In a previous article I suggested that you should build a relationship with a recruiter, even when you’re not looking for a new role. In fact I argued that this is the perfect time to start the relationship. One of the comments I received was that there was a general fear that by doing this your manager might think that you are looking, and that some people had been sacked for just considering interviewing elsewhere; the company only want people that are 100% committed working at the firm. The comment was completely fair as I know people that this has actually happened to.
There are 2 things that I would say to this: 1) I’m pretty sure your employer is breaking a number of laws, and 2) you’re better off out of there anyway. Here’s why.
- Your MD should be providing the best working environment they can for their employees, and have complete faith in their brand. If they’re not confident in either of these then it’s not the sort of place you want to be working. Why should you care about the business when your boss obviously doesn’t?
- Your Manager is expecting 100% loyalty but doesn’t show any loyalty back. You need to look up to your boss and respect them. This boss sounds insecure, immature and neurotic. None of which is good at the head of a company. Imagine the decisions they’re making that you’re not even aware of.
- Your manager should want to discuss any problems that you have with the business, why you’d consider leaving and then try to resolve them. This would improve the business and would go a long way to retain staff. If your MD is trying to build a successful business then business improvement and staff retention are high on the list. By not doing this it would suggest otherwise.
- If your boss is willing to let people go for such trivial reasons then staff retention and growth if going to be extremely difficult. If the company isn’t growing then where does that leave your career?
- Recruiters are excellent sources of all kinds of market info; your MD should see this as a way of increasing their/your awareness and getting market intelligence on the competition.
- If your MD has all of the positive traits above but still threatens to fire you then I’d suggest this is just an excuse and you are probably out of the door already. You just don’t know it yet!
One of our clients actually encourages their consultants to go to interviews when they’re headhunted; he wants complete transparency and trust within the business so that he can discuss any problems to find out ways to overcome them. He wants them to go to the interviews to find out what the competitor is doing that makes them better, what they are doing attract/retain staff and then he implements it himself. He hasn’t lost one member of staff to competitors and the company is moving forward all of the time. I appreciate it’s a bold move and the law of averages says that he must lose someone to a competitor eventually, but he’s certainly going about it in the right way in my opinion.
So instead of worrying about it, you should tell your MD that you’re meeting up with a recruiter and see how they react. If you have a good MD with belief in their business, and trust in you, then it shouldn’t worry them in the slightest.
