Today’s guest blogger is Wilson Cole. He is the CEO of BackdoorHires.com and Adams, Evens & Ross, the nation’s largest credit and collections agency designed exclusively for the staffing and recruiting industry. In 2008 he was inducted into INC Magazine’s, “INC 500” for being the CEO of Adams, Evens & Ross, the 307th fastest-growing privately held company in America. Adams, Evens, & Ross has helped more than 3,000 staffing and recruiting firms recover more than $1 billion in past-due debt and is an NPAworldwide Endorsed Program. Read his post below to learn how backdoor recruitment happens.
In cybersecurity, a type of malware known as a backdoor circumvents standard authentication mechanisms to gain access to a system. As a result, resources within an application, such as databases and file servers, are accessible remotely, allowing offenders the opportunity to execute commands remotely on the system and update malware.
Backdoors are installed by exploiting weak points in a web application. Since files are frequently heavily encrypted, detection is challenging after installation.
Backdoors are renowned for being covert, in contrast to other cyber threats that make themselves known to the user. Some backdoors allow a small, knowledgeable group to access a system or program quickly.
There’s another type of backdoor that’s also damaging an industry.
For staffing and recruiting firms, did you ever experience ongoing recruitment suddenly getting halted right after you forwarded prospects to the hiring company?
Did a qualified candidate or two stop responding to you the minute you introduced them to your client?
Did the client “ghost” you? Refused to pay you?
Whichever the scenario, there’s something familiar going on. Like the malware attack that exploited a system, you got the short end of the stick because of backdoor placements.
Now, what is the backdoor recruitment process like for the recruiting industry? First, let’s take a look below.
What are backdoor hires?
Candidates that recruiting firms lose to the clients they work with are known as backdoor hires.
How does this happen? A recruiting firm is supposed to do the hiring on behalf of the company. Usually, everything—from advertising the vacancy down to placing candidates—is done by the staffing agency.
But at one point in the process, the staffing firm hands over an essential document: a candidate’s resume or curriculum vitae.
The backdoor recruitment process typically begins once the client gains access to the prospect’s information. Because they now have the means to contact the candidate independently, they’ll do the hiring themselves. And that usually means no pay for you.
But that doesn’t sound right. It was you who found out all the details. Yes, but delinquent clients often claim they did the job for you. What’s there to pay when they—and not the hiring manager in charge of the process—place the candidate themselves?
The Backdoor Recruitment Process Can Hurt You
For staffing agencies, being involved in a backdoor employment scenario is a nightmare due to the difficulty in collecting invoices.
If the company resorted to doing this, they never really intended to pay you. They just used your services to get access to the top candidates.
The loss of revenue for the recruiting firm is one of many disadvantages of a backdoor hire. But, ironically, they’re bad news for both themselves and the company that purposefully underpaid for hiring.
Even though the offending company might think it has money set aside, resourceful recruiters or those who have invested in backdoor technological solutions will have the knowledge and tools necessary to make them sorry for their actions. In addition, they will realize that it would have been better if they had simply paid since the charges will be significant and they have already proven unreliable.
Additionally, it could be difficult for the applicant who agreed to the backdoor hiring to collaborate with other employment companies. Recruiters might not want to work for them, and the ease with which they permitted dishonesty says so much about their character.
A Friendly Reminder: Pay Placement Fees
Companies think they may avoid paying costs through the backdoor recruitment process—offering the candidate they’ve scouted a job without the recruiter’s knowledge.
However, evasion cases never have a happy conclusion. As a result, experienced recruiters are investing in backdoor hire tracking tools. They may track candidates through their LinkedIn profiles or social media accounts. Using this technology can help recruiting firms keep an eye out for unpaid debts they might have missed.
End-to-end means that recruiters are informed and urged to protect interests by closing gaps or loopholes. Of course, this technology is on top of all the usual precautions: signed contracts, safety nets like a 12-month possessory term are in place, and extensive due investigation has been done on the company and your prospects.
These AI solutions provide staffing organizations with cutting-edge capabilities to track candidates and avoid any backdoor recruiting scenarios. Fighting fire with fire makes perfect sense at a time when most transactions and communication take place online. Equalize the playing field and collect what your staffing company is owed.
To Wrap It Up
Given the abundance of job opportunities accessible, firms seeking to hire will profit from a recruiting firm’s services. But regrettably, some companies might lie and use a sneaky backdoor recruitment process. Therefore, in order to protect their objectives and work, every staffing organization should invest in a watertight policy supported by stealth technology solutions.