Why aren't agencies automatically notified if their submitted candidates are duplicates?

We occasionally hear from customers that it would be beneficial to automatically alert agency recruiters if they submit suspected duplicate candidates to a job. However, Greenhouse has a few concerns about implementing this specific functionality:

When agencies are auto-notified of duplicates, it can negatively impact an organization's relationship with an agency:

  • Existing agreements for candidate ownerships: Most companies have agreements with agencies that limit the agency's ownership over a candidate. So, if a second agency submits a duplicate candidate after the initial owner has expired, they could be incorrectly notified of an ineligible candidate.
  • Compromised candidate confidentiality: If an agency receives an auto-duplicate notification, it compromises the candidate's confidentiality, especially if it was submitted by a completely separate agency. In other cases, the candidate may have been referred or prospected into the account without their knowledge before the agency can submit them, so it could cause even more confusion if the agency reaches out to the candidate to address the duplication.
  • Risks of assigned credit: If a candidate is already engaging someone on the recruiting team but has not yet been added to Greenhouse, the lack of a duplicate candidate notification can cause confusion about which source will receive credit, and may not actually match reality.

In short, the process of assigning credit to an agency is slightly different for each organization and agency. Implementing an application-wide notification removes recruiters' ability to make decisions and communicate appropriately to the relevant parties.