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I'm a consultant to two large firms in the areas of recruiting and compensation. For senior and hard-to-fill positions, I've recommended research organizations to scout out the local competition. The research organizations can quickly identify competitor employees in similarly-titled positions and provide contact information, often more quickly than the company recruiting group, and keep my client's name out of the search, avoiding retaliation.
Have listened to two challenges to my recommendation:
1. The research organization does what we already pay our staffing group to do. My answer so far is that No, you pay your staffing group, including me as a consultant, to identify the best people available, and the research is going to beat the staffing people 9 times out of 10 because their approach is faster and more thorough than networking.
2. Using research organizations is unethical. It's like we're hiding. We don't reveal our name, the research company contacts people at work and I suspect hacks the web page of the competitor. My answer is that the approach protects everyone involved and until the company does something I know is unethical (they don't reveal their methods - trade secrecy) I won't condemn them.
Thoughts?
3 replies
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Maureen/Scott: One of my clients OK'd the research group and is the Hiring Manager is very pleased with the initial results in terms of finding more than one qualified candidate to pursue. We'll keep the records private for future reference. I cited both Maureen's competitive advantage reasoning and Scott's assurance that there is nothing really new in the approach except possibly the efficiency, but both the HR professional and another department manager remain unconvinced regarding the ethics.
Bottom line - this client use the research approach again if the situation warrants. Thanks for the outside reassurance - the groups are so used to me even though I'm a consultant it was easier to hear your thoughts than mine.
Bill
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If the firms that you are consulting to are large, then you can bet that other firms are sourcing their employees... I don't find it unethical at all. I'm internal and do it all the time. Although its more cost effective to do it on my own, using an outside firm would provide a quicker response as well as protect the firm's name should someone else find it unethical.
I'm making an assumption that these firms are in the AEC industry (since you posted it here) and our industry is full of this type of recruitment... because names are easy to find!
Let us know what your clients end up doing... I'm interested to know.
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Using researchers is an excellent method of conducting competitive intelligence. Period.
Quit w/ the judgment - I like your approach: "...the approach protects everyone involved and until the company does something I know is unethical (they don't reveal their methods - trade secrecy) I won't condemn them."
Do what others don't do - that's where the real advantage lies.
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