Editor’s note: Jeff Allen has heard every employer excuse that you can imagine for not paying up — and dozens more that defy imagination. A few years ago he began documenting them in a weekly collections column. Because of the importance of collections, Fordyce will periodically reprise the most common situations he addressed. The complete collection is here.
What Client Says:
The hire was through an employee referral.
How Client Pays:
Employee referrals are among the easiest and most common fee-avoidance moves. Here’s how they do it:
- Select the candidate you want to hire.
- Introduce him to an employee (preferably someone he could have known).
- Ask the employee to “recommend” him.
- Tell the candidate that the employee’s recommendation was the reason for the offer.
- Tell the candidate that he shouldn’t be talking to that haunting headhunter.
If the client is just a little unsavory, the employee file can be filled with:
- A backdated reference letter from the cooperative coworker.
- A backdated, backdate-stamped, back-stabbing application with the coworker’s name as the source of the contact.
- A thank-you letter and copy of an employee referral check (“bounty”).
What can you do about it? Haunt that candidate like you hunted him. Write confirming letters about the results of interviews to the hiring authority.
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You’re on the outside looking in. Make monster faces in the window Force your way into the process to make that hire a placement.
Clients get spooked. They p-a-y!
