When the Pieces Don’t Fit…
Recruiting the perfect Personal Assistant (PA) or Executive Assistant (EA) is a lot like doing a jigsaw puzzle. You’ve got the big picture in mind – a skilled, trustworthy PA or EA who fits seamlessly into your team – and you’re looking for those elusive final pieces. Now, imagine tipping out three different puzzles at once, all with similar colours but completely different designs. Suddenly, your search is more confusing, and what started out as a satisfying challenge turns into a frustrating guessing game.
That’s what has the potential to happen when you use multiple recruitment agencies at once to hire for the same PA or EA role – more confusion, more chaos, and a much longer road to the finished picture. Here’s why “the more, the merrier” isn’t always true when it comes to PA and EA recruitment – and why starting with just one trusted agency can pay off in both the short and the long term.
It Can Waste More Time Than It Saves
At first glance, sending your PA or EA vacancy to several agencies feels efficient. You fire off the job spec, lean back, and wait for a flood of CVs to arrive in your inbox. It sounds good… but there’s a catch: An excellent recruitment agency doesn’t just glance at your brief and send over the first stack of CVs they can find. They’ll want to sit down with you, ideally in person, to fully understand the role, your working style, and the nuances that haven’t made it into the job description. They’ll also rigorously meet, vet, and assess each candidate before that CV ever reaches your inbox.
Multiply that by three or four agencies, and suddenly you’re having the same conversations over and over again. You’re fielding multiple sets of follow-up questions, reviewing CVs in different formats, coordinating interview schedules with several points of contact – all while still keeping up with the demands of your own job. Instead of streamlining your hiring, you’ve multiplied your admin. And for a busy CEO, or Executive, that time is extremely precious.
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You Could Miss Out On Excellent Candidates
It’s tempting to think that more agencies means more external effort going into your search. But in the realm of PAs and EAs, adding extra recruiters into the mix can actually change the way they work – and not always for the better. When multiple agencies are chasing the same role, speed often becomes the driving force. Some consultants will feel the pressure to be the first rather than the best, rushing CVs into your inbox before they’ve really taken the time to vet the candidate or explore whether they are genuinely the right fit. That level of diligence takes time, and in a race, time is the first thing to go.
The irony is - in PA and EA recruitment, the best hires are often ‘hidden-gems’: candidates who may not tick every box on paper but have the personality traits and attitude to become indispensable. In a race against the clock, those people risk being overlooked entirely. And in PA and EA roles where trust, discretion, and long-term fit are non-negotiable, that’s a costly miss.
It Can Weaken The Relationship With Your Recruitment Consultant
The very best PA and EA recruiters invest in understanding you. They learn how you work, what motivates your team, and even the unspoken details you’d never think to put into writing. That level of insight lets them be selective, sending you fewer CVs but ones that genuinely fit with the role.
When you treat agencies as interchangeable, that relationship never has the chance to develop. Without that deeper knowledge, even the most diligent recruiter is working with less context, which can be the difference between a hire who’s “good enough” and one who feels like they’ve been part of your team from day one.
You Might Never See the Real Top-Tier Talent
It happens more often than you think: a client uses three agencies and decides to take the top two candidates from each. It sounds fair and balanced… But what if one agency actually had the top six? You’d never know. And in the process, you could miss out on the PA or EA who was the perfect match simply because they didn’t make it into your self-imposed “quota”.
If you work with one committed recruiter, you’ll see all of their best talent, not just the portion they manage to get in front of you first.
Think Smarter…
Now, we’re not saying there’s never a place for using more than one agency. In fact, in certain situations like highly specialist roles or niche skill requirements, having more than one recruitment agency in the mix can add momentum. But the smartest approach is to start with one agency first – one with a strong reputation and network within the PA and EA market – and give them a clear time frame. If after, say, a month, the role isn’t filled, you can widen the net with additional agencies.
This way, you still benefit from the extra reach and fresh perspectives multiple agencies can offer, but you avoid the initial chaos and duplication that can slow everything down when too many are involved from day one.
Trust Builds Better Matches
The most successful PA and EA hires happen because your recruiter knows you inside out. That level of insight isn’t built in a single phone call; it’s earned over time, through consistent communication and shared wins. When you work closely with one agency, you give them the chance to become a genuine hiring partner and that’s when they can truly anticipate your needs and deliver candidates who feel like they were made for the role.
Too Many Chefs…
To summarise, in theory, working with multiple agencies to fill your opening sounds like a fast track to results. But in reality, it can be more like having too many chefs in the kitchen – everyone’s working to their own recipe and the final menu feels disjointed. In PA and EA recruitment, quality comes from clarity and trust. Start with one expert in your corner, give them the space to deliver, and you’re far more likely to end up with the perfect hire – instead of a table full of dishes no one ordered.
Knightsbridge Recruitment is a boutique consultancy which has been placing stand-out candidates in the most sought after permanent, temporary and part-time Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant, Private PA and executive office support jobs in London, for over 35 years. If you would like advice on taking your next career step or hiring and retaining exceptional staff, we would love to help - please call us.
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This article is written by Evie Stylianou
Evie is a freelance Creative Director working across music videos and commercials, and a passionate writer of everything from blogs to articles to screenplays. She holds a Liberal Arts degree from the University of Nottingham.
In collaboration with Belinda Lighton
With over 30 years at the helm of Knightsbridge Recruitment, Belinda Lighton brings unusual depth of experience in placing high-performing and talented PAs and EAs across a wide range of industries. Her understanding of the evolving demands of executive support roles allows her to offer strategic insight and practical guidance, drawn from decades of hands-on leadership at one of London’s most respected and longstanding boutique recruitment consultancies specialising in PAs, EAs and office support staff.
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