Fewer than they have right now. Many corporate recruiters carry 15 to 25 open reqs. Agency recruiters often carry more, and temp desks count orders, not reqs. Numbers differ by industry. But past about 20 to 25 open orders, quality drops before anyone notices. Intake calls get skipped. Submittals get generic. Candidates stop hearing back. The right number is the one where every order still gets a real intake and every submittal still gets checked.
What happens at 40 open orders
Here is a recruiter with 40 open orders. It looks like a full pipeline. Here is what it looks like from the inside.
New orders come in by email and get a two-line note, not an intake call. Sourcing starts from the job title. Submittals are copied from the last one and lightly edited. Candidates who were screened last week wait four days for a call back. Two clients each get a candidate who is almost right.
Each of those shortcuts costs more time later. The almost-right submittal comes back. The candidate who waited takes another job. The order with no real intake gets sourced twice. The recruiter is busier than ever, and fewer orders close.
The math for your desk
You can work out the number in fifteen minutes. Count the hours one order really takes, done properly.
- Intake call and written order: 1 hour
- Sourcing and outreach: 6 hours
- Screening calls: 3 hours
- Writing and checking the submittal: 1 hour
- Confirmations and follow-up: 1 hour
That is about 12 hours per order. A recruiter has maybe 30 hours a week for order work, after meetings and admin. So they can take on roughly two or three new orders a week and do them properly. Over a month, with some closing and some dragging, that is a desk of 15 to 20 live orders.
Your numbers will differ. Temp orders for the same client are faster. Hard-to-fill skilled roles are slower. But the method is the same: hours needed against hours available.
How to lighten a heavy desk
Close the dead ones. An order at the wrong pay rate that has had no response in three weeks is not open. It is a weight. Call the client, say so politely, and close it or fix the rate.
Take the order properly. A real intake makes sourcing faster. It is the fastest way to lower the hours per order.
Work the hottest orders first. Three hours a day on the orders that are closest to filling. The rest get short, honest updates.
Stop the bounce-backs. A submittal that comes back costs the hours twice. Check it against the order before it goes out.
For owners and branch managers
The warning sign is not the number of reqs. It is the quality signals. First submittals getting rejected. Candidates complaining about silence. Orders being sourced twice. When those go up, the desk is over its number, whatever the spreadsheet says.
Where M-Tracker fits
M-Tracker shows a team lead who is overbooked this week and next, and gives every submittal a check against its job order before it goes out. So when the desk gets heavy, the shortcuts that cost the most, the generic submittal and the missed must-have, get caught before the client sees them.
Try M-Tracker free14-day trial. No credit card. No employee surveillance.
Questions people ask
Is 40 reqs ever OK?
For a short burst, with a lot of repeat temp orders for the same client, maybe. As a steady state, no. Something is being skipped.
Should I count reqs or hours?
Hours. Ten easy orders can be less work than four hard ones.
What do I tell a client when I cannot take their order this week?
The truth, with a date. "I can start a proper search on Thursday. If you need people before that, I would rather tell you now."
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