Bad Business Practices by StartUps and Candidates

Startups, Social Networking and Talent Acquisition:
I've worked with a number of startups during my career. Good ones, great ones, and every now and then a bad start up. As a recruiter part of my job is building relationships with candidates and companies. I know talent that you can't find and where to find them. It was said that social networking is a great resource for companies, especially start ups or smaller companies with limited budget for recruiting and staffing. And if you manage your networks right you can probably find some pretty good talent. But not everyone you want is out floating around the web. So when you have something specific or very specialized you will find that a recruiter can find you something that you can't always find yourself.

Recruiting in Action:
I just started working with a technology company that has had a software developer role open for a year. So they've approached us with finding a person that suits their needs and within two weeks we had 3 people they wanted to hire, none of whom were available in the market, on the job boards, or via social networks. :)

Bad Startup, bad:
Every now and then, however, we run into people who believe they can be slicksters in the talent acquisition game. I had a company that recently hired a candidate that I'd referred. They made a low ball offer to the candidate I'd referral and dumped the candidate after a month. The candidate took the job and didn't talk to me about it before hand. The candidate ended up taking a 20k pay cut and the client figured they'd gotten a great person without paying a fee!

First of all its just bad business practices. You don't want to be the people in your community who establish yourselves as a shady to work with bad business practices. Secondly, my advise to candidates who are looking for employment, if you are getting nickel and dimed, you may want to think about taking a job with a company. Its a huge red flag so just be aware. If they are doing this to you they are probably doing this to everyone else. Third, since the candidate took the offer without consulting with me about it, there was nothing that I could do to support them as they tried to deal with daily issues as they arose at work.

Class Acts:
The start up companies that have the most are the ones who endear themselves to talent in the area. Facebook, Google, and Apple don't have to do a lot of hunting because they treat their employees, vendors and customers with the class. Consistently these companies are able to attract the top talent, locally and globally.

Furthermore, backdoor hiring is basically stealing. If you are establishing yourself as a company that engages in these types of practices, believe me you leave a bad mark on your name and tarnish your company and reputation.

Before you engage in these kinds of shady practices remember one thing - If you aren't a client, then you are probably a source for talent. Headhunting and tweeting for talent are not the same thing.

Vahid Behzadi
Executive Recruiter