I’ve titled this blog in this way as it is the first in a short series of tales that all left me with the same feeling; that I need to increase people’s respect of me and what I do.

The in-house recruiter

A lot has been written about the relative skills of the external recruiter versus the in-house recruitment manager and I don’t intend to enter too deeply into this debate except to share an annoying thing that happened to me the other month.

An HR Director called me and asked me to look for a new Director for his company so I did the correct thing and agreed terms of engagement. This was not a retained search though so I was in a no hire, no fee situation.

During the course of the coming days I let the HRD have the CV of a great executive that I had met with a brief outline of my opinion, strengths and weaknesses, etc. He agreed to meet him in an email reply and by cc asked his in-house recruitment manager to arrange a meeting for him with my candidate. It was at this stage that the in-house recruitment manager got my email address wrong three times (ably demonstrating ineptitude) and leaving it to the HRD to forward her mail along the lines that they already knew this candidate so they would deal direct!

I think that the in-house recruiter had accounts with job boards and went looking only after I had highlighted that this exec was a really good candidate. A scurrilous thought indeed, but I bet I wasn’t too far wrong.

The HRD, being a friend, was sympathetic to my cries of “foul” and agreed a compromise if they took him forward. I did make the point that his in-house recruiter may have to actually leave the comfort of their desk and go out to meet candidates themselves if the demonstrated behaviours put us TPRs out of business.