Targeted Recruitment Strategies, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The modern business is vitally concerned about achieving the highest competitive advantage possible, and a number of policies and strategies have been generated from the achievement of this objective. As it comes from the modern research, the high stake is attributed in this field to wise and efficient recruitment and selection strategies that are called to create the strongest human resource potential in a business. Therefore, the HR department has achieved the key position in the business structure, referring to outside recruitment and executive search agencies at times as well. There is a set of procedures and rules that a department or an agency responsible for recruitment should comply with, but their ultimate goal will still remain to provide the company with the best candidates for a position. Hence, the processes they use to achieve that goal will be reviewed in detail later.

Executive research firms are also called ‘head hunters’ (Rae & Volk, 2001). They are commonly hired by employers to assist them in finding the right employee for a specific position. Retainer firms are commonly hired to search candidates for high-level management or technical positions, while the contingency firms specialize in entry-level or lower-level staff positions (Rae & Volk, 2001). However, no matter whether the job on recruitment is done by the in-house HR department or the outside recruitment firm, the members of recruitment staff should be licensed professionals complying with a strict set of codes, rules and limitations posed by professional ethics and morale (Catano, 2009). There are several nationwide associations for recruitment, employment, and staffing services that welcome representatives of these jobs to become members and to augment their vision on the moral, correct and compliant behavior, as well as promotion of those kinds of behavior with other members of the professional field.

The Challenge of Ethics in the Executive Recruitment Field

There is much contradiction about the nature of ethics in the field of executive search, and opinions vary greatly on whether the professional activity of such kind is ethical or not. The profession is indisputably gaining popularity, according to the account of Lim and Chan (2006) stating that the executive search survey is the third most popular and effective executive recruitment method after employee referrals and college recruitment. The popularity of executive recruitment consultants results from a set of advantages they are likely to offer to the company searching employees, including the impartial evaluation of candidates, the help they provide in attracting talents in a more discreet manner so that not to attract the competitors’ attention, and their ability to prevent the rivals and the company’s employees from knowing confidential details about the recruiting company and the position offered (Lim & Chan, 2006). More than that, the executive recruitment consultants are able to provide breadth and depth of search, helping to identify talents more efficiently, which results in lower costly selection mistakes and re-recruitment procedures (Lim & Chan, 2006).

However, despite the growing popularity of executive recruitment professionals, there is the growing evidence of contradictions regarding the overall nature of activity, and the procedures and methods employed by the ‘headhunters’ with the purpose of fulfilling the assignment of the client. Some researchers consider executive search and recruitment unethical because it makes the consultants ‘poach’ qualified employees from competing companies. A diametrically different position on the issue is voiced in the form of assessing employees as not the property of the company and having the right to make their own choice in favor of better salaries and working conditions in case their talent may be valued higher in another company (Lim & Chan, 2006).

Therefore, the research on ethical issues in executive recruitment comes to the point where the very focus of attention needs to be shifted from the industry to the procedures and methods its representatives utilize to do their work (Lim & Chan, 2006). More than one third of client firms have reported facing unqualified candidates proposed by the executive search consultants and failing to keep with the stringent requirements of the assignment given to them. Speaking about the USA in particular, one should note that many consultants have been found out to violate the off-limits guidelines, appeared to be opportunistic and showing not high levels of ethical awareness, and failed to keep their clients informed about techniques and procedures used to achieve the stipulated recruitment goals (Lim & Chan, 2006). Consequently, it is the behavior of consultants that needs to be researched to further make a conclusion on the most common ethical principles and breaches thereof to obtain a deeper outlook at the problem of targeted recruitment strategies.

The Most Common Ethical Breaches in the Executive Recruitment Field

Looking at the problem of ethics in targeted executive recruitment, one can outline a set of breaches and weaknesses detected by researchers in the field. According to the study of Lim and Chan (2006), there are six core ethical values that appear the most vulnerable in the field of executive recruitment: off-limits guarantee, adequate understanding of the search assignment, information collection and provision, adequate evaluation of the candidate, use of confidential information, and the damage to the candidate’s employer resulting from wrong decisions of recruiters (Lim & Chan, 2006). Deriving their conclusions from those key areas of research, Lim and Chan held an investigation of the true level of compliance with the stipulated ethical values and found out that the realistic ethical standards were much higher than they were depicted in the media and by clients (Lim & Chan, 2006). The results on the listed criteria may be seen on Figure 1.

Figure 1. Compliance of executive recruitment consultants with the core ethical values.

Source: From Lim and Chan (2006), p. 222.

