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Why you should take control of your job search and recruitment process and avoid volume recruiters in the CA job market

February 24, 2011 at 5:35 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I have commented on a number of occasions on the current trends in the New Zealand job market and the controversial role some of the players in this market have. After my last blog on this subject I had decided not to comment further on this for a while as it is generally a fairly negative issue. The reason I changed my mind and am writing about this again is the astonishing examples of unprofessional behaviour and, quite frankly, questionable practices among recruiters particularly in the chartered accounting sector in Auckland. I will not go in to too much detail in this post for the simple reason that it is a long and complex subject. Instead I will try to touch on some of the key issues for both employers and candidates and offer some practical advice on how to avoid some wide spread problems in the job market. I should also point out that while I personally work across several industries and functional areas my comments in this article are based on actual ‘real life’ cases I have encountered in the job market in the Chartered Accounting sector in Auckland over the last 12 months.

I know that, sadly, if you are a candidate looking for a new role or an employer looking to recruit new professionals for your team in the Chartered Accounting sector your expectations of recruiters are probably not very high. As a candidate you probably have doubts if the hundreds of jobs in CA advertised by recruiters on a weekly basis do exist. Unfortunately you have every reason to feel this way and as a recruiter I often find the lack of professionalism in the industry extremely hard to swallow. Today I want to bring to your attention some facts you may or may not be aware of, particularly when applying for roles that are advertised by transactional (or volume) recruiters in the chartered accounting sector. Here are some of the reasons why you should be wary when replying to an advertisement by a transactional (volume) recruiter on one of the job boards.

Transactional recruiters (or volume recruiters) dominate the job market in CA and although they appear to be established brands very few of them follow an established and generally accepted ethical and professional recruitment process. The volume recruiters are easy to identify as they typically run a huge number of ads (on sites like SEEK) at any one time. Many of these jobs are re-advertised over and over again with some changes in the wording to make them sound as though they are different jobs. The volume recruiter’s goal is to keep his /her name constantly visible and attract as many candidates as possible. Unfortunately this approach works well (for the recruiter) most of the time and candidates do not realise that many of the jobs are not even real and the ads are used as ‘bait’ to capture their attention and get them on the recruiter’s books.

Perhaps the worst example of that notorious lack of ethics and professionalism in the CA job market is the situation in which candidates’ CV’s are sent to numerous employers without them (the candidates) being aware of that. I know that some recruiters try to get carte blanche from candidates upfront to send their CV’s to whoever they find relevant and whenever they think appropriate. This practice is an absolute disgrace and should not be encouraged as it creates a long list of short-term and long-term problems for the candidate and, on some occasions, for the employer as well. Unfortunately a lot of the time volume recruiters do not even bother to ask candidates for their permission, they just send their CV’s to as many firms they think might be interested in their CV’s. These recruiters play a numbers game and do not care if they get it wrong every now and then as the more CV’s they flick over to the highest number of possible firms the higher the chance of them making a nice fat commission at the end of the month. And they do get away with it most of the time.

Over the last 3 months or so I came across 6 candidates who were unaware that their CV’s had been put forward to certain firms. To make things worse when I told them who had sent their CV’s to the companies in question, three of them commented that they had not even met that recruiter face to face. Yes and that happens often too, as the numbers game sometimes requires the volume recruiters to forward certain CV’s on to various firms as soon as they receive them before they even meet the candidate. Why? Just in case another consultant is dealing with the same candidate. Volume recruiters know they have the advantage in time as they do not bother meeting with the candidate before they flick the CV to multiple companies. And for all this CV flicking they get paid fees that, quite frankly, they have done nothing to deserve.

Apart from the obvious fact that this is unethical and unfair on professional recruiters who play by the book and take the time to meet candidates this is detrimental to candidates and employers for a whole raft of reasons (which I am going to expand on in more detail in one of our next posts).

As a candidate when you approach a recruitment consultant you have the right to expect that he or she will take the time to talk to you over the phone initially and then in a face to face meeting. This is not just a nicety. The face-to-face interview is an important part of the professional recruitment process and without it the quality of the process suffers substantially.

As an employer you have the right to expect you recruitment consultant to take the time and meet every candidate they put forward to your organisation and provide you with relevant evaluative information supporting the CV.

Employers are often hurt by being associated with volume recruiters. Many candidates who have used volume recruiters in the past choose not to do so again for the reasons mentioned above. That automatically means that many firms miss out on potentially strong candidates simply because they would not consider job opportunities through volume advertisers/recruiters.

I strongly advise my clients to ask recruiters whether they have met the candidate they put forward in person and what their personal impressions are. Your right as a client is to decline accepting candidates through a recruitment consultant who has not met the candidate in person. Most importantly as an employer you would not want your brand to be associated with volume recruiters who generally have a very negative reputation in the job market and particularly among sought after candidates. It is always a good idea when interviewing candidates to ask them about their opinion of the recruiters that put them forward and whether they (the recruitment consultant) took enough time to describe the job and your firm.

As to candidates, the best way to start the business relationship with your recruitment consultant is by clarifying from the outset how you should communicate on jobs and employers of potential interest. Ask your recruitment consultant to provide you with the name or names of the employers they are going to approach on your behalf. If you are unfamiliar with some or all of the names mentioned, tell your recruitment consultant that you need time to do your own research (usually visiting websites and googling the firms).

Make sure you tell your recruitment consultant explicitly that they should come back to you with any new names and ask for your permission before they put your details forward to new organisations. If you find out that your recruitment consultant has not followed your instructions or your CV has been sent to an employer without your knowledge or permission withdraw your application and ask them to remove you from their database.

You can also go online and check the number of jobs advertised by the recruitment consultant you are dealing with. If the number is fairly high (say 10 jobs or more at a time) this could be a warning signal that you have contacted a volume recruiter and you may not get the quality services you require.

It is very important that both employers and candidates in the CA sector send a clear message to recruiters who do not play the game by the rules that their behaviour will not be tolerated. This will help raise the profile of the industry and will no doubt improve the overall environment in the CA job market.

Finally I want to finish this post on a positive note and say that luckily the recruitment industry as a whole still has many professionals that take their responsibilities seriously and offer highly professional and ethical services to their clients and candidates. I hope to see these professionals dominating the recruitment market in the Chartered Accounting sector as well in the not too distant future. Volume recruitment should be replaced by quality talent sourcing for the benefit of both clients and candidates in the CA sector in New Zealand.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this subject with our readers online or email us at sciadmin@scirecruitment.co.nz