Would Mr Sullivan give reasons as to why when one submits a CV the recruitment specialist does not acknowledge or give feedack, or indeed give assurances as to how the extremely personal data is kept. Or, simply being kept updated with the market or vacancies. More importantly whether such data is kept securely/complies with legislation etc.
It seems that this is a particularly bad trait in the recruitment industry and is blase about these matters. I do not think there are exceptions. A friend of mine is a recruiter for the automotive industry and he agrees that that this is an evasive and unregulated area. Just having good business manners would help.
In answer to your first question regarding the lack of acknowledgement and feedback, I would wager that this could be something to with the very large amount of candidates for each available position and an extremely finite amount of time per recruitment specialist.
I am unsure whether this is a post regarding the security of your data, or you are simply annoyed due to the perceived lack of communication from recruitment consultants. If the latter, I would suggest perhaps maintaining a spreadsheet of all of your applications and contacts, and if you have not heard anything after a reasonable space of time give them a call or drop them an e-mail. That is called being proactive and looking keen; ultimately, you are the one that needs the job.
Would Mr Sullivan give reasons as to why when one submits a CV the recruitment specialist does not acknowledge or give feedack, or indeed give assurances as to how the extremely personal data is kept. Or, simply being kept updated with the market or vacancies. More importantly whether such data is kept securely/complies with legislation etc.
It seems that this is a particularly bad trait in the recruitment industry and is blase about these matters. I do not think there are exceptions. A friend of mine is a recruiter for the automotive industry and he agrees that that this is an evasive and unregulated area. Just having good business manners would help.
I've been thinking recently about security of CVs once submitted and compliance with legislation. Got to agree with you that legislative data compliance is in my experience very lax in recruitment. One of my friends is in a senior position for one of the largest IT recruiters in the UK and he boasts that they have over 1 million CVs in their database. Most of these will date back years and they have no good reason to keep holding on to them. I'm sure the Information Commissioner could all but close them down if they were to be informed.
I am not talking about applying for a particular vacancy or perceptions. It seems that some recruiters like collecting CVs!!. Is this data they hold regulated?
As far as chasing them up. That is a two way process, you may want a job but they also want the substantial fees. If they cannot place you and think you are unsuitable they should tell you so. Not leave you to worry whether your printed CV will end up in a dumpster or on an East European id theft web site/forum.
There is simply a lack of good manners and assurances.
Ok, I see where you are coming from a little bit more there Rupert. Having just been through the graduate recruitment process, I might be coming at this from a slightly different angle. Yes, pinging CVs off to all and sundry is a potential ID theft risk; however, it's surely a necessary evil.
There are some unscrupulous and lazy recruiters out there, for sure, but what else are you supposed to do when you are desperate for a job, in difficult economic times? It's a risk we have to take. Better regulation might be nice but ultimately if an impoverished graduate gets a sniff of the job they want I doubt they will give two hoots about information security and regulation…
When you think about it this is really in the recruiters best interest to collect as many CV's as possible. Especially now in tough market conditions the recruiters will want as many people as they can have to put forward for positions. Should this be regulated? Yeah probably, I agree with what you say about the risks for ID takeover etc.
But, I have to agree with redcat, it really is a necessary risk you have to take, as the recruiters (especially in the UK) run the industry so much. In Australia (where I am originally from) there is not so much of a recruitment industry and most places still do their own recruitment in house. I can see this changing down the line.
So yeah, I agree - but its a real catch 22
These are interesting points which I have tried to address below.
1, Data Protection Act
I am no expert here, but my company - and all recruitment companies holding data - have to sign up to the Data Protection Act. Each recruitment company has a privacy policy published on their website outlining how they will treat your personal data, making clear that your data will be held securely and it will only be used for the purposes of securing your employment. It will also state that your data will not be distributed to any 3rd party without your permission.
As for how long your data is held this is a tricky area. As I understand it, at the current time it is stipulated that the data should be held for no longer than necessary. However, until case law is established in this area what is meant by necessary is clearly open to interpretation.
What I would say is that if you have passed your details to a recruiter and do not want them to hold the information any longer you can contact them asking them to delete your records and they will do this.
2, Recruiters not acknowledging CV's
I understand your frustration here. There is absolutely no excuse for not at least acknowledging your application. However, even good recruiters don't always get it right all the time.
What I would suggest here is that you make an effort to get to know your recruiter. Make yourself more than just another CV.
Call them, chase them, ask them questions and make yourself stand out. If you still can't develop a relationship or you don't like how they respond to your efforts, this is the time to contact the company, ask them to delete your details and move on.