In reality, the compliance with ethical standards appears slightly higher than it is depicted by secondary sources; however, research in the field is still to scarce to make generalizable conclusions, so it is necessary to consider all ethical issues in conducting recruitment registered nowadays to be able to secure the clients and consultants from false beliefs and prejudice, and to guide the existing firms as well as new entrants to the field on the path to ethical, moral, and correct behavior in their professional activity.

The off-limits guarantee is registered as the most widely spread modern threat to ethical standards in recruitment according to Lim and Chan (2006) and Guy (n.d.). There is a legally defined period of two years during which the recruitment consultant may not recruit the employee who he/she has previously recruited for another firm. The rule has been formulated by IACPR and sounds the following way – consultants should “not recruit nor cause to be recruited any person from the [client] organization for a mutually agreed upon period after completion of an assignment….” (IACPR, cited in Guy, n.d.). However, nowadays the flow of clients needing employees is so quick and demanding that consultants often breach the off-limits guarantee and involve candidates in the recruitment process much faster than in two years.

One more serious breach noted by Lim and Chan (2006) and Guy (n.d.) is the confidentiality problem with records of employees, client firms etc. There is lack of professionalism in processing data of both candidates and clients, so the consultants often disclose the vitally important information about position changes and even plans to do so. As a result, the firm which a valuable executive of a high level leaves may suffer serious losses because of shareholder worries and falling share prices (Guy, n.d.).

Guy (n.d.) mentions some ethical issues that have not been taken into account by Lim and Chan (2006) in their study – they include litigation against the client and excessive discounting on fees by recruiting agencies. The former is more unethical regarding the client and the profession, as the firm reduces its reputation by engaging in lawsuits, public announcements about the legal process etc. The latter breach is more unethical regarding the competitors on the whole, as the firm that unreasonably reduces fees in the pursuit of profit cheapens the price of the recruitment consultant labor on the whole, destroys motivation of consultants and puts the functioning of the whole business sector at risk (Guy, n.d.).

Shallow reference checking may be regarded to the problem of poor evaluation that the recruitment firms may at times conduct; it presupposes non-thorough processing of resumes and cover letters, which results in false conclusions on the propriety of the candidate for the position. As a result, client firms get the candidates not fit for the job – especially grave the breach appears in the situation when only several final candidates are introduced to the client, and several of them seem clearly non-suitable for the position (Guy, n.d.). Such practices are highly unethical as they put the professionalism of executive recruiters into question.

Lack of dignity and courtesy towards job seekers has been detected as a recurrent problem in the field of targeted executive recruitment. This fact may be explained by the overflow of job candidates to the recruitment companies and the major part of them being not fit for the jobs they would like to obtain, which is typical for the modern labor market. However, the recruitment officials have to remember that their job is a public one, involving communication with great numbers of people, and should be polite to keep their business popular with both clients and job seekers (Guy, n.d.).

Another grave problem with ethics in the targeted recruitment strategies chosen by the consultants is that they often try to deceive the hard-to-get candidates in order to get to their office. The candidates then often feel antipathy to the consultants and refuse from even reviewing their offers because of the dishonest way of penetrating their working or private space. As a result, the reputation of the recruitment agency sinks, and the candidate remains unreached (Guy, n.d.).

Parallel processing of candidates and wholesale client identification, according to Guy (n.d.), are often evident nowadays in many recruitment companies because of the quick pace at which they operate large numbers of candidates. However, even despite the strategies sometimes turn out successful and enable the consultants to process multiple job seekers and numerous clients at the same time, they may cause ethical dilemmas and misunderstanding. Thus, the parallel recruitment may lead to acceptance of one candidate to two firms, which ends in null results of the consulting firm and reveals the scheme of parallelism, making the client offended and even unwilling to collaborate in future. The wholesale recruitment is a strategy not for all clients – at times the mechanic search for specialists of a particular field is an unsatisfactory and even warning perspective, so they often want the recruitment companies to conduct an extended search and to look for a candidate with a wider scope of skills (Guy, n.d.).

Finally, disparaging the competitors and misinterpretations to clients and candidates may be truly appalling in the field of targeted executive recruitment. The first ethical breach is to try to gain reputation by spoiling the reputation of other firms, which often serves as discrediting the initiator of disparaging activities. The misinterpretations to clients and candidates are highly unpleasant for all participants; they may include false information about the amount of salary, the length of a position, the criteria candidates have to fit etc. Once the truth is revealed, the recruitment process has to be started once again because of the discrepancies in expectations and real demands or real conditions of work offered to candidates (Guy, n.d.).

