‘Unethical’ headhunting plagues skills-hungry industry

The scarcity of skills within the freight and logistics industry has resulted in a number of unethical practices by certain recruitment agents, including headhunting candidates they have placed in a position as soon as the guarantee period is over. A practice that brings a generally ethical industry into disrepute, according to agents FTW spoke to. An industry source from a major logistics company told FTW that she had worked with a recruitment agent who would routinely headhunt staff they had placed with her as soon as the guarantee period was over. “At one point an agent hinted to a new staff member that her job might be in jeopardy and she therefore had to explore other options. Thankfully we have a good relationship and the staff member came to me to discuss this and I was able to reassure her that this was certainly not the case,” the source said. “This is without question totally unethical and illegal and should not be tolerated. Any company who has experienced, and has proof of this practice, should consider scrapping this agent from their list,” says Jill Scott of Jill Scott & Associates. She comments that there are many other “ethical and professional agents” out there who do fair trade. “Unfortunately the greedy ones will paint all personnel agents with the same brush,” she added. The Federation of African Professional Staffing Organisations’ (Apso) Code of Ethics states that an agent may not approach any staff member at a company where they have accepted remuneration for services for a 12-month period – and all the agencies FTW spoke to were adamant that headhunting in this manner was unethical. Dr Lynn Ribton-Turner, managing member of Ribton-Turner Recruitment, suggested that the client company could request a signed undertaking from an agent not to approach or headhunt their staff. “This should be dealt with when placing an agent on the preferred supplier list,” she says. Terri Smith, managing director of Tiger Recruitment, says that the Apso Code of Ethics doesn’t deem it unethical to represent a candidate who approaches an agent of their own volition. “There is a minefield of discussion and debate around this. If your goal is to base your business practice on the Apso code, the decision is clear. However, I tend to base my business practices on the cultivation and retention of my clients and the candidates that build and drive my network,” she says. Therefore, in many cases she says she will overlook the code of ethics (regarding the 12-month period) and politely explain to a candidate that she can’t work with them because she placed them in a certain position. Another unethical practice to which FTW was alerted involves a job seeker being incentivised to refer a colleague or friend to a particular recruitment agency – and stand to win prizes or cash by doing so. “The colleague may not be in the market but this system could coerce them to place themselves there,” says Ribton-Turner. She believes this will further destabilise the freight recruitment market where talent is in short supply. “It also sounds unethical that a hand-out will be paid for sending out your colleague's curriculum vitae. This will also run foul of the new legislation on privacy of information,” she says. Natalie Singer, chief operating officer of Apso, says headhunting is a recruitment method that is routinely used, especially in a scarce skills sector. “However it is never ethical for an agency to headhunt candidates from their own clients. The Apso Code of Ethics is very clear on this issue,” she said. To protect themselves from unfair agency practices, Singer said clients should ensure that they have a good retention programme in place in order to keep their employees happy. They should also ensure that they work only with agencies who subscribe to a Code of Ethics (such as Apso) and where they can seek recourse through the complaints mechanism.