Recruitment Search Firms

judithmarie

We have been recruiting a prospective employee who happens to also be using a search firm we have used in the past.  What would the possible ramifications be to hire this employee on our own?  In other words, what are the general groundrules? We did not meet the prospective employee through the search firm, it is a coicidence.

 

SubGrapHR

There is no obligation unless the contact was initiated by the search firm with a correpsponding services contract governing prospective recruits being submitted to your organization.  If you located him, or if he located you first--prior to (if this even happened) being submitted by the firm, you have no obligation to go through them.

HRforME

I would further research and document how contact was initiated. It worries me a bit that you know he was even working with this search firm.

Did the search firm know you were looking for this position? Were they contracted/hired to look for this position?  I would want to be sure that the recruit did not get your information from the search firm and just contacted you before the recruiter did, kwim? I'd probably want him to sign an acknowledgement of this fact to protect your company.

If the search firm did have a contract and did send his name/information as a possible candidate, I would immediately let them know that he had already made previous contact with you, so there is documentation in case it ever came up again or should they claim they deserve the referral/placement fee.