There surely are many more breaches registered by both job seekers and client firms, including the illegal discrimination still present in the modern diverse world, representation of candidates as perfect ones, without any drawbacks, and failing to assess their weaknesses adequately, non-disclosure of potential conflicts of interest etc. (Guy, n.d.). However, the list is constantly enlarged, and some new cases of unprofessionalism, ignorance and incompetence are identified. As a response to the majority of those issues, the popular nationwide organizations dealing with executive recruitment have issued their own codes of professional conduct compliance with which they actively propagate. The codes will also be reviewed to make the research on ethics in recruitment full and grounded.

Recruitment Policies in Various Professional Fields

Speaking about the executive recruitment strategies popular nowadays and the ethical issues concerning conducting them, one has to pay attention to the heterogeneity of the business fields, institutional peculiarities etc. to assess the whole realm of ethical implications. Therefore, some additional information on recruitment compliance with ethical rules in some institutional fields such as education and medicine may be highly helpful to make the informed decision on whether the business ethical recruitment strategies are properly chosen and formulated. Some realistic examples of ethics codes employed to make staff selection procedures are laid out further in the present section.

Faculty Recruitment and Appointment Ethics. It is essential to understand that the field of education is a highly specific one because of the function of enlightenment it carries for the attendants of educational establishments. The faculty of any educational establishment has to the example for all teachers and students in terms of ethics and morality. Therefore, the process of recruitment and selection for faculty positions is also surrounded with many ethical issues for compliance and consideration.

The beginning of candidates’ search cannot be started until the full agreement on all key criteria the future employee has to meet is reached. The criteria may include the rank, salary, and eligibility of the candidate for tenure, the future expectations on promotion of the employee, his or her personal and educational credentials etc. are included in the list (Krahenbuhl, 2004). After that, the open announcement has to be made under the condition of genuine involvement of the faculty in the candidate search process. The announcement should be widely disseminated to reach all potential candidates, and the position should be maintained available for applicants for at least thirty days (Krahenbuhl, 2004).

As soon as the set of candidates fitting the stipulated criteria is chosen, the interviews are conducted with them to find out the best fit for the position. This stage also involves a great number of ethical issues for adherence, including the privacy of personal information provided by the candidates for review to the faculty, and the results of their interviews as well (Krahenbuhl, 2004). The very process of conducting interviews is also distinct from the ethical point of view – participants of the interview should never experience any discriminatory behavior from the side of interviewers disregarding their race, gender, religion etc. Communication about the open job position should not extend beyond the measures stipulated in the public announcement (Krahenbuhl, 2004).

There certainly are some ethical obligations from the side of candidates for recruitment as well, and they need to provide all information regarding any financial expenditure they may cause for the institution in case of employment, e.g., the moving costs, the delayed starting date etc. (Krahenbuhl, 2004). In addition, they have the right to be informed on the process of recruitment and their own position in the candidacy for the job. Finally, the selection process should be finished with the strict compliance with the ethical rules that presuppose adherence to the initial criteria stipulated in the announcement, without the possibility of any alterations in the recruitment process (Krahenbuhl, 2004).

The process of making the job offer to the most successful job candidate, as well as its acceptance, are also surrounded by numerous ethical considerations. In case the proper candidate is chosen, the faculty has to send an official written offer for the position even in case the oral offer has already been submitted. Only the written job offer will have a legal effect and will be an ethical solution at the job offer stage (Krahenbuhl, 2004). The official letter sent to the candidate should explicitly include all job criteria such as the salary, the initial rank, the length of appointment as well as conditions for renewal, the date of starting the work, the starting commitments for the appointment (including some facilities and benefits initially provided by the institution) etc. The candidate has to respond within the officially stipulated period of time and arrive at the institution in due time to get ready for fulfilling his/her duties and take part in the orientation program (Krahenbuhl, 2004).

Code of Hiring International Healthcare Executives. There is much concern in the modern period of time about the ethical issues surrounding the medical staff recruitment policies, especially on the international level. One of the first active initiators of the Code of ethics on international recruitment is the Commonwealth. Some significant documents and regulations adopted in the UK are the Department of Health’s code of practice for NHS employees, and the Commonwealth Code of practice for international recruitment of healthcare workers (SOPEMI, 2007). The codes emphasize the need for promoting high standards for recruitment policies of employees from overseas, and have much political and moral force, though being not binding in legal terms. The codes attempt to help reduce the level of healthcare workers’ shortage in developing countries by introducing bans on targeted recruitment strategy application for such countries (SOPEMI, 2007).

