Head-hunters on trial
Hoteliers have been known to go blue in the face when talking about poaching by recruitment or executive search (head-hunting) agencies - particularly when they have invested time and money in training an employee. But in an industry in which there is a desperate shortage of labour across the board, and in which high-quality staff are a premium commodity, it is not surprising that these agencies can make a killing.
Agencies can argue that there is a need for them. Most hoteliers concur that this is the case and do use their services, but object to some of the operating methods used by certain agencies.
So, what do the recruitment companies stand accused of?
The Charges
"I'm against agencies who try to do things on the cheap, who don't have proper shortlists but just put forward the first available candidate. They look at an equivalent-sized establishment and ring up the appropriate staff," says Alan Makinson, director of personnel and training, Greenalls hotel and leisure division.
Makinson, who is responsible, among other things, for the De Vere hotel chain, is not in favour of agencies approaching his staff directly. "If employees are discontented," he argues, "they'll voluntarily put forward their names to an agency, or answer adverts."
An approach by a recruitment agency, he maintains, can unsettle and confuse staff who have no intention of moving. This is a sentiment with which many agree. Peter Lederer, managing director of Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Perthshire, believes the purely speculative phone call can cause the most disruption of all. "When there is no thought behind contacting someone, when contact is made without a specific job available, that is unethical," he says.
Another worrying type of approach, which one of Makinson's chefs has been on the receiving end of, is the attempt by an agency (Makinson declines to name the culprit) to recruit for a job on the proviso that the chef approached takes a number of his kitchen brigade with him to his new employer.
Unfortunately, the shortage of quality chefs in the industry is acute and this means poaching occurs frequently. "There's nothing more fiendish than getting, through an agency, a super guy to head your kitchen then finding, nine months later, that he gets another call from the same agency," bemoans Michael Yeo, chief executive of Pride of Britain.
Mavis Elliott-Smith, director of recruitment at Hilton International, also voices concerns about rapid re-poaching of staff by agencies from their clients. She believes that there should be a hands-off period for an agreed period, perhaps one year, but reluctantly accepts that a company or hotel would need to give an agency "an awful lot" of business before it would be in position to set parameters.
She is also unhappy when a head-hunter poaches staff from its own client. "We would be very angry if we retained an agency to do work for us in one of our hotels, and they then poached within that property," she confirms.
The Defence
The strongest defence against any accusation of unethical behaviour that head-hunting agencies have, whether they are working at a senior or junior level of recruitment, is that they are widely used. "I would say that almost every company in the catering and leisure field is using head-hunting at some stage. It's just a question of how much," says Valerie le Moignan. She is managing director of HLR Associates, the Knightsbridge-based UK arm of IMC (Innkeepers Management Corporation), one of the USA's top executive search agencies.
HLR specialises in placing middle- and top-management and many of its clients are large hotel groups, including Hilton International, Accor Group South East Asia and Ritz Carlton International. "They [hotels] try to take people from within, but they get to the stage where they are expanding so fast that they need new blood, new ideas, and they don't want to waste time doing it themselves," explains le Moignan.
She is currently working with ITT Sheraton Corporation, which has 1,100 openings to fill and cannot hope to recruit everyone internally.
She refutes any suggestion that head-hunting is unethical. "If a person doesn't want to go, they won't go," she maintains. "It's not up to me to look after a company's investment in an individual. If it's taking care of a person and offering a good career progression, the person won't move."
On that defence, she justifies the right of a recruitment agency to approach a candidate by phone, but adds that the term "head-hunting" should be strictly applied to agencies that do their homework thoroughly before picking up the phone and contacting a prospective employee. Speculative calling is not done at HLR.
Le Moignan says HLR will do a minimum of 20 hours of research. More often, searches for the ideal candidate will take three or four months, and sometimes longer for senior positions. She concedes that some agencies, particularly those recruiting for non-executive positions, will do only data-based research but points out that if HLR doesn't do its job properly then the likelihood of placing an unsuitable person with a client is greater. Ultimately, the success of HLR depends on how thorough its research is.
The company relies to a great extent on "people we know and trust" in the industry to point it in the direction of people who are looking to move jobs. "And many CVs cross our desks - people contact us," reveals le Moignan. As a rider, she adds: "The best people, frankly, never answer adverts."
Does HLR approach staff working for a client? "We never poach from our own clients," says le Moignan forcefully, but she admits to sometimes poaching from friends, who are not clients, in the industry. "Business is business," she explains. "I can't avoid talking to someone just because he/she is employed by my chum. I've a job to do and a commitment to my client."
The Verdict
While HLR does not appear to be guilty of using some of the worst methods of approach that hoteliers complain about, there are certainly some agencies operating in the recruitment business that are less fussy.
Agencies can rightly plead mitigating circumstances, though. There is a market demand for their services - they are used, both happily and reluctantly, by most hoteliers and caterers, and are often approached by people wishing to change jobs.
In fact, viewed from a head-hunted person's point of view, an approach by an agency can be flattering. Sean Spillane, general manager of Leith's, Edinburgh International Conference Centre, moved to his present job in June after spending five years as country club manager at Gleneagles, under Peter Lederer. He was approached by an agency via a friend who knew he was anxious to move on. "It's good when the market comes to you, rather than you going to the market," he confirms, adding that he had Lederer's support for his career move.
The fact that both potential employees and hoteliers/caterers use the services of executive search and recruitment agencies means that the charge against them, of unethical methods of approach, is fatally weakened. The jury must therefore return an open verdict.
This week's Need to Know focuses on employing temporary senior executives
