Why companies don’t like recruitment people openly discussing their roles

Following on from my last post, Why candidates should always know who sees their details, I though it’d be good to do the flip side: why don’t companies like recruitment folks giving out their details publicly? Tried to order this as the most common reason given to us when we ask if we can add the company’s name to our public advertising:

  1. They are advertising a role that isn’t official yet (flying under the radar as it were)
  2. They don’t want to advertise salaries associated with their company, often to stop other workers in that company finding out salary banding
  3. They don’t want to be flooded with Naughty Recruiters who are no fun to say “No” politely to for the 200th time that day
  4. They want to head hunt a specific person without openly recruiting
  5. They don’t want competitors to know they’re hiring

Also, as a recruitment person – if we openly talk about who we’re hiring for and they are advertising the roles on their own website, a lot of folks would rather go direct than be represented by a bad agency (fair play!) but that then means the recruiting company or person will not get paid for that role, and ergo in future, not have roles to then advertise.

We try and openly talk about who we’re working with as much as our clients allow, as we believe a more transparent way of recruiting is a better way. However, we must also be sensitive to our client’s needs.

Thankfully, we can tell all folks who get in touch with us who we’re talking about in our adverts once they contact us directly, and the trust that we build with our clients – both candidates and companies hiring – pays off by making the industry better, rather than losing us money. It’s a gamble worth taking we think.