Why Are Recruiters Loathed?

 This is a lengthy email from a candidate, who is known to us, but not currently represented by Key Recruitment. I have changed names and removed the company name from the message, but everything else is as received. I think it encapsulates how activities of certain members of our industry damage the reputation of good, ethical recruiters.  

All recruiters need to bear in mind that candidates aren’t just walking commission cheques.

 At 11.13AM on the 13th of January 2016, I made the grave mistake of contacting a recruitment company who call themselves “….”, I can tell you they are anything but! I contacted this company off the back of a job advertisement that I saw on Gumtree for a Driver/Labourer. I spoke to a chap named “Dave” initially who was pleasant and polite, we spoke about why I was calling, to which I stated "to find out more information about the role advertised" from there he went on to depict 2 different types of driving jobs with information on both and differing rates of pay. Now I knew what was going on, “Dave” didn’t really have any jobs, he just posts adverts for jobs that either don’t exist or did exist but they knowingly continue to use the advertisement to attract candidates under false pretences I.e. the interest generated through the advertised position which do not exist.

Now I like to get straight to the point so I asked the guy "Do you have this job? Or any? Or are you just finding people to sell?". He dithered again but he admitted that there was no job, but don’t worry, he will find me one, what a guy. he just wants to sell sell sell so he will say anything here to keep me interested. 

From here we spoke about what I've done before and currently doing, you know all in aid to help find me a job right? Now I’ll say here.. we both know that other agencies get used to supply the supply of workers to a single client, I suppose, to keep them competitive with each other on price. It's normal business practice to use various suppliers so there should not really be any issues in the next part of this story letter.

It came up that I was currently working with a Client of theirs through a competitor of theirs. From here the call trailed to off to the conclusion that he would look for suitable jobs for me based off of a 3 minute phone conversation and my name and number. 

A little later on in the day at 12.37PM I received a call from “George”, another cool dude from "…." He was in charge of Industrial and was the guy with the jobs, well this is good for me right? I got the guy with the jobs on the phone. The first topic to help me get a job was apparently my current employment through their competitor. Now I told this guy as well, I'm not quitting this, I’m simply looking at what else is out there and if they had anything, that I would be interested in having a look, to which was followed by my notice period which I said none, because I haven't got one as I'm not fully employed or thinking of leaving.

After the 3rd degree from “George” he said the best thing was for me to come in and have a look at my CV to look at what they could offer me in terms of employment. Since there is no harm in looking at the market and finding out if I could get a better job I said yes. So “George” being the model of organization and time keeping booked me in for another call at precisely "sometime tomorrow" to then arrange for me to come in so he can look at a document that I could send to him over email. Right.. Ok “George” you do that, yep ok bye. Call came in at 9 seconds shorter than the first call but now things were getting somewhere...

At 13.03PM I received a call from the recruitment consultant that I currently work through for her to inform me that the private and confidential and in no way consented to be discussed conversation regarding my employment which I rely on to do things like feed and house me, that was had with cool “George”, had been shared with the main supervisor responsible with making decisions on who to keep on and who to let go from the job.

Not only had the conversation been shared with him but he had blatantly lied and stated that I was actively seeking employment!!  Now cool as a cucumber I told her in no uncertain terms that this guy was lying and that I had not expressed that to him, I only requested information from him. I am not planning on quitting my job and between us I asked my manager for additional PPE the day before due to my intent to stay on the job much longer. Anyway, she said she would let the main boss man know my side of the story.

“George” must have just ended the call with me and instantly contacted my employer to break many DPA and confidentiality laws and rules to try and get one over on a competitor, not cool “George”, not cool. 

About a minute later, maybe more, my manager arrived on the job to inform me that because of what had transpired I now had only 3 days remaining on the job and would have to look elsewhere for work. He also informed me that 3 agency staff were due to be dismissed due to being overstaffed however I was never on that list and was not due to be, I know this to be the truth because I had actually been offered full employment previously from him and the big boss but refused due to being financially worse off if I accepted, but that’s another story. I was a good worker and would have been kept on if this did not occur. There are other agency staff who have been there for 2 years so there is no question that my refusal of permanent work did not result in my dismissal. 

