Case Study: A National Brand Spends Over $150,000 Annually on Retained and Contingency Search Only to Yield B Players

Problem:

A well-known national household brand spent over $150,000 annually to source talent through both retained and contingency search only to yield 6 B Players who are no longer with the company.  The searches would only yield between 6-12 candidates for each position.  The HR manager lamented that the quality of the talent presented by the recruiters was only fair.  The placement fee for each candidate was over $20,000 each.  Within 1 year, the candidates placed from retained and contingency search were exited from the business for not performing to expectations.  The overall cost of the recruiting and lost salaries to this organization due to these mis-hires was well over $800,000 annually.

Solution:

This company was referred to A Player Advantage by another satisfied client.  Within one month of using the A Player Advantage process, the company was evaluating over 50 candidates per position on a regular basis.  The majority of these candidates were far superior in quality to those sourced through retained and contingency search.  In addition, all of the top finalists went through the full A Player Advantage hiring process, including the Topgrading interview and reference check process.

Results:

As a result of the Topgrading interview process, the first A Player was successfully recruited and on-boarded within days.  This candidate turned out to be a bona fide A Player employee and started contributing to the organization immediately.  At first, the company allowed contingency and retained search firms to tender candidates as part of the process, but these candidates did not become finalists versus the candidates sourced by A Player Advantage. Today the firm solely relies on the A Player Advantage process.  The result has been 5 more A Players hired, and they are producing results for the company.  The firm has saved over $100,000 in direct-recruiting expenses and has not only realized better candidates, but has instituted a culture of A Player performance in their business.

Rick Crossland is an internationally known expert, approved YPO speaker, and thought leader on A Player talent. A leading certified Scaling Up coach and the author of the acclaimed business book The A Player, Rick’s innovative approach to recruiting, interviewing, validating, and developing high performers—A Players—has been featured in leading business publications such as Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com, Fortune.com, Recruiter.com, Columbus CEO, and Leadership Insights. With clients around the world, his expertise helps businesses scale by building high-performance teams that drive superior results. Follow Rick on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).