genuinely makes sense for them. We have pre-closed before submission.
When a client receives a shortlist from us, they are not filtering. They are choosing.
That is a fundamentally different experience from receiving twelve CVs on a Friday afternoon from agencies who have not spoken to half the people they submitted.
The question is not how many CVs you get. It is how many of them are actually right.
The Practical Takeaway
If you are opening every role to four or five agencies, you are not reducing risk. You are creating it.
You are reducing each agency's incentive to consult. You are sending fragmented messages to a tight market. You are signalling to the best candidates that something is off. And you are building a process that rewards speed over quality.
The alternative is not complicated. It is a conversation about working differently.
Fewer agencies. Deeper briefs. Real accountability. Better outcomes.
Let's Talk
If your current hiring approach is not delivering the calibre of candidates you need, it might not be the market. It might be the model.
Reach out to the Talent Aligned team for a conversation about how a more focused approach actually works - and what it could mean for your next critical hire.