Sponsorship

MCASS – behind the scenes – working with recruiters

Here at MCASS, we hope that you enjoy the varied programme of events that we work hard to put on throughout the year. Your committee, however, does much more than just organise events and in this and future issues we hope to share with you some of the behind the scenes happenings at MCASS. One of the areas that we are often questioned about is the relationship that we have with recruiters. We have also recently become aware of concerns, raised mainly by local firms, about the way in which we work with recruitment consultancies.

How is MCASS funded?
MCASS receives a limited amount of funding from the ICAEW to provide a society for local ACA students and a platform for socialising and networking, support through your studies and representing local students’ interests at a national level within the Institute. However, this funding has reduced over recent years and alone is no longer sufficient to support the wide range of activities that MCASS supports throughout the year. We therefore work in partnership with recruitment consultants to put on individual events.

Concerns
It has been suggested to us that certain local recruiters are engaging in unprofessional practices in order to lure students away to job opportunities. These might include pretending to be a client, personal acquaintance, colleague or even MCASS in order to get names and telephone numbers of potential candidates. We take such concerns seriously and do not condone any such behaviour. We do however believe that recruitment consultancies serve a need and that all individuals capable of completing the challenges of a training contract with the ICAEW are also capable of making their mind up about their career choices. Recruitment consultancies are used by individuals searching a change in career and firms looking to fill vacancies alike. We do not believe that partnerships between MCASS and consultancies will influence an individual’s career choices. However, we do not condone any unprofessional practices and have therefore steps to ensure that we do not associate with any consultancies that we become aware of engaging in such practices. The steps we have taken include the following. We have a written code of conduct available for all to see on our website, which governs our relationships with recruiters and includes the following:

No individual attending an MCASS event will ever be required to provide their details to a recruitment consultant in order to be able to attend that event. All tickets for events can be obtained through MCASS, regardless of the recruiter involved, and the giving of names and addresses at MCASS events is never compulsory. Where names and addresses are taken by recruitment consultancies (for example in free prize draws), participation and the giving of personal details are always optional.
We have a separate code of conduct, setting out the types of practice that we do not believe recruiters should engage in; all of the recruiters that we work with have signed up to this code of conduct. A list of these recruiters and the code of conduct is also displayed on our website. We will not work with recruiters that do not sign up to this code of conduct. If we become aware that this has been breached, MCASS will discontinue association with the consultancy in question.
All names and addresses of students are provided to MCASS from the Institute and these are never shared with recruitment consultants; indeed, the Data Protection Act ensures that this information is kept confidential to the MCASS committee only.

With these safeguards in place and the transparency of our code of conduct, we at MCASS believe that the concerns raised have been addressed. In this way, we believe continuing our association with local recruitment consultancies will allow us to continue to bring top-quality events to local students.

RECRUITERS CODE OF CONDUCT
Purpose of the Code of Conduct

This code of conduct sets out the practices that we do not believe that recruitment consultancies should engage in.
MCASS will not work with recruiters that are known to engage in these practices or that refuse to work within the confines of this code.

Practices
The following are the practices that recruiters working in partnership with MCASS will not engage in.

Requiring candidates and potential candidates to provide colleagues’ names and contact details without making it clear that this is optional.
Refusing to remove individuals’ details from databases should this be requested by the individual concerned.
Requiring individuals at social events to provide names and contact details without making it clear that they may be contacted by the consultancy in future or making it clear that such disclosure is optional.
Telephoning firms under the pretence of being somebody else in order to obtain potential candidates’ names and contact details.
Using deception to obtain potential candidates’ names and contact details. This might include, but is not limited to:
- asking switchboard operators, receptionists or secretaries for names and contact details of potential candidates;
- using deception to obtain such details – for example, inventing common names and asking to be put through or pretending to be conducting a survey;
- pretending to be any of the following in order to speak to or obtain contact details for a potential candidate:
  - personal friends;
  - colleagues;
  - clients;
  - another area of the business;
  - local publications;
  - MCASS or other local bodies;
  - insurance companies;
  - doctors;
  - banks;
  - garages;
  - doctors’ surgeries; or
  - any other fabrication.
MCASS reserves the right to add to or amend the above list at any time.

