Our partners, IntroPROTECT, have given a lot of advice about preventing and detecting backdoor hires, but ultimately they will always happen… so here’s informative blog to help put you the recruiter in the best position when you have backdoor hire/disputed fee to deal with.
While it may be tempting to blame the candidate, it may surprise you to learn that the backdoored candidate is almost never the enemy. They often don’t even know that there is an issue between you and the client. Whether the candidate was in the loop on the issue or not, handled correctly they might well be the key to success!
With that in mind, you can probably see why you need to treat your candidates with respect. On our own blog we’ve discussed before why it’s just not cool to ‘ghost’ them – feedback and communication is key to keeping the relationship on track.
So, why is it so important to keep the relationship with your candidate on track?
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With the candidate on your side, they will be your ambassador and more likely to support your fee demand. They may even be able confirm you were the cause of engagement (aka you landed them the job).
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Staying in touch with them, with regular contact and support, will naturally lead to information; they can give you the full story and some insight into how the backdoor happened (for example they might mention how the client contacted them directly following the interview).
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If you do find yourself in front of a judge arguing your case, irrespective of the law, having an audit trail of how hard you worked preparing your candidate for interview, communicating regularly and ultimately getting them to accept the job will put you in a good light. Showing you put in the hard yards to get the deal over the line and you weren’t only involved with the client side because they cut you out of the deal, will put you in a much better light than “I sent the CV”.
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Nobody stays in the same job for life these days – when the candidate is looking for a new role, make sure they come back to you!
Having a positive relationship with your candidate is always a good idea, but when dealing with a backdoor hire/disputed fee, remember the candidate is at the heart of the solution. Which is why you should do the best you can for them, prove you deserve your fee and keep up the communication – you really don’t want them to align themselves with the fee-dodging client or other agent, so heed our advice and keep the candidate on your side!
For more thoughts on this topic why not chat with the team at introPROTECT!
