Recruiter Shame File

Here is where you tell your stories and help to fix a very sick industry: But please, read the Philosophy Rules and Purpose before you do.

We will make a difference,

Regards, Toby

What you need to know about the recruitment industry to use this site

There are thousands of recruitment firms with many working in each specialist area – complaining about one still leaves plenty of others for you to work with. But it needs to be said: Complaining about the big ones could get you on a black list if they have one, so think carefully about it. Hopefully they will take your feedback as showing something that needs fixing rather than trying to get revenge! Probably the best way with the big firms is to do it anonymously – see how to do that below.

Of course, we hope that just by its existence there will be a lot less need to use the shame file.

The staff turnover in the industry is huge, so many don’t stay around long enough to learn any skills (Why is it so high?). They can do a lot of damage to applicants and to their clients in the short time they are pretending to be reruiters.

Goals of this site

• To expose unethical practices
• To not let persistent rudeness and poor ethics go unreported
• To educate candidates about how recruiters work – the ignorance is unbelievable as many recruiters will attest. Here are some guidelines on how to get value from them

What are some of the problems that need exposing:

1. The appalling, unacceptable practice of not returning phone calls or emails. Now, there are a number of reasons why they do this. All recruiters including myself are guilty of this occasionally when we are either very busy or when our admin lets us down. Those who do it consistently, day in and day out need to be shamed – there are no excuses for it.

Is it a small problem? NO!! We have surveyed over 100 job applicants – over 90% said it had happened to them and more than just once. It is time our industry stopped it.

2. Asking you what other roles you are applying for: and then referring other candidates to those employers. Most candidates don’t know the reason for the question – and wouldn’t answer if they did. Who wants more competition when you are applying for jobs!? Note it’s OK for recruiters to ask “Are there other roles you have applied for that you are no longer considering as I may have people who are suitable for those roles?”

3. Calling your referees without your permission – for why this is a problem.

4. Sending your resume to companies without your express permission. How dare they!

5. Fake online advertisements selling an incredible job just to get applicants to apply. However, this one is hard to prove without the recruitment firm co-operating. Not wanting to reveal their client when they are working on a role doesn’t mean they are guilty – there are often good reasons why recruiters won’t reveal it. However, if we get a number of complaints about particular recruiters, we will ask them to verify each ad we have been notified about. Maybe with a journalist present?

6. To lie when making the job offer to you by pretending they don’t have an offer yet (Recruiters are trained to do this – really!). Again, hard to prove until you are talking to the employer later. Stamping out this practice would be great.

Rules and Philosophy

This is not somewhere for you to vent your anger and frustration. Our goal is to change the industry by providing a feedback forum.

All comments are moderated, and abuse or insults will not be tolerated (of course Poms and Kiwis are fair game J).

We will assess each entry and post (or reject) within one working day.

We strongly recommend you send a copy to the boss of the recruiter you are complaining about. And, if you know their client, to them as well. These 2 emails will have more impact than anything else.

Do not expect to fix the problem you are complaining about – it is usually too late. Besides, as the gatekeeper, they get the last say about who said what to whom and you would expect them to defend their past actions. It is difficult to prove either way and it’s very unlikely your application will be reconsidered.

But at least you took a step. Something to help stop an appalling problem.

Posting without mentioning the recruitment company name is fine – with two big provisos.

1. You must use your real name on the Post. And confidentially provide RSF with your full contact details, including your work phone number and email. We won’t publish this of course, it is just so we know you are a real person and will stand by your comment to us.

2. You must provide the name of the recruitment company and the consultant to us.

Each month we will list the companies who have been reported, with the number of negative (and positive) reports against them.

Positive reports on recruiters are welcomed – in our view, positive feedback will have a bigger and faster impact than negative ones. It usually does. But again we will need full contact details and a statement that you have no relationship with the recruiter beyond a professional one. We will publish their name and yours in this case. You will appreciate that we need you to confirm that there is no relationship between you and the recruiter – who wants fake testimonials for god’s sake. And you wouldn’t want to be shamed for doing that would you?!