Other

MCASS reserves the right to withdraw at any time association from any recruitment consultancy that:
- is proven to engage in the above practices; or
- refuses to confirm to MCASS that such practices are not undertaken.
MCASS will also encourage the recruitment consultancies that MCASS works with to confirm publicly on the MCASS website that they abide by this code of conduct.

CODE OF CONDUCT
General provisions regarding MCASS events

All events should be organised with the main aim of MCASS in mind: to promote socialising and educational events among ICAEW students in Manchester. This will dictate matters such as the nature of the event and ticket price.
If any MCASS-sponsored event is profitable, the surplus generated shall be donated to a registered charity or applied in the sponsorship of further events to the benefits of members.
Where an event is sponsored by a recruiter, MCASS will work with the recruiter in the organisation of the event.
MCASS will adopt a general principle of matched funding – all costs will be split equally between MCASS and the recruiter. This is subject to adjustment to account for the time of the individuals actually carrying out the organisation and costs incurred by each party. Such adjustment will be agreed on an event-by-event basis.
The overall budget for an event will be agreed between MCASS and the recruiter. The principle of matched funding is a general principle and MCASS therefore reserve the right to restrict the amount of contribution, due to the committee’s limited annual budget.
If a ticket price is charged for an event, this shall not be unduly restrictive such that it might deter members from attending.
In all cases, MCASS will control the distribution of publicity to its members through the use of its e-mail distribution list and database of addresses. In no circumstances will access to the distribution lists be granted to non-MCASS members (including recruiters)
In all cases, MCASS will be listed as at least one of the points of contact for members wishing to attend. This means that members wishing to attend events are not obliged to pass contact details on to recruiters if they do not wish to. MCASS will not pass those details on in such circumstances.
MCASS will in all cases respect the confidentiality of recruiters and will not circulate details of events such as costs and funding.
Certain events during the year, including the Annual Dinner, at the discretion of the committee will be fully funded by MCASS only and not available for recruiter sponsorship.

Allocation of dates to recruiters

Recruiters wishing to sponsor an event should contact the Honorary Secretary, who will be responsible for maintaining the master version of the event list.
All events will be allocated to recruiters on a first-come first-served basis.
Following an event, the sponsoring recruiter will be given one month to decide whether they would like to sponsor the same event the following year. Should the recruiter decide that they do not want to, the event will be available for other recruiters to sponsor.
A recruiter may sponsor more than one event in a year. However, only one booking will be seen as a firm commitment (the choice of event is at the recruiter’s discretion). All additional bookings are provisional only until three months prior to the event. This means that any other recruiter wishing to run an event with MCASS support in that month will be permitted to do so in the place of the original booking, provided that second recruiter does not have any other events on the calendar.

Liaison with MCASS

One (or more) specific MCASS committee member(s) will be allocated as the MCASS contact for the event and will be responsible for liaison between MCASS and the recruiter.
Specific details of individual events (other than basic information such as date and nature of the event) will not be discussed in full committee meetings, in order to preserve confidentiality. Should it be necessary to discuss these details in committee, this will be done without the presence of other recruiters.

Non-contributory events

From time to time, MCASS may be approached to publicise events that MCASS is not involved in organising, or to endorse events organised by other organisations.
It is at the committee’s discretion whether to do so, based on whether this is thought to be of interest to members, and whether to ask for a financial contribution for making access to the students available, if the material is of a commercial nature.
The committee will also consider proximity of the event to other sponsored and funded events in making this decision.
Should the committee decide to support a non-contributory event, the event will be publicised on the website and the flyer will be e-mailed to the MCASS distribution list.
In all events, this is subject to MCASS being available as an alternative contact, such that students are not compelled to provide contact details to a third party in order to obtain entrance.

Committee discretion