Hays Recruitment 'bully boys' vs Mark Ions
So who owns your network of contacts? According to a recent High Court possibly not you! In this case, the report I read did not define if Ions had uploaded his own contacts to his Linkedin profile or the entire Hays Recruitment database. But, it raises some interesting points.
FOR
Let's assume to start with that Hays encourage their employees to use Linkedin so Ions was using it daily and will be using it anyway for his new business and why not. Imagine a customer moves to a different employer; do Hays say to their recruiters 'Oh, he's moved to a competitor, can't deal with him there then'. Guess what they'd say!
Let's be clear, a recruiter is only as good as their network of contacts and Hays make plenty of profit from them whilst they are in the employ of Hays. When someone moves on, who are Hays to stop them working.
AGAINST
If a full contact database is taken and then used, that is both stupid and dishonest and the culprit should be punished accordingly. Maybe even put in a dungeon for 42 days with evidence?!
CONCLUSION
Without full facts who knows about Hays but the point is, who owns your Linkedin profile? You or your employer? What if you have recommendations from clients, who then become ex-clients when you leave your employer. Do you have to delete the comments? Do you have to delete any contacts that are work related from your contact list?
What if you are following people on Twitter; do you have to stop following them when you leave? The big bully boys can try as they might but they are being:
- Greedy (as ever).
- Blind to the reality of social media.
Rather than beat their people, and then beat them some more when they leave, maybe make it so lucrative to stay they won't leave.
The other problem is the courts; most of these judges still live in the dark ages so what chance that they will understand anything new.