In addition, the codes discuss some ethical implications in hiring the permanent and temporary healthcare personnel, recommend using national recruitment agencies to comply with the code, and take care about the migration challenges for foreign healthcare workers (SOPEMI, 2007). However, what the codes lack is the presence of support systems, incentives, sanctions, and monitoring systems that would enable the codes to function efficiently in the national and international framework of healthcare recruitment. One of the biggest challenges recognized for the enactment of the basic positions of the code is the presence of multiple migration limitations and conditions that often stand in the way to making ethically based recruitment and employment decisions on the territory of the Commonwealth (SOPEMI, 2007).

Looking for International Practices: Recruitment and Selection for the ‘Second-Generation’ Japanese Automotive Industry. The distinct recruitment and employment model traditionally utilized by the Japanese employers has been of much interest for researchers worldwide. Hence, the study of Gump (2006) comparing the domestic Japanese recruitment practices and the ones the Japanese firms in the USA conduct is of much interest for the present research. Gump (2006) assumes that the difference in recruitment strategies chosen lies within the cultural framework, making the American and Japanese employees different in their attitudes, skills, education and aspirations for the work they are likely to get. Speaking about the American-based companies’ recruitment strategies, Gump (2006) outlines such important stages of the recruitment process as passing the complex exam, an interview, a problem-solving assessment, and a simulated work exercise. Hence, the workers are assessed both for their ability to work in the Japanese company, and for their ability to become the part of the team, to fit the company personally (Gump, 2006). The conclusion Gump (2006) makes from this point is that the prime interest of Japanese employers is not to obtain highly-qualified employees with much prior automotive experience, but to find people who are willing to learn and to become an efficient element of the working team. Having prior experience is even considered negative because of the belief in the Japanese automotive industry’s uniqueness in both methods and production processes. Hence, teaching employees from the very start is much easier for the Japanese companies’ administration (e.g. Mazda and Subaru-Isuzu) that re-teaching employees with experience (Gump, 2006).

The Japanese system of recruitment seems rather unethical because of its highly discriminative nature (e.g. personality skills are given priority to the professionalism and experience, teamwork and collaboration serve as the dominant factors affecting the choice of employees etc.) (Gump, 2006). In addition, the principle of lifetime employment and recruitment directly from schools based on the collaboration of teachers and employers also seems unethical and lacking the free competitive possibilities. However, the Japanese model is recognized as one of the most effective and stable ones, so certain inferences can be made of it to contribute to the understanding of ethics in targeted recruitment strategies worldwide.

Codes of Ethics of Various Nationwide Recruitment Organizations

The Association of Canadian Search Employment & Staffing Services (ACSESS). The ACSESS has introduced its strict code of conduct and ethics for all its members with the purpose of addressing many ethical issues discussed in the present paper; according to its code of ethics, the association pledges to take proper care of ensuring integrity, professionalism and fair practice of its members, securing both candidates and clients from any form of prejudice, providing accurate information to candidates and clients about each other etc. (ACSESS Code of Ethics & Standards, 2010). The principles of fair competition as the basic rule of working in the competitive environment with respect to rivals are also outlined in the code of ethics of ACSESS: “We will recognize and respect the rights and privileges of competitors in the true fashion of individual initiative and free enterprise, and will refrain from engaging in acts of unfair competition” (ACSESS Code of Ethics & Standards, 2010). In addition, the association pledges to bring the detected infringements to the attention of the appropriate association body for consideration and further action.

The Executive Recruiters Association (ERA). The ERA code of ethics also takes into consideration the numerous ethical issues and intricacies of the business sector. Therefore, the ERA principles of collaborating with clients involve utmost importance attributed to recognition of their unique culture and specific needs (Ethics, 2010). The collaboration with candidates is marked with accuracy, confidentiality, honesty, and objectivity as governing principles. In addition, the ERA takes care about its public image and the public reputation the association has:

“ERA members understand the importance of public trust in the executive recruitment profession. Professional recruitment consultants stay abreast of socio-economic devel­opments in the communities they serve and recognize the need to respond to contemporary developments sue as changing demographics, new technologies and changes in the employment relationship” (Ethics, 2010).

HVS Executive Search. The organization has decided to focus on two points in unethical behavior of executive recruitment consultants often discussed and prosecuted by clients, candidates, and the public: off-limits and guarantees. The Managing Director of HVS considers these two elements the basis for efficient, successful, and ethical behavior in the discussed professional field. He regards the breach of the off-limit a serious problem because it actually “is a commitment by the executive search firm to an issue which is often misunderstood and which often leads to a breakdown in trust between a client and a recruitment company” (Mumford, 2004). Therefore, he suggests that only the proper attention to the modern recruitment policies and changes in the labor market may help a recruitment agency to remain a faithful partner for the majority of its clients, and to conduct its activities with a corresponding measure of trust, credibility, objectivity and reliance (Mumford, 2004).

