How do you handle a client who grills the candidate about how they were found?

I had a client "grill" my candidate about how thwe found them and how they knew me. I actually got this candidate from another recruiter I do splits with and the candidate disclosed she was working with my associate but knew that my associate was forwarding her resume to me. Then the client wanted to know how my associate and I were tied together. I told the client that I would be working with other excellent recruiters to fill these jobs, so was very upfront about that. Unfortunately, the candidate felt the pressure and told the client what site she had been found on. This is a new client with potentially lots of business to come over the years.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Brian K. Johnston on December 2, 2011 at 3:59pm

Not a Client you want long term. They don't respect our industry..... Take the check, and bolt...

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Permalink Reply by Bill Schultz on December 2, 2011 at 10:03pm

Don't ever apologize for finding someone on a job site. It's our job to cast a wide net. If a lobster falls in once in a while, don't throw it back. It's knowing that you have a lobster and what to do with it that separates you from the competitors.

This person has already been screened twice before the client sees her. Besides, that's only half the battle. Good candidates from job sites are usually engaged in multiple interviews. Evangelizing your client and bringing them home is half the battle.

Really, it's all about your attitude when you have this conversation.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on December 2, 2011 at 11:04pm

Now being the perverse soul that i am i would call her and start the conversation by saying something like,

Hey Jane, are you interested in making the switch to thrid party recruiting?

When she/he says , "huh, no why?

You say, "Oh drat, the candidate you interviewed last week mentioned that she thought you might be interested in being a TPR since you asked a lot of questions about how we work and how our network works so i thought maybe i cound entice you into the world of recruiting , would love to have somebody with your background join the team." "It can be frustrating at times but we cover a large segment of the best out there by using really strong associates who help each other cast a wide net for our best clients.". "If you ever change your mind let's talk but in any event let's go to lunch and i will tell you all about what we do and how we do it, how about next Wednesday?"

Then she can explain to you why the strong interest or not. It may be that it is just curiousity or could be that the company doesn't understand why their internal people can't find people. She may be thinking about looking for a job and wanted to know how that candidate went about it. Who knows.. Don't assume that it was somehow negative. I have had client's ask me how i do what i do just because they want to know how we do it. When i told one that we used all the boards as well as direcxt direct recruiting and referrals from other recruiters. He asked me why they couldn't use the job boards. I told him they could if he wanted to make about 200 people mad because he didn't hire them. He said, "eeewww, i never thought about that, carry on>"

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Permalink Reply by Shari Burke on December 5, 2011 at 1:07pm

Sandra McCartt said:

Now being the perverse soul that i am i would call her and start the conversation by saying something like,

Hey Jane, are you interested in making the switch to thrid party recruiting?

When she/he says , "huh, no why?

You say, "Oh drat, the candidate you interviewed last week mentioned that she thought you might be interested in being a TPR since you asked a lot of questions about how we work and how our network works so i thought maybe i cound entice you into the world of recruiting , would love to have somebody with your background join the team." "It can be frustrating at times but we cover a large segment of the best out there by using really strong associates who help each other cast a wide net for our best clients.". "If you ever change your mind let's talk but in any event let's go to lunch and i will tell you all about what we do and how we do it, how about next Wednesday?"

Then she can explain to you why the strong interest or not. It may be that it is just curiousity or could be that the company doesn't understand why their internal people can't find people. She may be thinking about looking for a job and wanted to know how that candidate went about it. Who knows.. Don't assume that it was somehow negative. I have had client's ask me how i do what i do just because they want to know how we do it. When i told one that we used all the boards as well as direcxt direct recruiting and referrals from other recruiters. He asked me why they couldn't use the job boards. I told him they could if he wanted to make about 200 people mad because he didn't hire them. He said, "eeewww, i never thought about that, carry on>"

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Permalink Reply by Shari Burke on December 5, 2011 at 1:09pm

I love the last part about making 200 canidates mad Sandra. I think that I had used that way back but kind of forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me. I know this gal is not in the mode to change jobs. She just started in this one. She was just trying to get info to see if she could follow the same practice and get candidates without paying. I still have not talked with her about this. Just trying to feel out best way.

Shari

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on December 5, 2011 at 4:29pm

Of course that is what she is doing and she doesn't want to make a change it would just be kind of fun to approach it that way and see what she is willing to cough up. :)

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Permalink Reply by Shari Burke on December 6, 2011 at 1:41pm

Well, not sure what happened really but the gal called to tell me that I was not moving fast enough with presenting the right candidates so we are not going further with our agreement. She is going to honor my agreement for any candidates sent so far. Just a strange deal and time waste. I had already put in lots of hours doing searches. Just one of the rubs of our business I guess.

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Permalink Reply by Professional Recruitment Resourc on December 7, 2011 at 11:49am

How would you respond to an in-house recruiter who claims prior referral, "several months ago from the corporate sourcing team" but has not had any contact with the candidate, ever. The candidate did not know the practice, the members, recognized no names of the hiring organization and did not recognize the name of the in-house recruiter. The candidate wants to go to the next step and may, or may not, accept an offered job. Thx

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Permalink Reply by Dorothy on December 7, 2011 at 1:48pm

Sorry to hear that Shari but I'm sure this worked out for the best.

Shari Burke said:

Well, not sure what happened really but the gal called to tell me that I was not moving fast enough with presenting the right candidates so we are not going further with our agreement. She is going to honor my agreement for any candidates sent so far. Just a strange deal and time waste. I had already put in lots of hours doing searches. Just one of the rubs of our business I guess.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on December 7, 2011 at 2:15pm

@Shari, I predict that they will be back around. After they try the boards and find out it aint as easy as just flopping something out there.

@Professional Recruitment, I would ask the inhouse to copy you on either an email or application that the candidate submitted to them. However, many candidates respond to a posting or an email, don['t hear anything and forget all about it and will swear that they never heard of the company. If the internal team just pulled a resume or a profile off the net and never contacted the candidate and candidate did not apply to them i think you will get the referral. I would let the candidate move forward. Until there is an offer made and accepted you do not have a problem. If they offer and the candidate turns it down let it be their screw up. If the candidate accepts then is the time to ask for proof of referral or application.

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Permalink Reply by Tyson J. Spring on December 7, 2011 at 5:16pm

I agree with Brian K Johnston. Though might suggest that we can be preemptive in negating this sort of thing by creating more thorough relationships up front with our clients and slowly weening ourselves off of job boards altogether.

I'm not in the camp that preaches death to job board hunting, but I certainly have had better personal experiences consistently when my candidates are head hunted. In our last year we've had 100% placement success rate, and I don't believe any of our consultants placed off of boards. The people are just too easy to find and the likelihood that someone has already spoken with, presented, or tried marketing their profile in is just too high for us to mess with.

On the other side, prior to launching this company in 2010 I worked with a Fortune 500 staffing company in their "Executive Search" group and this problem came up on a bi-weekly basis because very few of us were actually head hunters, rather job board hunters.

Also, I've had horrible results with splits, even some of my best former colleagues have tried to slide candidates past me KNOWING that they'd already been considered for the role. For me it all comes down to figuring out what I have the resources to do and aligning my Client Development efforts to match so I don't spread myself too thin with too many reqs.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Lebo on December 7, 2011 at 11:49pm

Yep, I agree with Brian. Take the money and split. Seeing this candidate as potential business might be the wrong approach, it sounds like they are looking at you as 'competition' and therefore trying to determine your methods to cut you out in the future.