查看完整版本: “Who Owns Those Contacts?”

“Who Owns Those Contacts?”

I had an interesting conversation recently with a Contract Recruiter who has been in the business for many years.  She has worked in a specific niche category of high tech jobs for several agencies including some of the “big guys” in the recruiting business.  After hanging up with her, I got to thinking about building your database and how we all have a large collection of contacts.  Many of those contacts have been in our databases for years and as we progress through various Contract Recruiting assignments, some of those contacts can become good contacts for our next client or even a great candidate.
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G1`c*Q.uq But then it sort of made me think, “who do those contacts belong to in our databases”?  Are they the property of our past clients?  Do we need to tag each contact with the client name that we are working for when we identify that next contact?  What about contacts that were already in our database before we started with the client?  Should we some how set them aside so the next client can’t benefit from our previous sourcing?  Maybe we should “charge” a fee to the next client for allowing them to use these contacts?  OK, you get the idea.  Where do you draw the line between people you know and contacts owned by your client?
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OK, I know there are many of you out there who will respond that a contact made during the employment of a client is the property of that client.  I can’t argue with you, but how the heck do we keep track of all those contacts and who they belong too?   It would be a nightmare to try to segregate your rolodex wouldn’t it?

In my 25+ years working for corporate America, I have made contact with thousands of people and keep a database of those contacts in ACT.  Many of those contacts are excellent future referral people for me and when I start a search assignment for a client, I include them in my early networking to identify candidates.  I’d hate to exclude that valuable asset that I bring to the party because I was worried where I made contact with the person in the past!
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Y'YD9b How do each of you treat your vast databases of contacts?  Are they always at your future disposal as you do new Contract assignments, or are they off limits because you may have met them during the employ of a previous Contract client?