Brenda Burch Dumont's Blog

This issue is so odd that at time of press (wordpress! – ha!) I’ve had to change the names of the culprits until two more facts can be unrefutably proven.

It’s a story of how Social Media can be misused and how it can come full circle.  Let me begin………..

A few days ago an HR professional who recruits for a major retailer sent me a copy of a recommendation she had read created by one of her connections on LinkedIn.  To say this recommendation was effusive and over-the-top understates it.  The connection was a Vice President, HR for Canada for a huge North American retailer.  We’ll call him Sam.  The recommendation heavily endorsed a new company in Canada that recruits on behalf of the retail industry.  We’ll call the owner of the new company John.  The company is an interesting part-job board/part headhunter format.  After nearly 30 years of retail recruitment and owning a both a retail search firm and Canada’s first retail-only job board, I had never heard of such an odd combination of services.

Naturally, I visited the website.  It listed 150 retail jobs in Canada with representation from all areas – from Home Depot to Guess to The Source to Tommy Hilfiger to Starbucks, etc. etc.  Wow, I thought, how did this new retail recruiter slip by my radar.

A closer inspection shows that all candidates that wanted to apply to any of these jobs needed to email directly their resumes to the website or to John.  That’s not right.  There is no facility for applying online to the website and then applying through to the retail employer – all you could do is EMAIL directly to the website or John.

Amongst the retailers who were posting  jobs on John’s website were existing or previous clients or candidates from my many years in retail recruitment.  I picked up the phone and called a few and asked what sort of response they were getting from this new company.  One after another said they had never heard of the company and that the postings that they saw on the website were either out of date or had never existed. (at least currently – within a year).  So, it was apparent that John was attempting to build a resume database to sell back to unsuspecting retail employers while absolutely misleading the retail job seekers that the jobs were current and existed and may be perfect for them.

It gets even weirder!  By now I am working in cahoots with some retail connections who recognize John’s name as someone they had interviewed as a candidate for previous positions.  A review of his resume shows that he spent some time at a major luxury retailer in the U.S. in New York City.  Wait a minute, I thought, Sam’s LinkedIn profile also includes that luxury retailer.  Sure enough – John who owns the website and Sam who recommended it so highly worked at the U.S. based luxury retailer at the same time.  But actually, no they didn’t.  Both gentlemen quoted this retailer on their respective resumes and LinkedIn profiles, but a previous, legitimate employee phoned down to her old friends at the company.  A thorough, thorough search revealed that neither gentlemen had ever worked at that company!

A final icing on the cake.  Sam, who has 80 plus connections on LinkedIn (legitimate, senior to executive level Retail HR Professionals) and says he is the Vice President, HR for Canada for a huge North American retailer,  isn’t.  It was easy to check the stores and phone down to the U.S. corporate head office.  There is no one by Sam’s name that has ever worked for them either.

Boy, it seems to me a huge amount of deception took place simply to build a retail job seeker database.  It illustrates something I’ve hammered on for years.  NEVER hire anyone without thorough, thorough reference checking.  Perhaps do a little more than hit the ‘accept’ button when someone asks to ‘connect’ to you on LinkedIn.  I know I’m as guilty of this as anyone.  And finally, never over-recommend anyone.  Your own credibility is at stake.

Stay tuned.  Once two more facts are verified I’ll fill in the blanks with Sam and John’s real names and the names of the employers they never worked for.  And, I’m going to use Social Media in a good way by telling this story on every social media site I belong to, along with apologizing to all the retail job seekers who may be waiting to hear from those retailers about a job that is out of date or never existed.  The retail industry is filled with honest, excellent, talented people who wouldn’t even dream of a scheme like this.  These are two very bad apples.

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Retail by cobblehillgarden