Paul Harper Search & Selection. There are a great number of firms that have successfully adopted and pursued their codes of ethics deriving from the current situation with numerous breaches and violations evident in the market, and Paul Harper Search & Selection is not an exception. The company has its own code of ethics in which it emphasizes the necessity to work with a limited number of clients in order to avoid the possibility of conflict of interests and to establish trusting, long-term relationships with them (Paul Harper Search and Selection: Ethics, 2010). In addition, the code stipulates absence of parallel recruitment practices, face-to-face interviews before introducing the candidates to the client, and a one-year off-limit observed by the company’s recruiters.

Von Rundstedt HR Partners. This company is one more representative of the executive recruitment firm that takes proper care about strict compliance with the ethical norms of the business sector. The administration of the firm poses extreme value to finding the perfect fit between the needs of the client and the employment aspirations and possibilities of the candidate. Therefore, their philosophy is outlined as follows:

“Executive recruitment should yield added value and be long-term. We view people in a holistic way, as part of their professional and personal social environment. The focus of recruiting is on individual employees with specific professional expertise, experience, skills, talents, commitment, energy and a unique personality” (Top Results Require Top Executives and Specialists, 2010).

Conclusion: Compliance with Ethical Standards Summarized

Drawing a conclusion from the present research paper, one has to admit that there is much controversy in approaching the subject of recruitment ethics, especially when dealing with the subject area of executive recruitment. Some researchers consider the very field of work as executive recruitment consultants an unethical one because it often engages immoral techniques of poaching employees from one rival company to another one. However, as it comes from the review of the present business sector, one should take a closer view not at the sector itself, but at the policies and techniques some of its representatives employ to achieve professional success and gain profits. There are highly ethical recruitment consultants who observe the main rules of faithful, professional recruitment; nonetheless, there are some individuals who are ready to sacrifice the ethical decisions for the sake of commercial success. The modern situation in the market of targeted executive recruitment is ambiguous because of the numerous complaints from the side of clients and candidates, but the positive results shown by empirical studies.

No matter how varied the opinions on ethical issues in targeted executive recruitment are, one conclusion is still obvious: there are multiple ways to breach the rules of ethics in recruitment, and they are practiced from time to time by the representatives of the field. Such examples may include non-provision of confidentiality by consultants, insufficient processing of resumes and client requirements, the inability to treat clients and candidates with dignity and respect etc. Sometimes even disparaging policies are used nowadays to discredit the rival and to regain the potentially attractive share of the market. However, the numerous codes of ethics and regulations of recruitment executives adopted nowadays give some hope that these illegal practices will be increasingly recognized and eliminated with their help. More governmental support, awareness of candidates and clients, proper informing on the cases of breaches, and overall striving for perfection and professionalism are seen as the only possible ways to reduce unethical behavior occurrences in the field of targeted executive recruitment worldwide. Hence, all possible effort has to be directed at legitimizing the codes of conduct, identifying penalties for violators, and working towards the establishment of a universal code of ethics for guidance of all recruitment-related activities internationally.

References

ACSESS Code of Ethics & Standards (2010). ACSESS. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from http://www.acsess.org/ABOUT/ethics.asp

Catano, V.M. (2009). Recruitment and Selection in Canada. (4^th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Ethics (2010). Executive Recruiters Association. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from http://www.era.org.in/Ethics.aspx

Gump, S.E. (2006). Who gets the job? Recruitment and selection at a ‘second-generation’ Japanese automotive components transplant in the US. International Journal of Human Resource Management, no. 17(5), pp. 842-859.

Guy, C.W. (n.d.). Eroding Ethics of Executive Search. Delta Resources International. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from http://www.deltaresourcesinternationa l.com/pdfs/ERODING%20ETHICS%20OF%20EXECUTIVE%20SEARCH.pdf

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Paul Harper Search and Selection: Ethics (2010). Paul Harper Search and Selection. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from http://www.paulharpersearch.co.uk/ ethics.php

Rae, G., & Volk, R. (2001).Finding the Best Job in Boom Or Bust Times. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Assoc.

SOPEMI (2007). International Migration Outlook: SOPEMI 2007. Danvers, MA: OECD Publishing.

Top Results Require Top Executives and Specialists (2010). Von Rundstedt HR Partners. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from http://www.rundstedt-hrpartners.de/clients/rundstedt/rundstedtcms_new.nsf/id/EN_Executive_Recruitment