Human resource is a very vital resource in any organization. In fact, it is said that the most important resource is human resource. Hiring is a very important human resource management process because it is through this process that employees are added to the organization. Better employees will lead to better organization.

Ethics play a very important role the recruitment of this precious resource. The central theme of this article is the conduct of the employee recruitment process ethically.

Complying with the law and regulations in hiring provides only the minimum requirement. We have to go beyond them to truly achieve ethical hiring. In addition to ensuring good decision making in the hiring process, ethical hiring has been found to result in better employees being hired.

During the recruiting exercise, sound ethical rules have to be followed to ensure ethics in hiring. We shall discuss six such rules:

1. Selection Based on Merits of Candidates

Candidates are to be selected based purely on merits such as knowledge, skills, and ability. When a company provides any special considerations, for example due to affirmative action where certain groups are given special considerations, these considerations should be well stated in the company's policy statement. �In any case, any preferential treatment should be one that is legally allowed.

2. Consistent Criteria

In addition to be objective, it is very important that one should also be consistent when evaluating a potential employee. �Objective evaluation results in the best employees being recruited while consistency ensures high morale among employees.

3. Disclosure of Information

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

We should not place misleading job advertisement just to get applications while we actually want to offer a different type of job 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. In this case we should 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 some employers do not consider it as unethical for not informing unsuccessful applicants, for the sake of courtesy and good public relationship, we should inform an unsuccessful applicant. In this way, if situations change and the qualification and experience of the previously unsuccessful applicants may now be suitable, they may be more inclined to respond positively when approached with job offer.

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.

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