Recruitment agencies - The harm they cause!
Discussion
A friend of mine has started to seek employment away from his current employer. He has registered with a couple of agencies and I believe that his CV is searchable on some websites.
Unfortunately for my friend, his current employer recieved a phonecall from a recruitment agency, offering my friend as someone who was actively looking for employment....To the firm that he is currently working for!
Very poor show from the agency. Just a warning to others, be careful with having your CV out and about. Or be bloody good at bulling your way through a meeting without coffee once your employer has got enough info from the agency....
Unfortunately for my friend, his current employer recieved a phonecall from a recruitment agency, offering my friend as someone who was actively looking for employment....To the firm that he is currently working for!
Very poor show from the agency. Just a warning to others, be careful with having your CV out and about. Or be bloody good at bulling your way through a meeting without coffee once your employer has got enough info from the agency....
YesItsADiseasel said:
A friend of mine has started to seek employment away from his current employer. He has registered with a couple of agencies and I believe that his CV is searchable on some websites.
Unfortunately for my friend, his current employer recieved a phonecall from a recruitment agency, offering my friend as someone who was actively looking for employment....To the firm that he is currently working for!
Very poor show from the agency. Just a warning to others, be careful with having your CV out and about. Or be bloody good at bulling your way through a meeting without coffee once your employer has got enough info from the agency....
I've come across that before.Unfortunately for my friend, his current employer recieved a phonecall from a recruitment agency, offering my friend as someone who was actively looking for employment....To the firm that he is currently working for!
Very poor show from the agency. Just a warning to others, be careful with having your CV out and about. Or be bloody good at bulling your way through a meeting without coffee once your employer has got enough info from the agency....
The other is when your boss starts getting lots of calls from agencies, it usually means someone in your team is looking around.
slippery said:
What's the problem with your company knowing that you might be considering your options. It could help you.
It's definitely not me, I love my job 
I'm just wondering what action, if any, an employer could take if it was aware of an employee actively seeking alternative employment. You never know, it may be a member of staff under me one day and I could do with knowing how to effectively deal with the situation.
Terminator X said:
V poor form from agency, why on earth are they putting him forward for a job without discussing it with him first 
TX.
Because the candidate has farmed his CV out to 10 different agencies and by being the first to send *any* qualified candidate, the agency can then claim the commission for the succesful interviwee. Its common practice to send first and the discuss with the candidate, often the recruiter will use the line "i've sent your CV off on the off chance and the company really like you"....or some other drivel. TX.
Yes, for my sins, I used to be a recruiter.
extraT said:
Because the candidate has farmed his CV out to 10 different agencies and by being the first to send *any* qualified candidate, the agency can then claim the commission for the succesful interviwee. Its common practice to send first and the discuss with the candidate, often the recruiter will use the line "i've sent your CV off on the off chance and the company really like you"....or some other drivel.
Yes, for my sins, I used to be a recruiter.
Yes, but a quick scan of the candidate's CV surely reveals that the agency is calling a current employer? Very unprofessional imo... I've seen some good recruiters but these days there seem to be more of the bad ones...Yes, for my sins, I used to be a recruiter.
YesItsADiseasel said:
I'm just wondering what action, if any, an employer could take if it was aware of an employee actively seeking alternative employment. I could do with knowing how to effectively deal with the situation.
If it's someone you don't want to lose, then you can take it as a warning shot and consider if there's anything you can do to make them enjoy their job more, without letting them know that you know. Or you front it with them and tell them they would be a huge loss and ask what what's making them look elsewhere, hoping that you can work something out. Terminator X said:
slippery said:
No worries. There will of course be certain people, where you cross your fingers and hope they find another job! 
When we wanted people gone we used to ask the agencies to call them 
TX.
"Hi Mr agent, we've got someone here, he's really.... crap. Give him a call and see if you can get him a job" ?
crazy about cars said:
Yes, but a quick scan of the candidate's CV surely reveals that the agency is calling a current employer? Very unprofessional imo... I've seen some good recruiters but these days there seem to be more of the bad ones...
I agree (and thought it went without saying)...I was addressing TX's second point.The problem with consultancy (and the same for advertising sales) is this: employees are thrown in at the deep end and expected to swim.
Of course in this case, the recruiter is 100% to blame...either human error or, more likely, stupidity.
A schoolboy error.
Which I have also done
I worked in recruitment for 6 months a few years ago - in a particular sector.
I had been made redundant, and one of the agencies that I registered with and then continually phoned and hassled every couple of days, admired my tenacity and telephone manner, and offered me a job there! Funny how life goes...
