Recently, an article was brought to my attention that had been written a few years back.‚ However, it still pertains to the world of recruiting today.‚ The article is called “Heading off the Headhunters“, and it discusses how employers are trying to protect their employees from being pilfered by recruiters.‚ 

Even though this article was written during the “Dot Com” era in 1999, I feel as if IT Recruiters are going through a similar situation now.‚ In a lot of markets, there are fewer candidates readily available, so we are forced to come up with creative methods to find those perfect candidates.‚ If you weren’t already aware of some of the techniques discussed in this article that employers are trying to avoid, now you have learned some new tricks.‚ 

Dialing different desk numbers through a phone directory, paying for hard copies of employee directories, and doing some thorough web searches for employees of specific companies are methods that employers are well aware of.‚ I don’t think any company can really prevent recruiters from getting to their employees, one way or another.‚ A few years ago, I had the VP of HR from a company call me directly and tell me to stop emailing her employees from a directory that I had obtained legally.‚ Ironically, there was a pretty high rate of response from the employees that I did contact, and it was a great way for me to find some passive candidates and get referrals.

I hope you also find this article interesting.‚ As recruiters, we need to continue to come up with ways to find these hard-to-find passive candidates, especially as employers tighten security to keep us out.