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Full Participation of Recruiters in the Hiring Process

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Paid regardless of who's hired, the retainer recruiter normally is used by his clients as a consultant.

Unlike the contingency recruiter, who's presumed biased in favor of the candidates who'll earn him or her a fee, the retainer recruiter is often asked to interview and evaluate candidates whom the employer finds on his own, and internal candidates too.

Where's the price-tag?



The retainer recruiter's price-tag is on his professional services, not on your head.

Far from being a broker operating on contingency... and thus owed nothing unless a purchase is made, the retainer recruiter has a professional relationship with the employer. He's brought in as an outside expert... fully-paid, fully-involved, and fully-trusted.

Moreover, since he's being paid to look for exactly what's needed, the retainer recruiter's candidates are presumed to have been found specifically for the client who's paying the bill. Therefore, if the retainer recruiter follows the time-honored rules, he will never offer the same person to more than one client at a time. The contingency recruiter, on the other hand, always offers the same person to as many potential employers as possible, as fast as possible.

The way a retainer recruiter is paid...for his or her skill and effort, rather than on contingency...creates a professional relationship between the search firm and the employer. And that relationship creates two barriers that prevent you from seeing all but a very few...and perhaps all...of the jobs you'd want, which are "searched" by any retainer firm, no matter how large.

Two different aspects of the retainer recruiter's "don't-bite-the-hand-that- feeds" relationship with clients create these limitations. And there's seldom any way around them, no matter how many of the search firm's offices you visit, nor how many of its recruiters you know personally.

Barrier #1: The You-Work-for-a-Client "Off-Limits" Rule

Let's begin with the barrier that can keep you from seeing any jobs at all.

Because the retainer recruiter is being paid to strengthen the client organization, he or she has a corresponding duty not to tear it down. When the client agrees to pay the recruiter to attempt to fill an empty office, she has a right to expect that the recruiter won't simultaneously...or shortly afterward...try to empty another office.

Indeed, no employer wants to contribute to the financial health of any recruiting organization that currently is... or soon will be... working against the health of the employer's organization.

As a Result: The Industry's Traditional "Off-Limits-for-Two-Years" Rule

How long should a retainer recruiter have to consider a client's employees "off-limits," after being paid for a consulting assignment?

For a while, at least. But certainly not forever. Over the years, most of the retainer recruiting profession has always upheld the industry's traditional "Two Years Rule." Its essence:

For two years after accepting a retainer fee to strengthen a client company's management team, the ethical firm will not weaken that team by recruiting away any of the client company's people.

Traditionally, the rule protects a client from being raided by the retainer firm for 2 years after purchasing its services. In recent years some of the giant firms have squeezed that interval to just one year, and have even tried to deny protection to clients who provide less than a certain dollar amount of business. Such arrogance paid off during the "bubble" of the late '90s, but evaporated in the "meltdown." Meanwhile, firms of less-than-giant size have never stopped stressing traditional values-two years off-limits among them-as one of their major selling points.

Large retainer firms with dozens of recruiters and multiple offices handle hundreds...even thousands...of jobs per year. Therefore, at every moment they may be handling dozens-perhaps even hundreds-of jobs that would be right for you. Unfortunately, they also have hundreds of client companies "off-limits," and there's a strong chance that yours may be among them. If so, you'll hear of no opportunities from that search firm.

How many clients are off-limits at the largest firms? Current information is a deep, deep secret. However, a 1989 Forbes cover story reported these numbers: Korn/Ferry 2,150; Russell Reynolds 1,567; Heidrick & Struggles 1,289; and Spencer Stuart 1,250. And when Heidrick & Struggles went public in 1999 its 4/26/99 S-l/A filing with the S.E.C. was reported in the May '99 issue of Executive Recruiter News as stating that the firm "worked for more than 1,800 clients in 1995 and over 3,100 in 1998."

With numbers like those, it's likely that your employer may be "off-limits" to several of the sizable retainer firms...especially if you work for a major company, since big companies are the ones most likely to have used several of the major recruiting firms recently.

Regardless of how outstanding you are, you probably won't hear about any job suitable for you from any firm your employer uses. You may, however, be called to suggest people for jobs that obviously wouldn't interest you.

Moreover, the barrier isn't removed if you contact the firm and ask to be considered.

It doesn't solve the "off-limits" problem if you approach the retainer recruiter yourself, instead of waiting for him or her to call you. If she were unethical, she'd approach her client's employees and, with their cooperation, merely claim that they approached her. Therefore, the recruiting firm protects itself from any seeming impropriety by not involving you at all in its projects. The ethical retainer recruiter won't empty offices in any company where she's recently been paid to help fill them...indeed, not for two years, according to long-standing industry practice.

You may simultaneously be asked to suggest candidates for several jobs that would not interest you. But on jobs you'd personally be interested in, most retainer firms will only let you know about one-at-a-time.

The way it works is that only one-recruiter-at-a-time is given permission within the firm to contact you. And he's only allowed to tell you about one- job-at-a-time. Not until you declare yourself uninterested in job #1 do you have any chance of being told about job #2. And unless the very same person you turn down has a second job he wants to ask you about, chances are that weeks or months of inside-the-firm red tape may have to unwind, before another of the firm's recruiters can tempt you with something else.

Searches usually take three to four months, plus a while afterward during which administrative assistants "close out" completed searches and return non-recruited executives to the "pool." Therefore, even if you're given maximum exposure, you probably won't see more than two or three...or conceivably four...of any retainer firm's appropriate-for-you opportunities per year.
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