Consultant recruiter as referee
Ask Kate Column: Derek writes: I have worked as a temp through recruitment agencies for 18 months. Can consultants now act as my referees?
Grahame Doyle, director of recruitment firm Hays answers: Yes, recruitment agencies can provide a reference for their temporaries/contractors. This reference is restricted solely to feedback your consultant gets from their client. While on assignment, a recruitment consultant will check your performance with their client, receiving detailed feedback.
If you have performed several short assignments for one consultant, they can use this feedback to provide an overall illustration of your work performance. If you have completed a longer-term assignment, we suggest asking the reporting manager of the company where you were based if they would be willing to be your referee.
You work for and represent the agency, but perform day-to-day duties within the client’s working environment. If you performed well, your reporting manager can be a favourable referee who can directly comment on your successes from their perspective.
Bullying
Following last week’s column, I received more than 100 comments about workplace bullying. Many people asked for the article I mentioned, featuring workplace safety experts Dr Anne Wyatt and Dr Carlo Caponecchia of the University of NSW (co-founders of the website www.beyondbullying.com.au). You will find “Employers fail workplace bullying targets’’ in the Employment News section of News & Advice on CareerOne.com.au.
Also, Harmers Workplace Lawyers last week reported a rise in false bullying and harassment claims by people hoping to avoid redundancy. I rang the managing partner, Joydeep Hor, to ask how the number of false claims stacked up against the real thing.
He says in the past six months the number of bullying claims made against his clients that turned out to be false had risen more than 20per cent when compared with the previous six months but overall, genuine bullying cases in Australia far outnumber false claims.
Hor advises employers to investigate every allegation of bullying seriously, while HR policies should spell out penalties for making vexatious claims. Hor says employers should also bring their HR policies to life through training and education for managers and staff to prevent genuine cases of bullying.
Bullying costs employers $6billion to $13billion a year, Griffith University academics found in 2004. Call me a dreamer but perhaps if we stamped out bullying we could pay for an increase in the minimum wage without losing jobs?
Read more Ask Kate Columns or submit a question or to find out more go to careerone.com.au
