The #Tweetchat campaign in the series of #AskHR discussions is the latest campaign we have come up with to reach out to the HR / Recruitment / TA fraternity across the world and involve them into a discussion that can help change the way we see Recruitment and Hiring.

The discussion took place on: Applicant Tracking System | Twitter

We posted certain questions around “Ethical Recruitment”, and amazingly the participants came out with most awesome thoughts around it.

To help larger audience, we have summarized the whole campaign for you in this article. .

Q1. What do you understand by Ethical Recruitment?

• Ethical recruitment means transparency and ensures no bias at any stage.
• While doing an Interview, we need to follow some predefined Principles and provide some respect to candidates.
• Hiring right person for right job without bias.
• To give same treatment to all candidates, in all profiles, ranging from back office support team to CXO level profile.

Q2: What could be the effects of not following Ethical Practices in recruitment?

• Loss of credibility like any other unethical practice in business or life.
• Brand takes a hit . and over time, loose out on good candidates
• Loosing good candidates, bad reputation to the company and HR fails as a recruiter.
• Damaging organisation’s brand, creating bad culture, no other company will hire recruiter from such company
• Affects the brand image, organisation culture and it directly affects the conversion rate for good candidates.

Q3: What could be the factors that may push us to do Unethical Practices in Recruitment?

• Deadline pressure, lack of proper recruitment process, and no managerial support can lead to unethical practices.
• Body Language of the Candidate, Influence, Recommendations and so on.
• Recruitment is one of the most unorganized sectors in the country with large payouts, bound to fall to human greed.
• Demand supply gap, recruiter background, process gap, systems loophole, political connection.
• Personal Greed, improper checks and balances in the system, weak managers / Leaders are the biggest culprits.

Q4. Can unethical practices be easily caught by Candidates/Recruitment Agencies/Client Organisations?

• Yes, you can catch easily, but for that you have to avoid manual recruitment process.
• It’s not easy all the time, but yes can be caught with background check and getting in depth of details before proceeding.
• Not immediately though, but yes in the long run you cannot hide such a practice.
• Yes with proper checks & balance in the systems & process. People take advantage not having process and systems.
• If we have a proper background check, applicant tracking system, Reference checks, then it can be caught.

Q5: How to prevent Unethical Practices in Recruitment?

• Transparent Process, Proper laid down system of recruitment, Referral schemes and managerial support can help curb it.
• Corporate governance checks need to be embedded in the processes.
• Build a culture of transparency, openness & communication, create policies and practices, and train the team on hiring.
• Show the consequences, select proper vendors, random data check whether process is systems driven or manual.
• Keep checking billing, invoice and payment track of referral, to vendors etc

• To avoid Unethical practices you have to choose online recruitment software, it gives you transparency.

Hope this might be of some help to a larger HR fraternity. You can also join us in the discussion.