Ethical Behavior in Recruiting, Part II

Posted by Jim Stroud

November 16, 2007

As a technical recruiter I deal with a lot of corp to corps and H1-TN-L2 etc visa issues. Over the past year I have seen a dramatic increase in agency recruiters submitting candidates’ resumes to clients without the candidate’s permission. I would guess that half my candidates complain about this behavior, and complain about it on a regular basis. I also find this is happening most frequently with technical folks, and especially with folks that have visas.

Some recruiters have said to me, “Well Yvonne, this is just evidence of the labor shortage and competition is heating up.” Blah, blah, blah about the labor shortage. I am tired of everyone using that as an excuse to employ less than desirable methods to gain fills. We are recruiting in a flat world but organizations have not yet grasped that concept (article on this forthcoming). This lack of foresight is forcing some agency recruiters to engage in deceptive behavior.

But what I find so atrocious about this behavior, submitting candidates without their permission, is that the recruiters who do this perpetuate the belief that recruiters are shady. They give credibility to that belief and it appears, based on my conversations with candidates, that large staffing firms are just as guilty of this as smaller and mid-size firms.

How does this happen? Candidates are often misled by deceptive recruiters who do a down-n-dirty short interview, then send the candidate to the client, and all the while the candidate is going on his or her merry way thinking nothing went beyond an interview. The candidate also has to take responsibility for their job search as well, meaning he or she needs to ask specific questions as to who the client is and where are they located, if it’s a large company what division, etc.

Candidates should ask recruiters: “Why should I chose you to represent me? What do you stand for?” They would gain a better insight into the type of person and organization that would be negotiating on their behalf. I don’t know about you, but when I have an agency negotiating for me, I want to be able to trust him or her. The recruiter is playing with my money – and I don’t part with my money easily. ?

Candidates also need to be assertive with these recruiters who are calling and immediately asking questions, catching the candidates off guard, perhaps unable to document their conversation. Candidates should ask the recruiter to schedule an interview/appointment with them. By doing this the candidate has time to prepare and talk cogently about their specific experience in relation to the position. But again, deceptive recruiters don’t really care about the candidates, just the fill…..

I recommend to my candidates that they maintain a submission list, and many have reported they found it helpful. Candidates should be hearing from recruiters “Do I have your permission to send you to so-and-so client?” This protects the candidate and the recruiter by ensuring the candidate has not been double presented to a client. It makes everyone look bad when a candidate has been double (and sometimes triple) presented.

There are so many more ramifications of this deceptive behavior of submitting candidates without their permission but alas, it could take pages and that’s not what a blog is for! So to conclude this bit of rant, if you are a truly talented recruiter and not a paper pusher, you’ve already found more creative ways to get fills than through the use of deception.