Recruitment Agencies (I have one) are risking damage…

Recruitment Agencies (I have one) are risking damage to themselves, their employers and the industry as they are increasingly caught out in unethical acts.  If the tougher conditions have a positive side, it is that they will ultimately weed out the poor agencies behaving in ways that can provide only short-term gains.

(1) Faking jobs:

• Take a look at any of the major job boards and it’s clear that reverse marketing is on the rise. 
• The telltale signs in the ads include broad OTE’s (for example, £80k – £140K).
• Multiple jobs listed under from one consultant targeting a specific industry. 

The practice is more common not just agencies are getting desperate, but also because many recruitment agencies are locked into contracts with the major job boards to advertise a specific number of jobs per month. When business was good, agencies had no trouble filling the quota with real jobs but now they feel they might as well use up the excess with fake ones. 

(2) Faking candidates:

One of the most common practices is when recruiters pose as candidates and call agency or internal recruiters about the jobs they are advertising  using the information to attempt to reverse market real candidates for the positions or undercut their competitors on price. Numerous recruiters who have been “burned” by sending out details to fake candidates feel the practices are undermining their ability to build trusting relationships with candidates and clients. 

(3) Disrespecting clients:

At a time when recruitment consultants could be expected to “do all the right things”by clients and candidates to win their business some are not. The focus should be on building positive relationships with your clients by respecting the way they do business. All recruitment queries are to be directed to the HR departement (if existant) or the proper line of authority, however recruiters continue to approach line managers direct with speculative resumes and candidates; call managers regarding vacancies; and recently one was even caught on LinkedIn posing as a staff member who was employed for over a year in a recruitment position. 

(4) Candidate disputes:

The most serious complaints are about recruiters who allegedly put candidates forward for roles without their express permission, leading to disputes with other agencies that claim to have “rights” over the candidate. In these complaints, recruiters are allegedly misrepresenting their relationship with the client to the candidate (to convince them to switch agencies) and/or are using information gleaned from the candidates to under-cut their competitors. Recruiters who claim to be doing the right thing by properly interviewing candidates and gaining their permission to be represented say they are losing out to less ethical recruiters, as clients are rarely interested in sorting out the problem once they’ve decided to make a hire and will simply go with the recruiter who charges the lowest fee. 

To look after client and candidate always consider:

• the recruiter’s entitlement to represent the candidate;
• whether the client sought the recruiter’s services for the job in the dispute;
• whether the agency provided details of the job to the candidate;
• whether the agency obtained the candidate’s consent to be put forward for the job;
• whether the agency submitted the candidate’s resume in connection with the job; and
• whether the agency made arrangements for the candidate to be interviewed for the job.

Share your stories using the link below.