The Seven Worst Things We’ve Heard About Top Recruitment Companies: Part 2
Welcome back to the second half of this astounding two-part article on the seven worst tactics we’ve ever heard about top recruitment companies. Last time we covered the trouble with commission-fueled recruitment and the unethical tactics this can inspire. We talked about how recruiters lie, post false listings, change resumes before submitting them, and share resumes without invitation or permission. Let’s continue where we left off with fake candidates.
5) Pretending to Have Exceptional Candidates Ready and Waiting
Many hiring managers have been through this scamming dance with recruiters, even from top recruitment companies. Often a recruiter will send a “cold call” email suggesting that they have the absolutely perfect candidate ready and waiting to fill your currently open position. But what happens when you contact them back? Do you get a resume and a phone number? No. After a recruiter gets a bite on this tactic, they start offering a selection of resumes to choose from and their services for finding more. This stems from the fact that black-hat recruitment strategies have started to consider words to be meaningless. Just like the qualifications on resumes and the details of your job descriptions, some recruiters feel they can say anything, lie, and get away with it.
If a recruiter tries to pull the ‘exceptional candidate waiting’ trick, insist on seeing the one exceptional resume and if they don’t have one, hang up.
6) Tricking Candidates Into Signing Non-Compete Contracts
Among our least favorites for unsavory recruiting tactics is the non-compete trick. Recruiters, especially those with impressive offices, will often convince a candidate to come in for a pre-interview and to “sign some paperwork” If the candidate doesn’t read very closely and isn’t ready to protect themselves, there is then a high likelihood that they will sign a contract that promises that they won’t take a position with a company the recruiting company connects them to except through the recruiter, meaning commission guaranteed.
Now here’s the really dirty part, once a recruiting company has this contract, they can send the candidate’s resume (often without their knowledge) to every relevant employer in town, meaning that employers are forced to pay the commission for hiring this person or turning them down. This can result in making an unfortunate professional practically unhirable.
7) Sabotaging Independent Job Searches
All of these tactics are astoundingly underhanded and self-serving, willing to hurt others just to make a commission but our final point shows just how far some recruitment companies are willing to go, right up to actively preventing people from being hired. Often recruiters will ask for a list of other companies a candidate has applied to, but this isn’t an innocent question. These applications were done without the recruiter’s help which means if the candidate is hired through these avenues, the recruiter loses their commission. Their unethical answer to this “problem” is to sabotage the candidate’s ability to get hired with these other positions, often sending the employer competing candidates to lower the chances of selection and “claim” the position’s potential commission.
If your jaw hasn’t hit the floor yet, you have greater fortitude than we do here at Expansion Pack Search and Selection. We have always been deeply upset by the unethical tactics often taken by recruiters who are driven by a desire for commissions over everything else. That’s why our agency doesn’t deal in commissions. Every position fill is based on a flat fee and subscription model, meaning that you always know what you’re going to pay for a position, and it’s often much less than the salary percentage would have been with another agency. If you’re sick and tired of being harassed and lied to by cut-throat recruitment services and just want to fill positions with skilled and well-suited new hires, contact us today.
Originally published at www.expansion-pack.com.
