Do Candidates and Clients Go Behind YOUR Back?
At Top Echelon, we like to ask uncomfortable questions. Specifically, we like to ask those questions of our Network recruiters. Because why not?
We asked just such a question in the form of a poll question in the Members’ Area recently. In fact, we asked two of them (because it was twice as nice). The questions revolved around how many times people have gone behind member’s back.
Let’s view the juicy results, shall we?
How many times in your career has a candidate tried to go behind your back to the hiring manager?
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of Network recruiters that selected each one:
- Never! — 18.9%
- Once or twice — 52.6%
- Three or four times — 17.9%
- Five or six times — 5.3%
- More than six times — 5.3%
And then on the heels of that question, we asked THIS one:
How many times in your career has a client tried to hire a candidate behind your back ?
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of Network recruiters that selected each one:
- Never! — 30.6%
- Once or twice — 56.5%
- Three or four times — 10.6%
- Five or six times — 1.2%
- More than six times — 1.2%
Back-to-back behind their backs
The first thing that is evident from the results of his poll is that candidates apparently go behind recruiters’ backs more than clients. After all, 30.6% of recruiters indicated that a client had never gone behind their back. Conversely, only 18.9% indicated that a candidate had never done so.
Interestingly, the answers for “once or twice” were rather even. That’s because 56.5% of recruiters chose that frequency for clients and 52.6% chose it for candidates. Apparently, “isolated incidents” are not all that isolated.
However, more clients went behind recruiters backs “three or four times” (10.6%) as compared to candidates (5.3%). But that’s where things fall off for clients. Hardly any members indicated that clients have gone behind their back “five or six times” (1.2%) or “more than six times” (1.2%). The rate for candidates at that frequency is greater, but not mind-boggling. Both “five or six times” and “more than six times” garnered 5.3% of the vote.
No recruiter likes to have somebody go behind their back. In fact, nobody likes it, period. But it does happen. It happens on both the candidate side and the client side.
It doesn’t mean you’re a bad recruiter. It just means you might need different candidates and new clients.
If you want to maximize your strengths and improve your weaknesses within TE, then contact Top Echelon Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS. You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.