Why Good Recruiters Leave: A Tale of 2 Agencies

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This is a podcast of a recent blog we posted talking about the top 5 reasons good recruiters leave an agency.
Here are my top 5 reasons why recruiters want to leave an agency.

1. Compensation Schemes Change

When most agencies start out, they create a comp scheme that works for the short to medium-term but often not for the long-term. Most comp schemes are simple, clear and fair but they may outgrow their original purpose. Agencies often need to change their comp schemes because of their manpower, preparing for a slow market or because their recruiters aren’t performing as well as before or their fundamental model shifted from an individual biller focus to a team billing focus. For whatever the reason, it can mean people are looking for another option.

2. Leadership/Management Changes

This is probably the most common when a new leader or manager comes in and turns the environment into something they are not used to. It always happens and is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, turning up the heat shakes the tree to lose the leaves that don’t belong. Other times, it is just a fundamental flaw in culture shift. In either case, this can lead to a drop in retention.

3. Lack of Support and Development

This one I have experienced firsthand and is still very prevalent in many agencies, especially boutique agencies. Boutique agencies need to hire the right kind of people that fit the culture but are also self-sufficient. Boutiques usually do not have the bandwidth to help develop their own people however, I do have work with some agencies that are very good at that, however, for the most part, they simply can’t. Often, the leadership needs to focus more on the bottom line and growth and less on people development. Larger agencies usually have a pretty good training and development program but keeping people engaged and interested is getting much harder for any size agency with remote work. Again, another reason why people start kicking the tires and window shopping.

4. No Opportunity to Change Industries

Both boutiques and large agencies often struggle with this one especially when teams specialize in a certain sector. But since the Lehman days and with the COVID era, the stronger agencies found a way to pivot and many recruiters had no choice but to shift industries. For me, I have never really specialized which is both good and bad but in terms of recruiting in general, it’s great and makes you a better recruiter in some cases. I often get motivated when a client asks for some way out in left field search. The process never changes; for me, it’s all the same but many recruiters are reluctant to give up their relationships and hard work to dive into something new. I can respect that but I what I respect more are people who take the plunge into something new. But again, this is often a reason why some recruiters want to leave because their current agencies are not allowing them to expand professionally.

5. Agency to In-house

I often talk to agency recruiters that are just looking to get away from the agency and revenue side of the business and more into an in-house model where they can focus their attention on one client and one mission. Many times, moving over to an in-house role is often much harder than the agency side and can occasionally derail your career but moving from an agency to an in-house role is a big step and you need to assess what type of recruiter you are before making the jump. The market for experienced agency-side recruiters is picking up so this is becoming more of a leave factor than before.
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