It can feel like a real uphill battle when you’re getting multiple calls every day from recruiters you don’t know and, honestly, you don’t need their help at the time.
Recruitment agencies get most of their work by picking up the phone and reaching out to TAs, and if the TA won’t cooperate, they may go to the hiring manager instead.
Now, can we blame the authorities for this behaviour? I don’t think so, if instructions were not given and were simply ignored.
But if the TA tells them,
“That’s fine, we already have the panels.”
or
“Thank you for letting me know there are great candidates out there, but I don’t need any help with this position.”
or
“We are still recruiting internally, and if you need to approach someone externally, you can submit a bid via TalentVine.”
…And if the consultant ignores that and continues to lobby the hiring manager, knowing full well that it will cause huge frustration to the TA team, then that’s a red card and the consultant can and should be penalized.
I know a TA team that has to spend 45 minutes completing procurement documentation every time they are forced to hire someone from an agency outside of their panel, and I can’t think of any other industry where a supplier would intentionally create more work for their client and still end up getting paid.
This is the behavior of the 3% of consultants that creates distrust for the 97% of consultants who are doing the right thing, and one can only hope that if agency leadership is aware of this, they will take serious action.