Now I tried to contact “George” at 13.06PM after hearing this news but found that he was out on lunch, or visiting a client. No one was too sure on his whereabouts but he was 100% not in the office.

So I arrived at the office, it was 10 minutes’ walk from where I was working that day so I decided to go and speak to this guy face to face to try and attempt to rectify this lie that he had told my employer. I wanted him to phone the boss in front of me and admit his lie over the phone in an attempt to try and persuade the boss to let me keep my job. After half hour of waiting for “George” to return from his lavish well over one hour lunch break “Dave” came down said that “George” was either out on lunch or erm, maybe somewhere else. Either way, “George” wasn’t answering his phone.

At that moment low and behold “Dave”'s phone began to ring and look who it was, “George”. Must have heard his ears burning or something because that is eerie. But wherever he was he wasn’t upstairs waiting for “Dave” to go down so he could ring “Dave” and not have to face me. 

Now me and “George” began to discuss what he had done and that he had directly caused me to loose me my job through lying to my employer whilst he also broke confidentiality and privacy and directly disrupted my employment. Now “George”’s reply to this was PSL, yep that’s right he said there on a PSL and because of this it somehow gives him the right to ring up and tell this boss guy exaggerated and out of context information and just blatant lies.

Now he was adamant that this PSL gave him the right to do this, it was his go to thing, almost a catchphrase, PSL, PSL. On the call we established that there was no job initially and that all I wanted was information so there was no reason to divulge the information with the boss which he had no right to do in the first place. He asked me what I wanted and I told him, I want him to phone up the boss and tell him that he lied and that what he said was not correct and he was in the wrong, I said I wanted to sit here and hear him do it over loudspeaker however because he was not here that he would do it and someone would contact me to let me know that it had been done.

After that call ended I spoke to “Dave” who also still insisted that the PSL was their get out of jail free card and that they could just say what they wanted, he also kept insisting that there was a job, but they just didn’t have it yet. It actually took about 4 runs through for him to understand that having a job and maybe having a job at some point in the future are not the same thing.

Anyway “Dave” went on to explain the actual reason behind the catchphrase that is PSL. You see apparently the company had not initially approached "…" for this staffing requirement and had therefore breached some formality of the contract and he had called him to discuss this matter.

It is clear now that the call was mishandled and what should have been a strictly business call became a personal call aimed to promote the business and personal relationship between “George” the agency and the client at the full expense of the candidate (me).

“Dave” admitted at this point that the call was mishandled and that he would personally ensure that “George” contacts the client as per my request and that he would call me rather than “George” to let me know that the call had been made.

It is now the evening of the same day and I have yet to receive any communication from the agency, I have also tried to phone my agency but have not received a return call. 

I have identified that "…" are members of the REC an ombudsman for agencies and upon reviewing their codes of practice what has happened to me today has in fact broken many of them including "Members must adhere to principles of truth in advertising and will only advertise positions, through any medium, for which they have documented permission to recruit"

And my favourites

"Members will not undertake actions that may unfairly or unlawfully interfere in work relationships established by others" and "..undertake actions that may unfairly or unlawfully jeopardize a work seeker's employment." 

So there it is, my experience with "…." a recruitment company that actively and deliberately made me lose my job. 

Thanks Guys 

One of the key requirements for a successful career in recruitment is to be ethical, and understand that honesty and integrity are key, and, whilst everyone makes mistakes, recruiters who simply don’t care about their candidates should leave the industry and get another job where they are less likely to harm people’s lives!

We have advised this individual to make a formal complaint to the REC. It will be interesting to see what response they get, and whether the complaint is handled properly.

So the question is, how can the recruitment industry rid itself of such charlatans? Any suggestions?