Posted by Nicky P. Anderson on Jul 08, 2021

Dear Nicky,

I posted a job on Marketplace, and got some candidates from a recruiter I've never heard of, who is not listed in the Marketplace. What's going on? How did they get my job?

Hesitant in Hesperia

Dear Hesitant,

The recruiter who sent you the candidates does indeed work for an NPAworldwide member, but that recruiter has not been added to Marketplace. While there is no "requirement" for member firms to add all of their recruiters to our databases, it is certainly a best practice for a number of reasons:

  1. Safety and security. It is not good practice to share user names and passwords. When a recruiter leaves, they still have the ability to login to our systems unless the firm is 100% diligent about changing the password immediately upon a recruiter's departure, every single time. Firm owners are responsible for the actions of their recruiters (and former recruiters) if there is improper access, so this is just not a risk worth taking. There is no cost for additional user names and passwords. Recruiters who are active NPAworldwide participants should be listed in our databases with their own user names and passwords. This also ensures each person working on splits has taken our Ethics Quiz and has a basic understanding of NPAworldwide rules and expectations before accessing anyone's candidates or jobs.
  2. Awkward trading partner interactions. Many NPAworldwide firms and recruiters only split within the network. They only share their candidates and jobs within the confines of our private network. It is unsettling, jarring, and worrisome when a recruiter contacts a posting member about a job or candidate and the posting member does not know who that recruiter is and cannot find them in our databases. They worry that there has been a breach of some sort - either that our database is not secure or somehow their privately-shared record has wound up in the public sphere. This does not create a foundation for success between members. Trust is the key ingredient to successful splits and trust is harmed when one partner is concerned about how the other received a job or candidate. Please put yourself in your trading partners' shoes and consider how you would feel if this happened to you.

Some owners prefer to be the "face" of their business, so they don't list all of  their recruiters (or may be using outside researchers to identify candidates, for example). In these situations, it is best if the owner is also the only person sharing candidates and jobs, especially on a direct basis. It eliminates confusion and awkward encounters that are harmful to successful splits.

Nicky

send letters to: nanderson@npaworldwide.com