Issue: Honoring a candidate referral

Date: 11/01/94

Spirit of this Policy
This policy has stemmed from occurrences in which a recruiter receiving a candidate referral from another recruiter suddenly “realized” he already had the candidate, thus triggering a debate as to whether or not he should honor the referral. Fortunately, this has only happened a few times, and for the most part, we've been able to diffuse those situations peacefully. However, in the interest of decreasing future incidents—or eliminating them altogether—below are two possible scenarios regarding the honoring of a candidate referral. (Note: Recruiter "A" is the recruiter with the candidate. Recruiter "B" is the recruiter with the job order.)

Possible Scenario #1
Recruiter "A" calls Recruiter "B" in response to his job order and describes Candidate "X" to him. Sometime during the conversation, Recruiter "A" tells Recruiter "B" the candidate’s name but Recruiter "B" does NOT tell Recruiter "A" that he is presently working with the candidate. After they hang up, Recruiter "A" is under the impression that he’s just referred this candidate to Recruiter "B." Recruiter "B," on the other hand, checks his records and discovers that he . . .

Top Echelon Network Policy for scenario #1
Recruiter "B" owes Recruiter "A" a full split placement. Since Recruiter "B" was not already in motion on the candidate, "BUT FOR" Recruiter "A’s" actions, the deal may not have gone together. Once Recruiter "B" has accepted the referral from Recruiter "A," he should honor that referral even if he later finds the candidate in his files. The three-month time frame used in the possible scenario was an arbitrary figure, and it is Top Echelon Network’s feelings that the time frame doesn’t matter.

Possible scenario #2
Recruiter "A" calls Recruiter "B" in response to his job order and describes Candidate "X" to him. As soon as Recruiter "A" tells Recruiter "B" the candidate's name, Recruiter "B" says something like. . .

"I already know about this candidate and have been trying to call him but haven't been able to reach him yet . . . but thanks anyway."

Granted, it’s true that Recruiter "B" knew who Candidate "X" was and how to reach him, but he had NOT had contact with the candidate about the specific job opening Recruiter "A" was responding to prior to Recruiter "A" bringing his name up in the conversation.

Top Echelon Network Policy for scenario #2
Since Recruiter "B" has not had a prior conversation with the candidate about that specific job opening, Recruiter "B" should honor the referral from Recruiter "A." Unless factual evidence is given, we have to assume that Recruiter "A’s" referral was the cause of Recruiter "B" making contact with the candidate.

If Recruiter "B" can prove he was already in motion trying to contact the candidate, then Recruiter "B" does NOT owe Recruiter "A" a split placement.

Closing Comments
Some of Top Echelon Network’s Preferred Members who contributed to this topic pointed out, "we expect our clients to use the industry’s BUT FOR RULE to honor candidate referrals from us, so we should expect the same thing from each other." We wholeheartedly agree. If you receive a candidate referral from another Top Echelon Network recruiter, honor it. If that means that you shouldn’t accept referrals until you’ve finished your own file search, that’s fine. We say this because of the computer age and what it means to Top Echelon recruiters who are busily building their own databases. We know that if we allow Top Echelon Network recruiters to accept candidate referrals from their Trading Partners only later to "renege" and reject the candidate referral because they subsequently found the candidate in their files, the spirit of networking will be diminished, and relationships will be permanently damaged. The bottom line is this -- if you accept a referral from a Trading Partner, honor it.