Huxley Associates

[Contreras]

Huxley must be using fake recruiters to contact candidates. Keep calling the apparent recruiter Adam () but he is always busy and cant talk!!! He keeps sending mails even though i asked to unsubrscibe from Huxley mail list!

He does exist, unfortunately. Although how he acheives any business with agressive and rude cold calling beats me - funny watching both the client HR person get so fired up though.

Huxley Associates have UK offices in London, Reading, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Aberdeen - is it one specific branch that you have had this issue with?

Birmingham. Can't speak for the others...

[psychocandy]

Andy: Board, we need to sack agents who use dirty tactics.
Board: Great idea Andy! Where did that come from?
Andy: Some random stranger on some web forum told me to do it!

and also,

Andy: We need to sack agents who use dirty tactics.
Board: Why? It works for us sometimes, and makes us money so we don't really care. Everyone else does it sometimes so we'll just pretend we care and carry on doing it.

[psychocandy]

Interesting point you make about the 'game', contractors play their part in that game. In the same way we are often judged by our worst, the same is true of contractors. Every time one of you guys fails to turn up to an agreed interview, bad mouths us to our client or threatens to walk off-site for trivial reasons it brings down the professional contractors.

Fair point there are good and bad contractors. Not had much experience with your company specifically but I'll bet a lot of the people on here will have experienced bad agents at least once or twice from various companies.

I don't think its just one or two agents though. Whilst I don't disagree there are some good agents out there, unfortunately there are way too many bad ones. Its a breath of fresh air to speak to a good one (and there are some who try) because usual business is putting up with this references, opt out, etc etc crap most of the time.

But like someone else said, its the whole industry unfortunately.

[northernladuk]

and also,

Andy: We need to sack agents who use dirty tactics.
Board: Why? It works for us sometimes, and makes us money so we don't really care. Everyone else does it sometimes so we'll just pretend we care and carry on doing it.

Problem here is that there is a fine line between dirty tactics and just hard business. In a cut throat market any way to get an advantage that isn't legal is game. Everyone does it. I have a house I let and as soon as the board goes up I get unsolicited mail from every letting agent in the area asking me to switch to them which is also pretty dirty and boarding on illegal due to unsolicited mail laws. It's life. We can't fix agents on here and to be fair the systems they use work cause of stupid and unprofessional contractors who don't know their business well enough and fall for it. The dregs of our industry can make the problem worse for all of us.

Either way I don't really think this thread should continue as this is a generic problem, not one for a 4 year old thread targeted at a specific agent IMO.

[AnonAgent]

What I enjoy about these threads is that there is a very limited amount of "dirty tactics" exposed. Everyone of these tactics can be avoided by just saying no and worst case is that someone gets an annoying email or phone call.

In other words. Ive heard things in this game done by "dirty agents" that are actually illegal and actually hurt people. Not this pansy "oh my he tricked me to get the name of my previous manager who he then called for a job that may not have existed".

Andy is just playing all of you, there isnt a chance s3 will change. That will put them at a massive disadvantage.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

What I enjoy about these threads is that there is a very limited amount of "dirty tactics" exposed. Everyone of these tactics can be avoided by just saying no and worst case is that someone gets an annoying email or phone call.

In other words. Ive heard things in this game done by "dirty agents" that are actually illegal and actually hurt people. Not this pansy "oh my he tricked me to get the name of my previous manager who he then called for a job that may not have existed".

Andy is just playing all of you, there isnt a chance s3 will change. That will put them at a massive disadvantage.

At least he had the courage to come on here using his own name

[AnonAgent]

At least he had the courage to come on here using his own name

And lie. Say that Huxley are a perfect agency and that he and the rest of the directors have no idea they ask for a candidates references. Ridiculous.

[northernladuk]

At least he had the courage to come on here using his own name

Some would say 'courage' is the wrong word

[Andy Hallett]

And lie

Pretty stong accusation.

Really don't agree with this badge of honour that you need to exercise sharp practice.

I am very proud of the company I work for. SThree has changed over a number of years, the discipline of being a listed company and trading in as many diverse companies as we do means it makes business sense to do things properly.

You of course entitled to your own opinion on SThree, I just think having been with them since 1999 my view is more likely to be based on fact.

[BillHicksRIP]

My ability to use forum quoting is pretty poor but I'll try and address the points. Also I'd really prefer someone kicked off another thread or admin renamed it to a more general title as the act of me bumping a thread accusing Huxley Associates of underhand practices is a little bit counter-intuitive to me!

My role has been away from the 'front-office' for a number of years now. The comments I can make are generally from a mixture of having been an agent / office manager until 2005 and the broader role I currently do - which if you are interested in is available on LinkedIn.

One of my teams look after over 1000 contractors across the globe, although they are not at the 'sharp-end' as they are already on assignment. I have always found if you are honest, pay on time and deal with any issues in the agreed timescales we have next to no issues.

My role aside, I don't think it is acceptable practice to glean information from people to use it in a way that someone has not agreed to. I genuinely don't believe my organisation has an institutional issue with this, but I will take all the comments and feeling on board and investigate.

I don't disagree that references can be used to build databases. If you value your references, use them sparingly. Any decent agent will understand your willingness to do that.

Interesting point you make about the 'game', contractors play their part in that game. In the same way we are often judged by our worst, the same is true of contractors. Every time one of you guys fails to turn up to an agreed interview, bad mouths us to our client or threatens to walk off-site for trivial reasons it brings down the professional contractors.

I've had some great relationships with my contractors over the years. They are great for helping us agents learn the industries which we trade in, are a brilliant excuse to get a pint / lunch on my company and some some of them have even become friends (yes really).

Agents who do well realise that it is a symbiotic relationship, you generally need us and we certainly need you.

This is the kind of interaction I never thought I'd see on this board. We all have war stories about underhand tactics and fishing calls but I can't think of another opportunity to get contractor's viewpoints across to someone who can actually influence one of the larger recruiters like this. We're mainly posting anonymously, as opposed to Andy, but the symbiosis aspect is entirely correct. Having another thread that discusses some points would be a good idea in my opinion.