3, Recruiters enjoy collecting CV's
In my view it would be counter-productive to try to collect hundreds of CV's when I know that I will only be able to build an excellent relationship with a small number of those people.
Most successful recruiters will tell you that they would rather work with a smaller number of people so that they are able to provide the updates on the market and other useful information referred to in previous posts.
However, I am certainly not defending all recruiters as I do appreciate there are some who fall way short of the basic manners and courtesy we should all expect.
David, maybe I can expand #3 slightly, anecdotally.
There are two major types of recruiters (at least in countries I worked in, and definitely in the US), contingency and retained.
Contingency recruiters find a job posting or hear about it as inside information, then try to hustle up a matching candidate, finally present it to the potential employer. Then, if the candidate is hired, they get paid.
Retained recruiters, are contacted by, or have existing retainer to find the appropriate candidate for the job. Retained recruiters will get paid something, even if the job is never filled. Often of course there is a special fee which kicks in when the position is filled.
Now for the resume collection. In both cases it is the recruiters best interest to have a large base of CVs, even outdated ones. Why? Because most job searches start with basic keyword searches.
Recruiters, specially retained recruiters will deny this vehemently, but they are deceiving themselves, the employer and the candidate.
Without doing a structured search on a large CV database, they would be drowning in an ocean of paper and electronic CVs in various forms, shapes, fonts, requiring perusing pages and pages of fodder.
But, to find the right combination of search patterns, one needs bigger and bigger DB of CVs, as the patterns are increased.
Contingency recruiters tend to have exponentially larger databases, as they are not so specialized, nor do they have standing knowledge of potential opening positions - compared to retained recruiters.
They also tend to be less scrupulous.
I hate it myself, but I understand it.
What I would say is that if you have passed your details to a recruiter and do not want them to hold the information any longer you can contact them asking them to delete your records and they will do this.
Just following on from David's comments, Privacy and trading of our personal details is a difficult balance. If the Government sets up a Privacy Information Commissioner that happens because in part the Government has allowed other activities to exploit your personal data.
The retention period when dealing with personal data is a difficult one. If you are with your NHS Doctor for years then the records exist based upon Doctor/Patient confidentiality for years - save that the Government knows all or part of your details also. Here of course we are talking about details of highly personal nature.
The level of retention of personal details change, for instance, where it is personal data collected as to your activities in particular market sectors and where Directives and Regulations exist dependent upon the type of personal data collected. As an example, data collected in records by operators regarding your electronic communications is covered by a retention period up to 2 years in
Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC.
However, data that you personally volunteer is a two-way street. The company holding your personal data is subject to the "reasonableness"requirement in legislation set out, e.g. in the UK, under the Data Protection Act 1998 and of course other pertintent Regulation. As David illustrates retention period id covered by the term "necessary". But you are equally required to ensure that those to whom you voluntarily disclose personal data only retain it for a certain amount of time - or you should not submit it at all; So the trustworthiness factor is an important one.
Of course, the balance of power regarding the requirements for data retention as opposed to data destruction is largely difficult to enforce. Getting postal spam is one good example where data hasn't been destroyed and results in post addressed to the previous occupiers of the address you now live. We equally know from public statements by UK Government opposition MPs that getting rid of certain "Databases" in the public domain will be one of their priorities as there is massive amount of abuse in certain public sectors that has and is taking place.
Reporting data abuse can result in some positive actions, or indeed the mere threat of reporting abuse can have effect.
Againt that background CVs sent to Recruitment agencies will be one of those choices for you and as disclosure is voluntary it falls upon you to identify the terms under which your submit your details. Checking out Recruiters' Privacy Policies is a good idea. Asking to have your personal details removed is a good step (as David points out) and getting it in writing that the destruction of your personal details has been done is another good idea.
One last observation, but it is how I approach the matter, I do not part with any sensitive information to anyone unless there is no alternative.
Thanks Greg for expanding on the data protection point.
Going back to Jhup's post, I think you are absolutely correct in your assessment of why some recruiters still seem to find it necessary to 'collect' CV's. I worked for a large City recruiter until 2003 and that was certainly the attitude then as every CV was seen as potentially useful on future searches.
However, I think that today, things are - or certainly should be - a little different. With the arrival of Linkedin, Facebook and other online sources of information, successful recruiters can map organisations and keep track of potential new candidates so they can be easily contacted when a potentially suitable opportunity arises without having to actually collect CV's.
Of course sites like Linkedin can also cause problems due to some recruiters - and others - taking advantage of this access to information….