Most companies think their third-party recruiter will not touch their people. That assumption costs money.
When you hire a recruiter, you give them access to your people. Names. Roles. Reporting lines. Internal structure.
That is valuable intelligence so ask yourself this.
Question: What stops that same recruiter from using that information to approach your employees later, on behalf of another client?
Nothing, unless you control it in writing. This is where most companies get it wrong.
They focus on the hire. They ignore the risk that follows.
There are three hands-off rules you need to lock down before you sign anything.
Protect yourself from sleazy recruitment cowboys
How do you protect yourself from a recruiter coming back to fish for your best staff, because when you earlier used their service, they had access to your organization and now know who’s who?
And second, how do you protect yourself from the same recruiter trying to headhunt the very same candidate they placed at your company three years ago?
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No poaching from your company
The recruiter must not approach anyone in your business. Not directly. Not indirectly. Not through another consultant in their firm.
Request that this goes into the agreement between the recruiter and your company:
“We undertake not to approach any employee of your company as a candidate for other clients for a period of at least one year from the employment date of any placed candidate.”
One year is a minimum. Many firms will agree to longer if you ask.
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Lifetime protection of placed candidates
This is where most clients fail. You paid to secure a hire. That person must not become inventory again.
You want to get a life-long guarantee that the recruiter will never ever try to get the successfully placed candidate to leave your organization and become their candidate again.
Put this into your agreement:
“We will not recruit or attempt to recruit any candidate placed with your company, at any time in the future, without your prior written consent.”
If a recruiter refuses this, you have your answer. Walk away.
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Check where the recruiter is blocked
If you are looking for candidates currently working for competitors or companies in your industry, make sure your chosen recruiter does not already have a business relationship that would prevent them from approaching employees of competitors or companies in your industry.
If they do, they cannot approach those candidates. Well, at least if they are professional and ethical recruitment firms.
Ask your recruiter this question early:
“Which companies in our industry are you restricted from approaching?”
If they cannot answer clearly, you will waste time and money. Walk away!
Real case from the market
A recruitment firm in Bangkok placed a Finance Director with a global company. Three years later, almost on the day, the same recruitment firm approached that candidate for another client.
The candidate resigned and moved. Then this hits the fan: the CEO found out.
More than ten years later, that story still circulates in boardrooms.
That is the cost of weak agreements.
The candidate loophole
Smart executive candidates will try to work around the ethical policies of good recruitment firms.
They will say:
“What if I contact you first?”
My answer stays the same. And it happens a few times a year.
I say: Get approval from your employer. No approval, no conversation. I can’t help you.
Clear lines protect everyone.
In my case at Tom Sorensen | NPAworldwide Executive Recruitment, even the candidates I placed 20 years ago are still off limits because they are still working for the same company.
But even better. Candidates that I helped a client to find and place during my time at Grant Thornton and Boyden, we talk a period of 20 years, are still hands-off for me even though I now work for Tom Sorensen | NPAworldwide.
The following hits the CEO and CFO directly
The cost of replacing a senior executive often costs 1.5 to 2 times the annual salary when you include disruption, lost momentum, and rehiring fees
Time to replace: 4 to 9 months for senior roles in Thailand, and with it the internal damage from loss of team stability, client confidence, and board trust. You know what I mean.
Do I need to make the point that if your third-party recruiter takes your placed candidate, you pay twice? First to hire them. Then to replace them.
Most clients assume this is standard. It is not.
