A recruiter finds a strong project manager on a job board, has a good first call and adds her to a shortlist for a logistics client. Two days later the account manager sees the name: the candidate works for one of the desk’s biggest clients, and the terms signed last year say the agency will not approach that client’s employees for as long as it recruits for them and twelve months after. The agreement exists, but only as a clause in a PDF that the recruiter never saw. This article explains why every client in your Applicant Tracking System needs a recorded off-limits agreement: what the agreement is and what it is not, which fields to keep on the client record, how the system can warn at sourcing and submission, how to handle candidates who approach you themselves, and how to check with your own data whether the agreement is respected.
The agreement looks different per segment. Recruitment agencies protect their relationship with a client by not recruiting from that client’s own teams. Staffing desks often agree not to recruit the client’s permanent staff and need to know which flexible workers they placed there. Secondment firms work inside an end client’s organisation every day, so their consultants meet that client’s people constantly. Executive search firms usually have the strictest off-limits arrangements, sometimes covering a whole group of companies. In-house recruitment teams have the reverse question: which partner companies, customers or sister companies they have agreed not to recruit from directly.
Why off-limits breaches happen
- The agreement lives in the signed terms or an email, not on the client record that recruiters open every day
- Nobody knows exactly what it covers: the whole group, one subsidiary, one location or one department
- The end date was never written down, so some clients are treated as off-limits for years and others are forgotten after a month
- A candidate’s current employer is typed as free text, so the system cannot link the candidate to the client company
- A new recruiter joins the desk and has no way of seeing which companies are protected
An off-limits breach is rarely bad intent. It is missing information at the moment a recruiter decides whom to call. If the Applicant Tracking System holds the agreement as data, that moment gets a warning instead of a surprise.
What an off-limits agreement is, and what it is not
An off-limits agreement is a commitment to a client that your desk will not actively approach or recruit that client’s employees for a defined scope and period. It usually also covers candidates you placed with that client: you do not try to move them on after the placement. The exact wording comes from your terms of business or the mandate letter.
It is not a ban on the candidate’s career. People are free to change jobs, and an off-limits agreement binds your desk, not the candidate. It is also not something the Applicant Tracking System decides for you: the system shows what was agreed, and people decide what to do with an exception. This article is not legal advice; what applies is what you agreed in your contracts.
Where it lives: fields on the client record
Keep the agreement on the client record in the client relationship view beside the pipeline, linked to the signed terms. A few fields are enough:
- Scope — which companies, subsidiaries, locations or departments are covered, each linked to its own company record so candidates can be matched to it
- What is covered — current employees, candidates you placed there, or both, and whether former employees are included for a period
- Start and end date — for example the start of the relationship and a fixed number of months after the last vacancy or placement, with the end date shown as a review date
- Agreed exceptions — what happens when an employee of the client applies on their own initiative, as described in the contract
- Source document — a link to the clause in the agreed terms of business, so nobody has to rely on memory
- Owner — the account manager who answers questions and approves exceptions
For the warning to work, a candidate’s current and recent employers must be linked to company records rather than typed as free text. That is the same discipline that makes shared skills and tags searchable.
Where the warning should appear
- At sourcing — when a recruiter adds a candidate whose current employer is covered, the candidate record shows the off-limits client and the end date
- When adding to a pipeline — moving that candidate onto another client’s vacancy asks for a recorded reason, such as an inbound application, before the step is saved
- Before a submission — the check runs again next to the double-submission check and the candidate’s consent, because an employer can change between first call and submission
- For placed candidates — a candidate placed with a client is marked for the agreed period, also after the guarantee period has ended
- At the end date — the account manager gets a task to confirm whether the agreement is extended or ends, so it does not silently lapse or linger
The warning informs; it does not have to block. A recorded decision by a named person is often better than a hard stop that recruiters learn to work around.
Candidates who approach you themselves
Most agreements distinguish between actively approaching a client’s employee and that employee applying on their own. Record which it was. The candidate source recorded at first application shows whether the candidate came through an advert or the website, or was approached by a recruiter. Note the facts and the decision: who approved the exception, on what date, and whether the client was informed when the contract asks for that. Keep the note factual and short; the candidate can ask to see it later.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Keeping the list in a spreadsheet — a separate list is out of date the day after it is made and invisible at the moment of sourcing
- No end date — open-ended entries make the list longer than the contracts allow and cost you candidates you may approach
- Matching on company name text — “Acme”, “Acme Logistics” and “Acme Group” then look like three different employers
- Forgetting subsidiaries — if the agreement covers the group, every covered company needs to be linked
- Blocking without explanation — show the clause, the end date and the owner, so a recruiter knows why and whom to ask
- Exceptions in chat — an exception approved in a chat message cannot be found when the client asks about it
Questions teams ask
- Do we need this if we only have a few clients? — Yes; a few large clients are exactly where a breach costs the most, and the fields take minutes to fill in
- What about candidates we already had in the database? — The warning is about approaching them now; record the previous history and let the account manager decide on contact while the agreement runs
- Does this apply to staffing and secondment? — Usually; check whether the contract covers the client’s permanent staff, the workers you placed there, or both, and record exactly that
- Should recruiters see the full contract? — Not always; the scope, dates, exceptions and owner on the client record are enough for daily work
Check it with your own data
Count from your own records: how many active clients have an off-limits agreement recorded with scope and end date, how many candidates were flagged at sourcing or submission, how many exceptions were approved and by whom, how many agreements reached their end date without a review, and how many candidates still have a current employer as free text. Report the number of clients or candidates behind each figure and look at segments separately. Do not compare yourself with industry averages; your own counts show where the agreement exists on paper but not in daily work.
A practical start
- Go through your signed terms and add scope, start and end date, exceptions and owner to every client record with an off-limits clause
- Link the covered companies and subsidiaries to their own company records
- Convert free-text current employers on active candidates into linked company records, starting with the covered clients
- Turn on the warning at sourcing and submission, with a recorded reason for every exception
- Review agreements that end this quarter in your weekly pipeline review
Respect the agreement where recruiters actually work
An off-limits agreement protects the relationship with a client only if it is visible when a recruiter decides whom to approach. Record what it covers and until when, link candidates to their employer, show the warning at sourcing and submission and record every exception. Explore the product or book a demo — we show how client records, company links, warnings and exceptions are set up in BoldATS for your segment.