Who does your agency really work for?

Talking to a candidate recently got us thinking….does headhunting through social media really give the best results for candidates and businesses?

We were approached by a job seeker recently whose story is becoming all too familiar…Sarah was settled in her role and wasn’t looking for a change, but when contacted directly on LinkedIn by a recruitment agency she was very flattered and excited when they said they had an amazing opportunity for her.

Well, it turns out Sarah was indeed qualified for the role – they’d got that right at least – and she jumped ship to the new company; but nothing else about it was right…and she hated it. Disaster! For her, and for the company who are faced with having to invest again to re-recruit for the role, not to mention Sarah’s old company who had to replace her.

Would you trust an agency that is as likely to headhunt your own staff as they are to find candidates for your roles?

And what about the results? Yes LinkedIn is great for connecting with job hunters if they have marked themselves as looking for a new opportunity, but if not, surely randomly messaging people and adding their details to a database is just a numbers game? Sarah would certainly tell you that they didn’t get to know her as a person and consider all the aspects involved in her move, and they didn’t know the client well enough to make a good match.

As an agency, Select don’t headhunt locally. We work as a trusted partner with our clients, so to actively tempt their own staff away is, to us, a massive no-no (we’re not knocking it but, it’s not for us). Obviously if a candidate chooses to approach us as part of an active job-search we are here and more than happy to help, but you won’t find us stalking and poaching your employees online!

In the current market agencies are having to come up with new and innovative ways to find good quality candidates, and LinkedIn is increasingly used as a tool for headhunting potential applicants. This however means that whilst an agency may be helping with your vacancies with one hand, with the other they are enticing your existing staff away. In a small community like Jersey this, to us, feels a disloyal method of operating, and perhaps not what you would expect from an organisation who is meant to be working for and with you.

It’s a tough market, but to us at Select, building trust through long-term relationships and investing in our community is the only effective – and ethical – way to navigate it. If you have been bitten by this, one suggestion to ensure that the agency you work with doesn’t headhunt your staff is have a clause in your Service Level Agreement (SLA) with them.

Here’s a great article from a firm who turned it to their advantage in order to gain salary and industry knowledge of the job market. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2014/12/16/how-to-stop-recruiters-from-poaching-your-employees/

Pictured top: Toni O'Flaherty, Director at Select Recruitment