Can Clients Do This?

Michael over at Canadian Headhunter reposted an old post of mine and he got more response than I originally did so I am reposting his post from Friday. If you work in HR I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks

"A candidate was submitted to a client company by a recruiter.

The candidate was not a match for the job so, during the interview, the company asked him for a referral of someone who was more suitable for the position. The candidate gave two names.

The recruiter then told his client that if these referrals led to hires, he expected to be given credit for them since they came from his candidate.

The client said "No way. It is part of our recruiting process to get referrals from everyone we interview". Inotherwords, it was their interviewing process that brought these referrals to light.

The recruiter objected that the candidate was only there to be asked for referrals because of the work he performed. What should the recruiter do?"

Here are the responses from his blog.

Suck it up as a lesson learned. The recruiter should have known in the first place that the candidate was not a match.

Duh.
ArneG | Email | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 4:20 pm | #

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There is no way a recruiter can predict that every candidate she sends to a client will be one whom they are willing to hire. It's often very difficult beforehand to get a clear idea of what they want. You shoot for someone within the specifications and they take it from there. Also, many search assignment descriptions are a moving target because the client keeps changing his mind.
Canadian Headhunter (Michael) | Email | Homepage | 10.17.04 - 7:17 am | #

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Ooh! Ooh! Mr. Kotter… Hey Michael, this situation presupposes that this is the first time the recruiter has worked with this company, or that something has changed.

It creates the opportunity to discuss business ethics and expectations on both sides; something was obviously not done prior to submitting a candidate.

It now falls upon the recruiter to educate this client in the implications of their actions, perhaps using the ‘but for’ rule, where but for his submission of this candidate, these names would not have surfaced.

This is the scenario you outlined and depending on where you’re doing business, you might have a legal case, but where you have to resort to a legal case, you don’t have a client. (continued)
Canadian Headhunter (Michael) | Email | Homepage | 10.18.04 - 9:26 am | #

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That being said, if diplomacy fails, the recruiter’s best option is to research the industry and locate the competitors to company A and make it a point to recruit the best and brightest out of company A in order to market them to the competitors.

The old saw rings true: There are buyers and suppliers and how you work with a recruiter determines which category you fall into.

Best regards,
John H
Canadian Headhunter (Michael) | Email | Homepage | 10.18.04 - 9:26 am | #

Posted by Jason

Comments

[stephen]

Y'all know - when you are in a commission business, these things happen. Not much you can do - besides avoiding the client and if you are so inclined - hire away his best & brightest (smile!)

When I was doing some real estate, I showed this nice house late at night. It was a urgent call, and I met the potential buyers. Showed them house and spent hours with them.

They wouldn't put an offer down and i was unable to reach them for over a week. Then going through the listings I noticed that the house I showed was now under-contract-review. And when I looked - it was MY prospects!!!!

My Broker called angry as hornets - and they wound up having their cousin make the offer. and there wasn't anything we could do it about it....

Live n learn... move on.... and tell your candidates never to give referrals in the interview process!!!! :)