When Princes Turn Out to be Frogs: Do We Know Who We Are Hiring?
Two days ago a copy of Web Designer landed on my desk with an article about a past employee that left me in equal parts angered and vindicated.
The piece in question was an exposé about a ‘designer’ who had been discovered stealing other peoples work. And it wasn’t just anyone he was stealing from. Aiming high, the artful dodger had plagiarised the legendary Nicolas de Silva’s work, convinced he could get away with it and pursue a successful career based on light fingers and convincing chat. After only two weeks working at our company I had to fire him, in the wake of discovering that his CV was in fact completely bogus and that, despite having the gift of the gab, he was not the prodigy he sold himself as.
Whilst a vaguely amusing anecdote to avail future staff members with, this incident seriously got me thinking about the responsibilities recruitment agencies have to their clients and often fail to take seriously. I strongly believe that recruitment in our industry needs to rethink its approach to its clients and put in guidelines that avoid mistakes like this happening. Needless to say, quality control and integrity are high up on the agenda in our industry and when we hire freelancers we need to know that they have been properly screened.
Having experienced the work of the fraudster first hand, I am hesitant to use recruitment agencies in the future to source freelancers. After all, if there are no quality assurances, I might as well post a job spec on a website and wait for the applications, both faux and real, to flock in…. Since our business model relies on outsourcing work to freelancers, we end up jepardising our client relationships if our temporary staff aren’t who they say they are.
No doubt, I understand the value of recruitment agencies. That is, after all, why I was so keen to use them in the first place. I simply feel that they should start hiring recruiters who have at least a basic understanding of the industry and are prepared to vet their clients thoroughly. With changes like this the agencies will flourish and companies like mine can renew their faith in them. We may catch these creative con artists eventually but why have to hire them in the first place?
Damian Kimmelman, Director
