Wednesday Wisdom: Poached, please - with solicitation on the side

Dear Claudia,

I recently challenged my recruiting team to source hard-to-find candidates from a department of a local competitor, and one of the recruiters came back with a whole roster for us...unfortunately, she slept with one of their engineers to get it. She doesn’t think it’s a big deal, but I’m really concerned about using this information under the circumstances. What do you think?

Uneasy

Dear Uneasy,

Truthfully, I think you may have more to worry about than a roster of names here…but we’ll start with that.

There are lots of opinions about competitive recruiting practices, and mine tends to be that all’s fair in love and war. You have employees? Somebody somewhere will eventually try to recruit the good ones away. And to be honest, if an employee is happily engaged in his work it will be a cold day in you-know-where before my recruiting call is going cause him to change jobs. In general, I think you're doing a disservice to your business if you don't figure out who works for the competition.

That said, I would definitely address the potential risk that this incident poses, on two fronts. Companies have found themselves in more than a little hot water for poaching practices over the years, especially when intellectual property is involved. Oh, and let’s not forget that you have an employee who crossed a potentially illegal line in mixing business with pleasure (is it a stretch to say that she was paid for sexual favors? I’m not sure, and I’m definitely not an HR specialist, but I’m guessing there’s a law that was broken or bruised somewhere in this mess).

This would be a good time to seek out at least two important people for a chat: the executive at the head of the business unit that will potentially hire from the list, and a trusted resource in your HR department. Have a serious talk about the information in hand, how it was obtained, risk and reward to the business for aggressively recruiting from the list, and any potential liability to the company for the actions of the employee. These kinds of decisions are best made with an eye toward what's best for the business as a whole, and not just the interests of one group or department.

On a lighter note, I’m really curious to hear what you challenge your team with next. They sound like a very creative bunch.

***
In my day job, I’m the head of Products for Improved Experience, where we help employers use feedback to measure and manage engagement for competitive advantage in hiring and retention. Learn more about us here.

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Comment by Joshua Letourneau on April 30, 2008 at 4:47pm: Slouch, everybody has a price. We can say we don't, but everyone does. Reminds me of "Indecent Proposal" with my girl, Demi.

Comment by Mark Hopkins on April 30, 2008 at 5:39pm: If one of my recruiters claimed to have done this, they would no longer work for me.

It's not even a matter of whether or not they did it. It's poor judgement to have either done it or claimed to have done it.

Once it's known--true or not--I have a responsibility to address it as it poses risk to my organization's reputation. Are we forgetting recent scandals in Albany, NY and Chicago, IL so quickly?

Results are important, but how we get our results is also important.

Recommended reading: Stand Your Ground, by Evan Offstein

Comment by Joshua Letourneau on April 30, 2008 at 5:43pm: Yeah, considering the fact that the 'Misery Rate' (unemployment rate + inflation rate being < or < 10%) has been the deciding factor of whether the incumbent party maintains the presidency . . . the American voting public has a price as well. The irony is that we see news story after news story about everything else, but at the moment of truth, it comes down to the 'Misery Rate'.

Comment by Barbara Goldman on May 4, 2008 at 8:59am: Use the list. I found out that a recruiter of mine was sleeping with the clients, not one, but many. The baby bump and resulting drama explained it all. That was after a year of her frolicking around town. I didn't give the money back, but she had to go.

Comment by Joshua Letourneau on May 5, 2008 at 9:42am: The male double standard here has blown me away. I'd like to ask everyone a question because I sincerely don't understand any grounds for termination re: employees that "sleep around." Putting any 'list' aside, why would a female employee be terminated for her sexual habits? In the male world, guys are given pats on the back for how many women we can hook up with . . . but when women do the same, they are treated as whores and risk termination? I don't understand this double standard - frankly, it's not right in my eyes.

Sarah Jessica Parker debunked the male-Puritanic view that women can only be with one man in "Sex in the City" . . . but then the same woman recruiter lives in fear of her male boss looking down on her and finding a reason to let her go?

Ironically, I haven't read one female response to this thread indicating grounds for termination (my apologies if I overlooked one, but that speaks to the limited response from women in the first place) . . . yet there are male recruiting mgrs here witch-hunting for promiscuous women. Wmen who make their own decisions about who they want to sleep with are exercising their own human right ("Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness . . . and Sleeping-With-Whoever-The-Heck-They-Want".)

I'm not saying that the men here are expecting women to wear full-length burkas, but to claim that a woman's sexual habits are grounds for termination is a back-door method of discrimination. Frankly, it's not the 1950s' and we don't like in a "Beaver Cleaver" world, so I think women should be able to make their own decisions about what they want to do with their own sex lives - sorry, Recruiting Managers, but how or how much nookie your female recruiters are getting is none of your business.

Joshua Letourneau
Mg Director, SSF (Strategic Sourcing Framework)
LG & Assoc Search / Talent Strategy
BLOG: www.lgexec.typepad.com