Anyway, I gave it a go, and on the whole it was fairly enjoyable, I was good at it, and beat the top boys there by my third month...trouble was, the sector was still shrinking, and it was VERY HARD to get a vacancy to work. From around 100 phone calls a day, I would say that 80% of them just laughed at me and said 'Recruitment? Lol! We're making staff redundant!'
Sorry for the tangent - anyway, onto the OP. The Director told me when I joined, that one of the WORST mistakes I could ever make was to offer a CV of a candidate to the candidate's existing employer. He said that it would probably be a sacking offence.
However, when you are desperately trying to earn a living, and part of that is doing some speculative send-outs...inevitably I ended up doing exactly that.
The boss of the company called me, and told me what I had done, and obviously asked if his employee was looking around for another job.
Thinking on my feet, I pretended to feign a bit of ignorance about the candidate, 'ummed and ahhed' for a bit whilst pretending to check my computer, and then said to him 'crikey - do you know what? I have sent the wrong CV out - it was meant to be a different candidate, sorry about that. Your employee's CV is still on our system from years ago, before he started working at your place, and my new candidate has exactly the same name and I sent it in error!'
He bought it, the candidate continued to work with me without commenting on it, so I guess his boss didn't even mention it to him.
I got away with it - and my Director didn't find out either!
Close call.
Just human error on my part. But I should have been more careful - however, it is an easy thing to do if you're not!
Which I have also done
I worked in recruitment for 6 months a few years ago - in a particular sector.
I had been made redundant, and one of the agencies that I registered with and then continually phoned and hassled every couple of days, admired my tenacity and telephone manner, and offered me a job there! Funny how life goes...
Anyway, I gave it a go, and on the whole it was fairly enjoyable, I was good at it, and beat the top boys there by my third month...trouble was, the sector was still shrinking, and it was VERY HARD to get a vacancy to work. From around 100 phone calls a day, I would say that 80% of them just laughed at me and said 'Recruitment? Lol! We're making staff redundant!'
Sorry for the tangent - anyway, onto the OP. The Director told me when I joined, that one of the WORST mistakes I could ever make was to offer a CV of a candidate to the candidate's existing employer. He said that it would probably be a sacking offence.
However, when you are desperately trying to earn a living, and part of that is doing some speculative send-outs...inevitably I ended up doing exactly that.
The boss of the company called me, and told me what I had done, and obviously asked if his employee was looking around for another job.
Thinking on my feet, I pretended to feign a bit of ignorance about the candidate, 'ummed and ahhed' for a bit whilst pretending to check my computer, and then said to him 'crikey - do you know what? I have sent the wrong CV out - it was meant to be a different candidate, sorry about that. Your employee's CV is still on our system from years ago, before he started working at your place, and my new candidate has exactly the same name and I sent it in error!'
He bought it, the candidate continued to work with me without commenting on it, so I guess his boss didn't even mention it to him.
I got away with it - and my Director didn't find out either!
Close call.
Just human error on my part. But I should have been more careful - however, it is an easy thing to do if you're not!
To be honest i'd have no problem telling my employer that i am looking for another job, but i do have a good relationship with my boss. I work in the automotive industry for a desirable company and there is also the other side of the stick that i sometimes get where recruitment agencies contact me for a job at a company that exactly matches the description of the current company i'm at doing the same job but for more than i am being paid! Makes you laugh so it really can work both ways.
Edited by Al U on Sunday 1st September 21:01
chr15b said:
Terminator X said:
slippery said:
No worries. There will of course be certain people, where you cross your fingers and hope they find another job!
When we wanted people gone we used to ask the agencies to call them TX.
"Hi Mr agent, we've got someone here, he's really.... crap. Give him a call and see if you can get him a job" ?
k?!TX.
I was offered a job about 15 years ago, using one agency. I was waiting for the contract so hadnt handed my notice in.
I get into work monday morning and my boss calls me in, says she was out in newcastle on the sat night, got chatted up by some guy, who explains he is a recruitment consultant, asks where she works and then says "oh you'll know Andy, are you his boss?, if you are i'll give you my card as i might be able to help you replace him"
Fortunately the contract had come over the weekend so i had my notice ready to hand in.
I get into work monday morning and my boss calls me in, says she was out in newcastle on the sat night, got chatted up by some guy, who explains he is a recruitment consultant, asks where she works and then says "oh you'll know Andy, are you his boss?, if you are i'll give you my card as i might be able to help you replace him"
Fortunately the contract had come over the weekend so i had my notice ready to hand in.
my only experience of agencies is very poor to say the least, mainly advertising jobs that don't exist, or are miraculously taken when you apply, i'm sure they must be on commission for the amount of people they get to register with them, most probably government subsidised to keep people away from jobcentres....
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