Somebody registers with an agency during a job search. Four months later a company she is already in a process with tells her they have received her CV from a third party, and she has no idea how.
She did not authorise it. She also never asked what would happen, because nobody suggested it was a question.
The checklist
Publish these and the candidates you want will register.
1. Say plainly that you seek permission before each submission
Which is the single most important line on any candidate page. Candidates have been burned and they are looking for it.
2. Explain what you tell them before a submission
The company, the role and the arrangement, so a candidate is agreeing to something specific rather than in general.
3. Explain what happens if they say no
That it is entirely their decision, that nothing follows and that it does not affect other opportunities. Candidates fear being deprioritised for declining.
4. Explain how long details are kept
The retention period, what happens afterwards and whether somebody is asked before it is extended.
5. Explain how to be removed
A route, simple, honoured promptly and without requiring a conversation with a consultant.
6. Explain who inside the agency can see a CV
Because candidates assume a single consultant and frequently it is a shared database, which is a legitimate arrangement that should be disclosed.
7. Explain the anonymised approach
Where you approach employers without naming somebody until they agree, which is standard for confidential searches and reassuring for anybody currently employed.
8. Explain the confidentiality for employed candidates
That their current employer will not learn they are looking, and what you do to ensure it. It is the biggest fear for anybody in a job.
9. Explain what happens to references
When they are taken, with whose permission and never before an offer stage without agreement.
10. Explain the checks you carry out
Right to work, qualifications and anything else, when they happen and what is required, which is the compliance ground agencies must handle anyway.
11. Explain what happens to unsuccessful candidates
Whether details are kept for future roles, whether they will be contacted and how they opt out of that.
12. Explain what a candidate can ask for
A copy of what is held and how it is used. It is a fair request and an agency comfortable with it is telling candidates something useful.
13. Handle both audiences separately
Because clients and candidates arrive through the same channels with opposite needs, as in candidates and clients using the same inbox.
13b. Explain what happens when a consultant leaves
Candidates build a relationship with one person and assume it goes with them. Saying what happens to a candidate's details when a consultant moves on, who takes over and whether anybody is told, prevents somebody discovering the change when an unfamiliar name calls about a role they never discussed.
14. Answer these questions at any hour
Because candidates research agencies in the evening while employed, which is the availability in how recruitment agencies engage candidates out of hours, alongside niche recruiters and specialist candidate questions and the client side in who actually works on my account questions.
Getting started
Publish that you seek permission before every submission, your retention period and how to be removed, then answer at any hour. SpideyChat for recruitment agencies answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.