I would like to qualify the below by saying there are also a lot of good SEO and PPC recruitment agencies in London.
Apologies for the following rant BUT;
At 4Ps Marketing the recruitment process is very simple we use our CRM system to track the sales funnel and estimate how many new employees we will need in the next few months to ensure we can manage the increases in workloads effectively.
When we identify the need for a new employee we contact our recruitment agency “Yellow Cat Recruitment”. They know us well and we can easily turn around a brief in the time we need. Added to this we have a very effective graduate scheme that on average results in 1 new employee per month.
So what is the problem?
I have no problem with SEO and PPC recruitment agencies calling the office and enquiring if we need a recruitment agency. This is how business is done and we are happy to have a polite conversation about how we are happy with our current provider. We all need to sell our services and being in an industry where many of our competitors have been accused of going over the top in the sales process I don’t want to sound hypocritical.
What is not acceptable is the 2 following practices that we encounter at least 5-10 times a day;
1) A recruitment agency lies to get through to decision makers in the company and attempts to pitch themselves as “not a recruitment agency”. Yes a company needs to position themselves in an industry but blatant lies to get a potential customers attentions is just shoddy.
2) Again a recruitment agent calls our employees in work time to offer them a job at another agency. Yes I understand we have the best employees in the WORLD (This is fact) and this will attract attention BUT contacting them in work time is not acceptable. Even today a recruitment agent called our office and tried to impersonate one of our clients to get through the operator!!
I understand that as in SEO there are good and bad agencies and the same is true with recruitment agencies BUT the levels that they stretch to is really causing resentment within our industry. I count many SEM directors within other agencies as my personal friends and they share the same experiences.
SEO had a bad name and as an agency we pitch all our strategies as long term and sustainable. Surely these practices are just short term and will come back to bite the SEM recruitment industry in the bum.
Happy to invite comment from any agencies that ensure their staff act in a professional way. Our recruitment agency are very professional and for that we reward them with exclusivity. Surely that is a good long term business model?
Myself and the rest of the team at Yellow Cat are sorry to hear that agencies are approaching you and your staff in such a manner. It is these kind of tactics that give the industry a bad name and I can understand your frustration.
Without honesty and integrity no business can build strong lasting relationships, no matter what industry they’re in. When it comes to generating new business it is important that all prospective clients, whether they choose to work with you or not, are treated in the same way and are left with a good impression of your company. Underhand tactics will leave a sour taste and once you’ve got on the wrong side of a potential new client you’re chances of winning their business are gone.
If companies refuse to act in a professional and gentlemanly manner perhaps regulation is the way forward.
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Thanks Adam, you can’t put a price on a trusted relationship hey!!
I just hope all these other guys don’t give your whole industry a bad name!
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Good post Chris. As you spotted on Twitter my issue is that recruitment people are seeing freelance on my LinkedIn profile and constantly contacting me – usually to offer me full-time roles. I’ve been freelance over 2 years now WORK IT OUT PEOPLE.
One of them even requested “if you’re not interested please don’t reject this connection request as I’ll get kicked of LinkedIn again for spamming people”. Hmm, quite.
Until recently I’ve been polite – you never know. But they have gotten more aggressive and ruder so I’m planning on hitting spam from now on.
PS You’re from SEO and I’m from PR so if we say something’s evil it must be right?
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Interesting review. I found your website from bing while i was researching for job search. I will forward your site to other people and I am sure they will think the same about your efforts on this site.Regards
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Found this post thanks to you replying to my tweet on a similar post. I work within SEO recruitment and fully agree with the idea of the industry being regulated. We deal with peoples confidential data on a daily basis but its still the case that anyone can open up as a recruiter and I feel this leaves the industry open to abuse and hence why so many cowboy tactics are still commonly used.
Sadly I don’t think this will change for a long time and thats why its so hard to find a good recruitment partner. Ethics should play a major factor in our business relationships and its something sadly lacking in many industries and society now.
Thankfully its normally easy to recognise the companies not to use. I actually work on the search & selection side of my industry and I can tell you ‘headhunting’ is not about calling a companies staff and saying ‘wanta job’. Its even worse when they do it on a spam email. In reality its about networking and being respectful whilst maintaining the highest levels of confidentiality.
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