UNETHICAL RECRUITER PIMP INDULGES JOBSEEKERS WEAKNESS AND WISHES
FADI ABU ZUHRI
INTRODUCTION
Having a decent job that meets a person’s needs and expectations is a vital necessity for any adult. According to Calenda (2016), the need sometimes becomes crucial for individuals who have just completed their education or in dire need for employment. This high demand sometimes leads to desperation which makes a job seeker vulnerable and at the disposal of their potential employees. This issue is very common that is why there are agencies created by laws to handle these cases. It is, therefore, important for us to understand some of these unethical issues and also understand how we can deal with these particular issues.
Various ways will display the wrong approach when it comes to the recruitment process (Shaffer, Bakhshi, & Kim, 2015). Any of the following behaviors are conducted by recruiters, they should be considered unethical and should be reported to ensure that they are not repeated and promote a high level of professionalism.
PHISHING FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Fake job interviews are increasingly becoming common. This is one way for fraudsters to fish for personal information and money. Scammers use sophisticated tools and techniques to obtain sensitive personal financial information from prospective candidates. Stealing identity is quite valuable as it can be sold over the “dark net” for money (Williams & Pellecchia, 2017).
There are also instances of people roping in the expertise of job seekers for free under the delusion that they are being interviewed for a fancy job. Job seekers, therefore, need to be vigilant and ask relevant questions on the hiring process. They need to be beware of undue appreciation and for people who do not paint a consistent picture of the job profile (Ryan, 2017).
USING EXPLODING JOB OFFERS
Exploding job offers are job offers with a short expiry date. The regular period that has been set for the period between the announcement and the date of recruitment is not less than two weeks, anything less than this is considered to be an exploding job offer. Exploding job offers are not encouraged since they put pressure on the candidate to beat the deadline and make the necessary arrangements for the job (Shaffer, Bakhshi, Dutka, & Phillips, 2016). Ample time is required to be given to a candidate of any interview so that they can gather all the materials that are needed for the recruitment, gather the materials that they think will assist them to secure the job and also prepare themselves psychologically. It is considered unethical if one will be informed of the availability of a job opportunity less than two weeks before the day of the interview, this will be practically preparing them to fail.
TYING BONUS SIGNING TO EXPLODING JOB OFFERS
The issue of tying of bonus signing comes with a lot of controversies given that these unique gifts come with certain terms and conditions (Calenda, 2016). It is, therefore, prudent for someone to understand these particular conditions before he or she signs the given bonus to avoid situations where they get caught up in compromising situations when they are to leave the company.
USING HIGH-PRESSURE INTERVIEW TACTICS
Some approaches during interviews tend to scare away the candidates and lower their confidence in front of the panel. Interviews are meant to gauge the candidates’ knowledge and ability to carry out the various tasks that are required of them (de Silva, Opatha, & Gamage, 2016). There are incidents where the recruiters will use techniques that are meant to scare the candidates from attending the interview or even reduce the number of the people so that they can deal with just a few candidates. These tactics of scaring away the candidates are not encouraged given that it denies candidates a chance to express themselves in a more comfortable environment. An example of these tactics involves asking the candidate irrelevant questions for example; what your worst experience is? These questions are supposed to be asked in an informal context. Asking these questions leaves the candidate confused on how to respond to the questions since they find it awkward.
REVOKING ON A JOB OFFER TO A CANDIDATE
Revoking a job offer to a candidate is something that should highly be avoided. Job offers are open to all candidates provided that they meet the requirement of the job as indicated in the announcement. There are cases when recruiters just decide to revoke the offers to some candidates without any solid grounds for this particular action. This is considered to be unethical because if an individual has met the entire requirement that he or she is expected to have attained, then it is very rightful of them to claim the job.
WITHHOLDING RELEVANT INFORMATION IN EXTENDING A JOB OFFER
When announcing for a particular interview, it is important for the recruiters always to disclose all the information about the jobs that are being offered. Information such as job salary, relocation allowance, starting date and job title are very vital, and it is important that these particular items are included (Jeske & Shultz, 2016). To understand the importance of including this information, let us consider the issue of salary. What motivates people to go for particular work is the salary; the salary usually goes hand in hand with experience and the level of knowledge and education. Including information about the salary minimizes the cases of underpayment.
EXHIBITING UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR
The recruitment process of employees should be done by any given organization or companies with maximum consideration to professionalism just like any other formal activity of the organization. Any personal behavior that depicts unprofessional conduct in any recruitment process is highly discouraged. There are various forms of unethical conduct including fraternizing and harassment. These two particular acts may be different in this context but should not be entertained.
Fraternizing involves associating with the candidates in a personal and friendly manner. It is not expected that the recruiting panel starts treating the candidates in a very friendly manner that will suggest any form of favors. This particular act of fraternizing might compromise the whole process of recruitment leading to the recruiting of incompetent employees. Another unprofessional conduct during the process of recruitment is harassment (Shaffer et al., 2016). Harassment of candidates includes all forms of harassments including sexual, personal, racial, age and even bullying. All these acts do not provide a comfortable environment for the candidates and are highly discouraged.
CONCLUSION
An unethical recruiter is a pimp who advertises and indulges jobseekers weakness and/ or wishes to gain something at the expense of the job seeker. Although certain activities are not criminalized in the real world, it is pretty close to human slavery as the jobseeker is victimised by being coerced into taking up a job offer that is not worth it.
It is so unjust and unethical for recruiters to take advantage of those who step at their doorstep in search of a livelihood (Wong & Li, 2015). This issue has undermined the professionalism of the company that is recruiting its employees, and it may lead to employing of incompetent people. So, this issue is considered misconduct and those who are victims should report these cases to ensure that the perpetrators face the law.
REFERENCES
- Calenda, D. (2016). Sustainable recruitment’of foreign-educated nurses: ethical and work related issues. The case of Finland. Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper .
- de Silva, V. A., Opatha, H. H., & Gamage, A. S. (2016). Towards Extending the Ethical Dimension of Human Resource Management. International Business Research , 9 (10), 151.
- Jeske, D., & Shultz, K. S. (2016). Using social media content for screening in recruitment and selection: pros and cons. Work, Employment & Society , 30 (3), 535-546.
- Ryan, L. (2017, August 8). Ten Signs You’re Interviewing For A Fake Job Opportunity. Retrieved 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/08/08/ten-signs-youre-interviewing-for-a-fake-job-opportunity/#43cbd2987aaa
- Shaffer, F. A., Bakhshi, M., & Kim, E. M. (2015). Business Case for Ethical Recruitment. Nurse Leader , 13 (5), 40-48.
- Shaffer, F. A., Bakhshi, M., Dutka, J. T., & Phillips, J. (2016). Code for ethical international recruitment practices: the CGFNS Alliance case study. Human Resources for Health , 14 (31).
- Williams , A., & Pellecchia, R. (2017, July 6). Fake Online Job Interviews Phishing for Your Personal Information. Retrieved 2017, from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority: http://www.finra.org/newsroom/2017/fake-online-job-interviews-phishing-your-personal-information
- Wong, S. C., & Li, J. S. (2015). Will hotel employees’ perception of unethical managerial behavior affect their job satisfaction? A study of Chinese hotel employees in China. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 27 (5), 853-877.