Today I was phoned by quite possibly the worst recruitment agent ever.
I don’t deal directly with recruitment. My job is to assess the need of an extra member of staff on my team, pick the people I want to see based on their CV, do the interviews, and then pick the person I think is best suited for the position. Everything else (which is admittedly a lot) is done by the very excellent HR (Human Resources) team so I don’t normally deal with recruitment agencies.
The girl on reception knows exactly what cold calling is and is fully prepared to say that I’m in a meeting or something. However, I decided to talk to this guy as I haven’t heard of the company before and thought I would just inform them that HR are the people to deal with. This is only polite and saves them from wasting time asking for me in the future.
I’m not going to say the name of the agency, or the agent, but this guy just seemed to phone up with the sole purpose of insulting people. After his initial pitch I understood that he was with an agency and said that I didn’t deal with recruitment agencies directly and that he would have better luck talking to HR. However, he came out with the following sentence, which he said in his most condescending manner.
Oh, I thought that you being Lead Developer of Research and Development, you would be involved in recruitment.
I was so tempted to put the phone down the the guy without even saying goodbye. I just told him that I would transfer him over to HR who would be able to help him. Transferred the call, and hung up.
Speaking to HR later on I learned that this guy had just flat-out lied to them. He said that he had been in contact with me for years, well before my time at Just Search. I have never heard this guys name before, or even his company’s name so that clearly wasn’t true. Not only that, but if he did know me, he should have at least asked me how I was. Aside from being impolite, I really don’t like people who lie, so I think it is safe to say that we won’t be dealing with them any more!
He had probably just picked my name and job title up from one of my social networking sites (eg. LinkedIn) and tried his luck. Part of me thinks that it must be some kind of crank call.
Recruitment agencies such as GTS are evil.
People like that give our industry a bad name. The down side of the recruitment industry is that entry is easy, relatively low cost and minimal regulation.
Too many “cowboys” mix it up and spoil it for the rest of us.
As the managing director of two successful recruitment businesses, I would like to state that most of us do things correctly. We invest heavily in our people and ensure they are competent, professional and of high integrity.
In the business to business world, clients really only deal with / buy from people they like or trust. My entire working day is geared around the offer to help people with their recruitment needs and being in a position to deliver that help when the client NEEDS it – not just when I happen to speak with them!
Please see our testimonials on our website that reinforce the way we work.
http://www.tempnetwork.co.uk
Regards
Mike Waterton
Recruitment agencies are the worst, yes a very very few are competent. How do they get employed when they have absolutely little knowledge on people’s skills.
Anyway i can go on and on, but what’s the point, employment agencies, sorry, 99% of employment agencies suck!
It is important to choose the best and trusted recruitment agencies. Many people suffered because they did not able to identify if the agency that they have is not really trusted at all.
Worst HGV agency is without doubt ADR Network who are quite simply the biggest bunch of liars on the planet. Have many actual examples of this so now I would rather be on the dole than work for them, if they tell you its Monday check your calender!
You’ve been warned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE CONTACTED AT LEAST 18 RECRUITMENNT AGENTCIES IN LANCASHIRE FOR WORK NOT ONE HAS TELEPHONED BACK ONCE. I TRY TO KEEP IN TOUCH BUT WHEN I AM BEING ITERVIEWED I THINK MY AGE IS AGAINST ME. PLUS THEY DONT WANT TO KNOW. I HAVE BEEN BLACK LISTED
BY AT LEAST 3 BECAUSE I COMPLAINED ABOUT THEY NEVER LET ME KNOW
ABOUT JOB APPLICATIONS . ONE INTERVIEWED ME CHEWING GUM AND DRINKING WATER! THAT WAS PINPIONT SHE PHONED ME UP AND ASKED WHY I WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT
Agencies are hopeless, we used to use them but found them a total waste of time and money. CV’s would arrive clearly unsuited for the roles, so we found ourselves doing the work of the agencies. We are large(ish) company but don’t have high turn around, so we advertise directly on Job Serve, which is far, far cheaper for us. We used to get unsolicited calls from agents touting for work and on more than one occasion we even had an agent turn up unannounced, and when told we’re not interested gave sob stories about coming from a long way away or the appointment had been arranged (a lie).
We do employ a number of contractors, and stick to people we know and have hired before. So for us, it’s No Agencies please.