Over the past 10 years or so I’ve seen the recruitment game from a number of sides, including employee, head-hunted, interviewer, recruiter (client side), business owner, and entrepreneur. It is as the last three that I have experienced an interesting catch-22.
Last year a highly successful serial entrepreneur that I know, and have a great deal of respect for, came to me to chat about a business that he was putting together to create a recruitment portal. The business had a number of very compelling slants to it that made it particularly enticing to be involved (as an employer looking for good people). However the recruitment catch-22 immediately reared its head – by welcoming a recruiter (read portal in this case) into your fold you open yourself up to having every one of your people being head-hunted away to other firms by that recruiter (if not immediately then in the near future, and if not directly then indirectly).
While I work hard to make sure, and I like to think (and am told repeatedly by those who should know – the people themselves), that everyone in Open Box is happiest where they are, I’m also very aware that promises of greener pastures and associated pots of gold are very tempting to anyone (even if the pasture is dust when you get close and the pot of gold never materializes).
I guess this is one of the reasons why we are very selective about not only the people we hire but also the people we have as vendor partners (in this case recruitment agents).
