Cient 'Stealing' Resumes

Has anyone every encountered a corporate hiring authority passing on your candidate only to put them in their ATS system and contact that candidate 3 months later through an e-blast?

This seems to be happening more and more and I wanted to see if anyone else out there was experiencing the same issue.

Besides calling the hiring manager on the carpet and listening to every "i didn't know speech" is anyone doing anything out there to STOP this?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kevin Swanquist on October 31, 2012 at 11:18am

In the case that your client sincerely "did not know" that this candidate came from you a few months ago, it might be good practice to start sending resumes with your company logo/header at the top and send it in PDF form. That way, when they pull up the resume they know where it came from and have no excuse to say they did not know. I know some ATS systems have something like this in place.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rickie Long on October 31, 2012 at 11:35am

Nothing will stop someone from claiming something that is/was yours if they want to do so and can get away with it.

But for honest folk making a mistake - try a large company watermark with a submittal date that covers 75% of the pdf resume document....

I get cheated and I get called when they pull an old resume with my watermark or see the resume source..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve N Odell on October 31, 2012 at 6:13pm

To all - This has been a bee in my bonnet for some time. I know many clients put our resume in their system. I often wondered if having a sentence saying that they couldn't would get push back.I don't think it is fair. Our agreements say 1 yr from our referral or if our candidate refers someone else that is hired within 1yr. I have been doing this a long time(over 40 yr) and I hate to use the old cliche "been there, done that, " but I think I have. It is 1 yr because it is too easy to manpower plan for 3-6 months. The reason for the clause of a candidate referred by our candidate is that I have seen where the company is "sourcing" our candidates for referrals when they interview them. I understand if a company is engaged in discussions with someone recently but pulling the old "he was in our database' won't work. We too make sure our candidate has had no contact with them in some time. We have a conversation and agreement about that as we are negotiating our cost of services and let them know if they have not had conversations with them recently it should be our referral. Rumor has it some companies look on the large career sites to see if the person you sent them is on there and then say "we already have it". One noted trainer sets up a program to call the company that interviewed his candidate and ask for them. He claims he discovers several placements per year. On the honest side of the scale, I have had a client call me to let me know that the candidate that tuned down the offer has approached them and they are moving forward with them 6 months later. So we have to protect ourselves whenever possible. I am thankful that the "clients" (yes they paid me) we have are honest.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike Avillion on November 2, 2012 at 9:38am

I attempt to avoid it by

1. Always submitting in pdf

2. Never including contact information until an interview is confirmed

Those "clients" don't stay clients very long with anyone, and it should definitely be addressed with someone at the "client". Or, if they have hired one of your previously submitted candidates, send them an invoice and a copy of your agreement with the Candidate Ownership clause highlighted.