I ran into an issue this morning that I thought to share with the rest of you. Let me know if you've run into similar situations:

I work in a very tight niche. In one geographic case, there are 2 competitors located approx 15 miles from one another - furthermore, there are no other direct competitors for less than 150 miles, meaning a relo would be in order if I was to recruit from same said sector. The result? A premium on local directly competitive talent.

Today, I spoke with THE top-gun for one of those organizations for around the 3rd time, and he finally came clean with me as to why he had an aversion to considering the direct competitor in the same region (despite the fact that I could get him a 20%+ bump in W-2 plus a higher title).

I was aware that the competitor interested in him (my client) hired 2 former employees from his organization join them within the last 12 months. Here's the kicker, from his frame of reference:

"To be quite honest with you there are a few ex ***** employees currently employed there that I was happy to see leave. The overall attitude of these individuals constantly brought down the morale of our office with complaints, etc. and I am not 100% sure I can work with these people once again."

Make no mistake: If my client could recruit this gentleman, it would resemble a B-12 shot in the arm - an instant win . . . like recruiting the best player from a team in your very own sport division. However, that's not an option today, despite the $$$, despite the title, etc.

With the over-arching focus on COH and TTF, I imagine these issues never came up during the recruiting process. I also question if this is another reason that reference checks are honestly completed the right way - when the pressure is on COH and TTF, do you think anyone wants to get a negative ref check? Kind of puts things in perspective, wouldn't you say?

So the lesson is simple: "HR: Who You Recruit Today Can Kill Who You Recruit Tomorrow"