Make the candidate pay!

2 Discuss HRs in 1 week!  Technical problems have been fixed and we’re back to our usual Thursday slot.  The joy of having 2 articles may soon be diminished when you learn it is my turn this week! This week I look at 2 contentious ideas about improving the recruitment process. (Ed Scrivener)

Make the candidate pay!

Pay Up!

In recent weeks I have read a number of theories about how the recruitment industry can and should be improved.  I think it is safe to say that as an industry, recruitment has come in for its fair share of criticism, which by in large is well deserved.  I am using the term “recruitment” to incorporate all parties involved in recruiting and not just those devils, the recruitment agents! We agents do receive the most criticism, again rightly so, but as I have been detailing in my previous Discuss HR articles, it is not just the agent at fault.

As a result of this criticism, as an industry we are constantly looking to improve the experience for all concerned.  There is a trend developing whereby recruitment agents are not paid commission as they are targeted on their customer service skills and not sales.  Equally, we are seeing more flat fee and vacancy clearing organisations cropping up offering different solutions.  Finally, most in-house teams are starting to engage more with external talent via social media.  However, it has been two suggested ideas about improving the whole experience that has really stood out for me, essentially the premise with both is passing the financial cost of recruitment on to the candidate.

There is an excellent recruitment community site called UK Recruiter.  This site has a forum page and a few weeks ago a recruitment consultant explained that a client had implemented the following practice when utilising recruitment agents:

·         The cost of the recruitment fee will be recouped from the employee’s salary within year 1.

·         A full rebate will be claimed from both the employee and agency should the employee leave.

Apparently, the organisation which implemented this have successfully challenged this in court against an ex-employee.

At this point I shall allow you to take a deep breath to comprehend this!

The company in question is penalising the candidate for using a recruitment agent.  Yet it was the company who commissioned the agency to recruit for the role.  The average recruitment fee charged by an agent will be 15-20% of the employee’s annual salary.  Therefore, the employee will lose 15-20% of their salary compared to their colleagues because they used an agency commissioned by their employer!  Further to this, should the employee leave the business, for any reason, the company will recoup the cost of the recruitment from the employee, but also then require a full rebate from the agency.  So the organisation not only covers their costs, they are actually gaining revenue!

I am extremely confident this organisation will soon see the error of their ways.  As even in a poor jobs market a person is highly unlikely to want to sacrifice 15-20% of their salary, or work under such financial restraints.  Equally, any sane recruitment agency will run a mile from such practices.  This is sending out an extremely poor impression of the business by operating such penalty policies, but also illustrating a very unclear recruitment process.  If the company does not want to use agencies simply don’t commission them.  However, don’t utilise their service and then penalise the candidates for coming via that route.

The Consultant seemed very nice...

The second suggestion I have read recently is that candidates should pay to register with agents rather than the agent invoicing the company.  This suggestion seems a little less contentious at face value, as it is a simple reversal to the current standard practice.  However, I am even more concerned by this suggestion.  Under the current system, an organisation will pay an agency if they hire someone.  Regardless of the service from the agency, the organisation will be hiring an asset.  Essentially all parties gain: the employer, the employee and the agency.  Asking the candidates to pay moves this completely out of kilter and allows unscrupulous people to take advantage of job seekers in these especially trying times.  There would be no risk to the employer using this method and the agency benefits too.  However, it is the candidate who suffers greatly.  They would be paying for a service with no guarantee of success.  Their options would be limited to the companies the agency recruits for.  More importantly, if the candidate is in desperate need for a new job it could be very easy for them to be taken advantage of by encouraging them to register and pay with a whole range of agencies.  Of course rebate systems could also be put into place that way allowing the candidate to recoup a fee from an agent if they didn’t help them, however, it would still require the job seeker to make a financial input initially, which many cannot afford.

I am always particularly incensed when I read about people who have paid hundreds of pounds to have a professional CV put together, which is nothing more than cut and paste effort.  Alternatively when job seekers have paid thousands of pounds to register with job coaches who help them break into the “hidden” jobs market and simply mass mail their CV to organisations.  These practices are simply taking advantage of people in desperate situations and I feel asking candidates to pay to register is no different.

I can see a certain advantage of asking candidates to take some responsibility in the process.  I have known people accept roles purely for necessity sake with the full intention of leaving at the earliest opportunity.  Ultimately meaning the company and the agent suffer, but neither of the above two suggestions are workable solutions to this problem. 

I am confident that the all three parties will see sense and never implement either practice beyond its current level, however,  I can safely say I would be making a very swift exit from my vocation should either of these become the norm!

About the author

Ed is an HR recruitment specialist with a passion for social media.  He holds over 8 years industry specific experience and specialises in recruiting for middle to senior management HR positions.  He is also the Group Manager of Human Resources UK.

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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 9^th June and will be written by experienced HR professional Dawn Clarke.