How often do you discuss this topic in your business? Our partners IntroPROTECT share their thoughts on why you should have a process for dealing with backdoor hires.
As experts in recovering fees and detecting backdoor hires, our advice on the subject can feel at times (to us) a bit, well, obvious. Surprisingly, many recruiters have no idea how to deal with backdoor hires and have no formal process in place at all. Which is why we feel a responsibility to share our insights and remind you that there are places to turn for advice and professional help, should you find yourself a victim of a client attempting to dodge a fee!
To effectively tackle backdoor hires, you have to be prepared. We have some recommendations below on what to look at within your recruitment agency to be ready should a backdoor hire happen…
Are your recruiters trained in the art of client communication?
It’s key that recruiters know how to build a strong relationship with their client (resulting hopefully in trust and respect), but don’t let them forget the formalities – sending terms of business, agreeing as much in writing as possible and so on.
Do you or your recruiters know the best practices for preventing backdoor hires?
See above. Don’t be blasé about boring processes – they may form evidence down the line that your agency was the effective cause. So encourage your team not to cut corners and to think ahead.
Would your recruiters know what to do should they suspect a backdoor hire has taken place?
You don’t want panicked/aggressive phone calls taking place once there’s a chance a client has avoided an agreed fee – so make sure you’ve prepared your team with the “act as if..” approach! Send them to our blog to review all the advice we’ve happily provided to assist on the subject.
Have you reviewed your terms of business recently?
It’s all well and good sending out terms of business, but how old are they? Have they been cobbled together over the years from various templates? Have the updates been tacked on or have you had a thorough review from an expert?
If you’re falling short on any of the above, do you have experts you can turn to for help?
Hello. Sometimes it just makes sense to hire the experts. It’s unlikely you have the time to devote to chasing up a dodged fee or indeed the expertise to know how to handle it. If this is a client you want to work with again in the future, a third party handling the icky business of a disputed fee could well be the difference in preserving that relationship or losing them forever.
So please don’t snooze on this, get some simple processes in place to prepare your team for backdoor hires and fee disputes, or you’ll lose… your deserved fees! Why not chat with the team at introPROTECT!
