Always Be Ethical In Your Recruitment

By Author: Jacob Gan
Total Articles: 5
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Following ethics rules during the hiring process is of critical important. Many researchers have proven that ethical recruitment process had indeed resulted in employing better applicants. As the performance of an organization is determined mainly by the performance of its human resource, we can deduce that ethical recruitment process leads to better performance by the organization.

Although law and regulations require that we are ethical in the employee hiring process, ethical hiring practice goes beyond laws and regulations which provide only the minimum requirement.

What then are the ethical rules in the recruitment process? Here, we shall discuss six such rules:

1. Selection Based Solely on Merits

Selection based solely on merits result in picking the best candidate for the job. Merit criteria to be used depend on the organization�s need, environment and overall goals of the organization. The criteria can be how relevant the knowledge is to the firm�s requirements, how useful the skills are to the firm�s operation, and how well the applicant can perform the tasks the ...
... position calls for, etc.

If the firm practices any affirmative action, these considerations should be well stated in the company's policy statement. �Any preferential treatment should be one that is legally allowed.

Other than the preferential treatments to certain specific groups, there should also be no discrimination to people from any other group due to race, religion, gender, marital status, or even pregnancy.

2. Consistency and Objectivity in Candidate Evaluation

Consistency and objectivity are very important when we evaluate the suitability of a candidate for a position. Consistency and objectivity not only ensure that the most suitable candidate is selected; they also ensure that our employees maintain a high level of morale. This is because it is important that our employees hold high regards for their colleagues. It is frustrating to have to work with an underperforming colleague who was recruited through a faulty selection process.

In case of any change in the criteria, they changed be announced and explained to avoid creating unnecessary accusation of being biased in the recruitment process.

3. All Information Relevant to Employment Disclosed

When recruiting new employees, the candidates should be told the truth about the organization, and under no circumstance they should not be misled. For example, the candidate should be informed of any relevant information, including those not publicly known, that may materially affect the new employee�s future employment with the organization. The case of Phil McConkey highlights the danger of failing to do so. Phil was recruited without being told that the company was being taken over by a new owner. He lost his job one year after joining the new company. He sued and was awarded $10 million.

4. No Misleading Recruitment Advertisement

No matter how unattractive our job position may appear, we should never place any misleading advertisement to mislead people into applying for the job and during the interview we change the conditions of contracts.

For example, imagine the situation where what we really want to engage are independent contractors but not full-time salaried employees. We may choose to engage independent contractors because we do not have to burden ourselves with high wage bills for employees who do not perform well, but we will reward employees according to their performance.

While this type of job contract does not suit many people, there are folks who may be willing to take on the challenge this type of job offers.

Remember, it is always good to be upfront with our terms and conditions. We should never get involved in any job scam.

5. Do not Hire Former Employees of Another Organization to Reward or Lobby

This rule applies especially when employing former senior government employees or their relatives. If the senior government employee has an influence on the awards of contracts to an organization like yours, do not return employment favor to win contracts. The case of Ms. Darleen Druyun at the Department of Defense and Mr. Michael Sears at Boeing is a good illustration of the importance of such a rule. In this case, employment favor was apparently granted by Boeing in exchange for favorable consideration for the awards of contracts by Department of Defense.

Also, be careful not to employ former government employees for the purpose of lobbying for contracts from their previous government departments. At least, do not do so within the first two years of the employee leaving the government service.

6. Courtesy

Even though it may not be considered as unethical by some employers, as a matter of courtesy and good public relationship we should inform an unsuccessful applicant. In this case, if situations change and the unsuccessful applicants are now suitable, they may be more inclined to respond positively when approached to offer jobs to them.

These six rules, while simple and logically, are not normally followed by many organizations in their recruitment process, leading to poor employee morale and productivity, as well as damaging law suits.

Reference:
http://succezz.com/Articles/index.html
http://jacobgan.com/PersonalDevelopment.html
http://jacoblearning.com/BF/index.html