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Permalink Reply by RuthAnn Platt, MSHRM PHR on May 21, 2009 at 9:41am

As we all know these are difficult times for many firms. What I'm hearing from most Agency Recruiters I speak with on a daily basis is there simply aren't enough orders being generated by Sales to go around and they find themselves either "Cold Calling" or finding admin work to keep busy. There is nothing more dangerous than a Recruiter not working on a placement.

As for Stealing....If I put on my HR Hat; definitely. Anyone who uses Company resources (time, equipment, data) for non-business related activities or personal gain is stealing an asset of the company and should be terminated immediately and possibly prosecuted for theft. On the other hand....If I put on my Recruiter Hat; who developed all of the data in the database the Employer is calling theirs? Did the Recruiter sign away all of their rights to ownership as a condition of employment? Without the Recruiter(s) contributing their networks of Candidate and Client information would the Employer have a database to consider an asset? Who is stealing from whom?

Maybe instead of discouraging a Recruiter from finding alternative ways to make placements and generate income, perhaps Agency Employers should figure out a way to get their "fair" share of the commissions paid based on the resources used. Just something to consider............

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Graziano on May 21, 2009 at 10:40am

Now this is the kind of thinking that I wanted this blog to generate. Thank you for your ability to see things through a balanced perspective - perfect example ! And valued. I've worked both sides. Desperation causes people to do funny things. If the business owner could have seen, "My people are going to make 50% less this year, maybe I ought to think about alternative solutions for these tough times" things may have been different for the 8 year employee. A little open dialogue, retention training, empathy for the employees, strategic thinking, creativity, could have gone a long way.

And what she did was not appropriate. This person took other peoples candidates too, and used the companies accounts to find candidates, and did it on their time.

thanks again!

RuthAnn Platt, MSHRM PHR said:

As we all know these are difficult times for many firms. What I'm hearing from most Agency Recruiters I speak with on a daily basis is there simply aren't enough orders being generated by Sales to go around and they find themselves either "Cold Calling" or finding admin work to keep busy. There is nothing more dangerous than a Recruiter not working on a placement.

As for Stealing....If I put on my HR Hat; definitely. Anyone who uses Company resources (time, equipment, data) for non-business related activities or personal gain is stealing an asset of the company and should be terminated immediately and possibly prosecuted for theft. On the other hand....If I put on my Recruiter Hat; who developed all of the data in the database the Employer is calling theirs? Did the Recruiter sign away all of their rights to ownership as a condition of employment? Without the Recruiter(s) contributing their networks of Candidate and Client information would the Employer have a database to consider an asset? Who is stealing from whom?

Maybe instead of discouraging a Recruiter from finding alternative ways to make placements and generate income, perhaps Agency Employers should figure out a way to get their "fair" share of the commissions paid based on the resources used. Just something to consider............

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Graziano on May 21, 2009 at 10:44am

By George, I think you are ON TO SOMETHING.

RED ALERT.

I have been in some circles of conversation in the past 5 years-since I have drank the HR Consulting Juice that I have been embarrassed to be a part of, other industries, selection, internet job boards, throwing us under the bus, on the other hand, too many of the business owners in our industry hire anyone, with no concept of the degradation they are bringing to the industry. This rob peter to pay paul has given our industry a bad name. IT'S TIME TO FIGHT BACK AND CLAIM OUR GROUND. Thats why I take great pride in exposing this bounty jobs monkey business!

Ok, time to get back to money, honey.

Jerry Albright said:

As far as I can tell - Bountyjobs is such a joke I find it nearly impossible to picture anyone actually getting something done - let alone after hours. I've heard many MANY stories of recruiters spending weeks and months of their prime business hours and getting absolutely nowhere.

I would venture to say the "client" was most likely aware that something shady was going on. Then again many/most of BJ's clients are signed up to screw the agencies anyways....so finding a client who didn't mind working on the dark side was probably quite easy.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on May 21, 2009 at 10:51am

MG...Bounty Jobs angst notwithstanding, did the grand theft charge magically disappear? I'm surprised you haven't written more about "the case."

Albright, Bounty Jobs is purple KoolAid; who plays Jim Jones???

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Permalink Reply by Steve Delaney on May 21, 2009 at 6:34pm

Great comments right here...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on May 21, 2009 at 7:13pm

You mean by Karen Mattonen, Esq.? They sure can write quite a bit on an obvious topic over there on the Fordyce site.

Steve Delaney said:

Great comments right here...

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Permalink Reply by Craig Silverman on May 21, 2009 at 7:17pm

I had a recruiter a few years back working out of one of my offices and made two placements with one of our clients with our candidates and sent them invoices from our office fax machine with his own personal letterhead. The total fees were $35,000. He was caught red handed. BTW he was the sitting 5 feet away from the branch manager. We sued him for stealing trade secrets, fraud and everything else we could throw at him. We were awarded (in non-binding arbitration) all of our money plus a ton more but by then he had hidden all his assets. Cost of the legal action ran another $30K on top of the lost fees. Yes, we fired him immediatly and went after him to make sure our team knew that we would not allow people to steal from them and also to send a clear message the we would go after anyone who tried. It happens, so you just have to watch out just like they do in retail stores...

For the record it is also not ok with me of you are on my payroll as a full time employee with salary, benefits, etc to do recruiting at night on the side as an independent, now if you want to fix cars that's ok, or sell your photos, etc but all your recruiting efforts should be considered company business unless fully disclosed and agreeed to in advance.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on May 21, 2009 at 7:17pm

MG, this would be immediate grounds for termination at 99% of firms. Even if you're an Internal Recruiter who is generating an additional revenue stream, you're rolling the dice with some significant odds against you. IMHO, it won't be long until the casino busts you.

You're walking a real thin line when you stop producing at your current firm and start moonlighting at BJ's Wholesale Club.

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