Candidate Loyalty Agreements

Question:

Is there such an agreement that candidates can sign that says they will not accept a job from someone we refer them to without notifying us? We had a financial person who went to work with a financial portfolio manager who started his own firm, and hired our fixed income specialist. Although it’s a different firm, it was through our efforts. I wonder if there is any type of agreement with the CANDIDATE that we could start using in this upcoming year.

Danny's response:

As any lawyer will tell you, you can put anything you’d like in an agreement. But that doesn’t mean it has any real standing or value. Your candidates are your “product” and your client companies are your customers. Your legal standing is with them. If they hire someone you refer, they owe you the agreed upon fee. This is called consideration. I have a host of recruiters putting a variety of things in candidate agreements (anti counter offer clauses, exclusivity where they can’t go online to post resumes, fee rebates if they turn down a job they signed an offer letter for), but none of them would hold up in a court of law because there is no consideration. The candidates haven’t paid you anything nor are they obliged to. If you really want candidate agreements to stick you must roll back the calendar and start charging the candidate for your service fee. But our industry left that messy practice behind two generations ago. And good riddance.

You are left instead to navigate the murky waters of trust, good faith, and mutual respect. Send motivated candidates to quality companies who have defined problems that your candidates can solve and all of this takes care of itself for the most part. Once in a while, since we are dealing with the capricious commodity called humankind, you get had. Breathe a deep sigh and move on.