Ten Questionable Hiring Practices of Big Businesses

Ethics Matters: Ten Questionable Hiring Practices of Businesses.Vogt, Carlton.Info World.8 Jan. 2007.26 Jan. 2007.http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/11/12/011112opethics.html.

Carlton brings up ten different topics about hiring practices that he feels are not truly ethical. Some of these topics I also believe are unethical. I will proceed to describe these topics and then give an explanation for my view of each.

1) Using Spurious "Qualifications" - Every job must have some type of qualifications, or else how could a job seeker know if the job is right for them. The way Carlton describes this topic helps me to understand how businesses could be unethical when describing qualifications. Sometimes the business will tailor the qualifications around a certain person within the company that they are hoping to hire for a certain position. Basically, if a business uses qualifications that are not directly tied to the job it becomes unethical, and I can agree with Carlton's view.

2) Failing to Check Job Qualifications - When a job opening becomes posted, sometimes the qualifications can become quite lengthy and difficult. Therefore, whoever does the hiring "owes it to the company and to the job candidates to check these qualifications." I can agree with Carlton. In a situation where a manager wants to hire a friend, they may look past the qualifications. This is very unethical and also it allows those who are not qualified, and those who lie, into the company.

3) Misleading Applicants About the Job - Those who are looking at a job can be led to believe things about the job, such as pay, workload, and duties. Once they receive the job they then realize that they have way more responsibilities than were listed. Those who are doing the hiring will make the job seem to be quite pleasant to draw people in. Once individuals are hired they realize the job was not what they were told it was.

4) Relying Solely on Scores and Tests - Here we find managers and those who are set to hire for a business becoming indecisive. They are not sure who to hire, and they do not want a decision they make to come back to haunt them. Therefore they create standardized tests for job applicants. The job applicants can only hope that these tests have anything to do with the position available. If the tests do relate to the job opening, and the scores are used along with the interview in the decision then this is ethical. When companies rely only on the scores of these tests it can become unethical, especially when the tests have no relation to the job.

5) Posting Nonexistent Jobs - This happens more in government jobs. Although the position is currently filled, the company is required to post the job opening to the public. Some companies just reject all inquiries. Others actually conduct false interviews. This is no where near ethical, due to the fact that every applicant should each receive an equal attempt at the opening before it is filled.

6) Offering the 5% Increase - While hiring, a business will find out what the job candidates were paid at their last job. To give them an incentive to want the new job, the hiring business will make the salary for the job opening 5% higher than the job the candidate had beforehand. Supposedly this benefits those who were overpaid, while it is negative to those who were underpaid. I do not thoroughly understand this principle and hope to look further into it.

7) Trolling for Resumes - Some companies will post "Blind Ad's" to see if their employees are currently looking for new work. This is deceptive, especially if the company plans on punishing the employee for this.

8) Real or De Facto Age Discrimination - Although discriminating against age is highly illegal, it is very common in businesses hiring practices today. They tend to discriminate against the older candidates. If they see a resume indicating a candidate has been in the workforce for 35 years, it tends to kill your chances. Unless a candidate has developed some type of hard to find or needed skill it becomes impossible to find a job after age 50.

9) Leading people on - Basically, leading people on would be letting a job seeker believe that they actually have a chance at the job posted, when in fact they have none. I can see why Carlton may find this unethical, but you never know if they might have another position available and they are hoping to put the job seeker elsewhere in the company. I have a problem with agreeing with this principle. I can see that it may happen, but I do not see how this can be put into the unethical behavior category with the rest of these topics.

10) Failing to Respond - A business is looking out for the best candidate. Carlton's idea is that it can become expensive sending out many resume's, especially when a company does not respond. He believes it is unethical for a company to only respond to the candidate that they are choosing. I do not believe it is unethical for a company to do this, but I do believe it is extremely rude.