Retained
Search Ethics
The retained search industry has a widely accepted body of
principals that most professionals know and most firms
uphold.
Retained search professionals are employed by the client to
conduct the entire recruitment effort from start-up until
the candidate has started working.
A primary tenet is that, being paid on retainer as a
consultant regardless of whether hiring occurs, we, as the
recruiter, have a duty not to weaken the
client’s organisation he or she had been paid to strengthen.
Therefore, a retained search firm considers its clients
employees off limits and does not solicit them for other
clients. Traditionally, client employees are considered off
limits for one or two years after a retained search is
completed.
The
relative advantages
Clients often prefer to work with recruiters who performed
in the past for them. By working exclusively with one firm
on such searches, the client generally develops a much
deeper relationship with the recruiter, and receives a much
higher level of service. |
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Executive Search Ethics
Search firms generally commit to off limit agreements. These
agreements prevent a firm from approaching employees of
their current client as candidates for other clients. (for
instance, if a headhunter recruits a new CEO for a client,
they will agree not to recommend the cient executives to
other companies).
Since we operate as management consultants working in the
best interest of the client for whom we conduct searches, it
would be counter productive to
simultaneously remove talented executives from those client
companies.
Search firms may decline to undertake a search assignment
from certain
companies, in order to preserve their ability to approach
candidates from those
companies. |