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Talent Trade Tidbit - Double Fees / Lock Up Your Process

Published on: 21st August, 2025

Somebody's made a costly mistake. It happens. Here's what NOT to do to make it even worse...

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Transcript
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Hi, this is Stephanie Maas.

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Partner with Thinking Ahead, executive Search.

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Today I wanna talk to you about a incredibly unfortunate event that unfortunately happens in our world more than we like.

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And I wanna talk to you about a little bit of prevention and some really great ways to handle when it does happen.

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And the topic today is double fees.

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These are for my hiring managers, my HR folks, where unfortunately the clients were put into a situation where the same candidate was submitted by two recruiters, two different recruiters.

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I. And unfortunately, the paperwork on the front end wasn't buttoned up enough that it ultimately put the hiring organization in a situation where they could potentially be at risk of paying two fees.

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I. It's incredibly awkward and absolutely nobody wants to pay double fees.

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So here's a couple of things for how to prevent it.

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Number one, if you're going to be working with recruiters, please make sure.

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That they have every resume that they submit to you stamped with their company name, contact information, et cetera.

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It makes tracking much more easy.

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Second thing, make sure that your candidate applicant system.

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Is super easy to work with.

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Oftentimes I'll say, Hey, I've got a candidate I wanna submit.

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They'll put the name and their candidate applicant tracking system.

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They go, Nope, we don't have 'em in here.

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But it turns out they just spelled the name wrong.

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It was Sarah with an H or something.

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Unfortunate.

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We've gotta make sure that we really keep this clean.

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Now on the back end, what do we do when this happens?

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Let me first and foremost say what we don't do.

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Look at the end of the day.

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It's a mistake.

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It's a costly mistake.

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Look, most of us, we're pretty good humans.

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We're just trying to earn a living, and that applies not just to the recruiting side, but the HR side as well.

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So when you get in that situation, I will tell you for, for me personally, for our firm, our policy is to be very reasonable and fair as long as whomever we are discussing this with, working with is also reasonable and fair.

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If someone comes at us aggressive, it doesn't make for a good conversation.

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So first and foremost, let's do everything we can on the front end to keep this from happening.

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But when it does, let's just talk about the best way to handle it, to come to a reasonable and fair arrangement.

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About the Podcast

The Talent Trade
Presented by ThinkingAhead Executive Search
The Talent Trade is all about finding the right person, for the right opportunity, at the right time. But how exactly do you do that the "right" way? Executive Search Partner and Top Biller Stephanie Maas shares more than 25 years of experience about what it takes to be a top recruiter in today's "talent trade" market, using ThinkingAhead’s four-prong system focused on recruiting, business development, planning, and managing your mindset. It’s real, honest information about how to build your desk, perfect your niche, and stand out among the crowd in your search career.



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