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How do you all deal with body-shop recruiters who cold-call you all day with potential prospects?

I'm hiring in my department but these people would be the last place I'd look for talent, since their fees are so high and their practices unethical. They must have a huge pool of callers, because I hear them yapping in the background every time I talk to one of them.

On the one hand, it's a recruiter -- I don't want to burn any bridges, so I'm always cordial -- on the other hand, they're worse than telemarketers: they know my extension and they call all day. Any advice?

jhack's picture

Have you listened to the "how to handle recruiters" podcasts from March 20 and 27, 2006?

John

US41's picture

These are not recruiters. These are outbound telemarketing sales people.

Let's be clear about "recruiters" and what that means.

I'm friends with many account managers from the contracting companies that we deal with. I use the advice from the podcasts to help my relationships with those people and ensure I know them and they know me. I try to return their calls, I let them know about openings, and I introduce them around as appropriate. I try to help them within the limits of my values and the company's policies.

The actual recruiters in these companies do not speak to me. They take in resumes from outside their firms, process and screen them, interview potentials, and then hand them over to the account managers who then introduce them to me when I have an opening.

The people you are talking about are cold-calling telemarketing sales people. I have two companies that use these sorts to contact me, and I recommend highly that you finesse your way onto the district VP's desk and give him an earful about cold-calling you and your company to get taken off of their list.

Building relationships with executive recruiters is awesome. Building relationships with account managers from placement firms is less so, but still useful networking that will help you out.

When the call center people call and start reading from a script and will not even let you interrupt, I don't think the recruiters podcast applies.

While you want to network as widely as possible, I don't think allowing your business desk phone to become a source of telemarketing will make you effective.

drinkcoffee's picture

Thanks for your responses. The "how to handle recruiters" podcast is the reason I'm asking this question. At first, I managed these calls just like my other recruiter relationships -- I wrote down their contact information and kept it in my file. Now, it's starting to seem like that investment might not be effective for this particular firm.

For now, I'm just redirecting them to my HR dept.

jhack's picture

You should also read John Luchte's "Rites of Passage..." which is an impressive treasure trove of info on handling recruiters.

John