Exclusivity: Why Employers
Give Exclusivity to Recruiters

“Exclusive” or “exclusivity” is a common term in the industry.

When an employer engages a recruiter’s services, exclusivity is one of the clauses established in the contract.

The employer is not allowed to use any other recruiting firms, nor their own internal recruitment team to fill the position.

This is always included in a retained executive search contract, and commonly pushed for with contingent searches.

The more likely the chances that an employer can beat out the recruiter from receiving a fee (by filling it through an alternative source), the less motivated the recruiter is to work on it.

Headhunters tend to view non-exclusive projects as higher risk, and not as good an investment of their time compared with other exclusive searches they may be working on.

Why go with the exclusivity clause? Because it is a quasi guarantee of complete commitment for both parties.

I commit to you, you commit to me.