Ethics and Good Recruiting

It is far too easy to get caught up in our own perspectives, careers, and day-to-day activities that
we don't see alternatives to the problems we face. Instead, we continue to follow traditional
approaches, even when they are obviously inadequate.

Almost everyone involved with talent acquisition is squirming under pressure from hiring
managers to find more qualified candidates. Recruiters are quick to grasp at any solution that
offers hope of giving them access to better people.

Hence, the rapid rise of niche job boards, referral and networking tools, and greatly renewed
interest in Internet searching and in "poaching" candidates.

At the same time, recruiters face pressure to source in ways that may be legal but not exactly
ethical. Discussions about ethics on ERE and on various blogs over the past year have not been
encouraging.

I do not believe in or advocate many of the practices that are being offered. All is NOT fair in
war, as the Geneva Convention, the Nuremburg trials, and the International War Crimes Tribunal
in The Hague demonstrate.

It is easy to mark patently dishonest and deceitful practices as unethical; the real test comes in
the gray areas. These are where it is not clear if a practice is wrong, such as willfully discrediting
a company to make an employee feel that it would be best to move on, that test ethical thinking.

Recruiters who use methods they know are deceitful or dishonest do no one a favor. They harm
their employers' reputations and sully their own. Recruiters who are not sure whether a practice
is wrong might do well to put themselves in the shoes of the candidate or the manager on the
other side.

They might also look at all the options they have and ask which does more good than harm.
Good ethical practices treat all the parties concerned with dignity and respect and advance the
values of the organization. In the long run, it is not important whether you "win" the candidate,
but whether you have done so with integrity and fairness.

Assuming you practice ethical recruiting, how can your organization meet its needs for talent?
Conventional thinking about careers and a lack of imagination on the part of HR and recruiters is
probably contributing to the perception that there is a growing lack of skilled talent available in
the workforce. There are many alternatives to unethical recruiting and to filling talent shortages.

Create a Strong Brand

Rather than go after people with desperation and resort to unethical practices, create a website
that is exciting and that compels interest in your organization. No matter what your organization
does or how big or small it may be, your organization has unique characteristics that are
attractive. The key is to define your target audience very clearly and go after it with specific
messages and promotions.

I see most organizations promoting generic criteria and using generic messages that are not
aimed at any particular group. This means that many ignore you and others, mostly the
unqualified, apply in droves.

Use emerging tools such as MySpace to let potential candidates know about you. The U.S.
Marine Corps has recently done this and has enjoyed great success. Creating a MySpace profile
is simple and brings your organization to hundreds of people through referrals. Sign up for
Jobster, a service that makes referrals more effective.

Hire a Recruitment Process Outsourcing Firm

If you are really struggling to attract good people, it may make sense to contract with a
recruitment process outsourcing company that can help promote your organization and that has
access to a wide community of potential talent.

For smaller organizations, or for those with a highly specialized talent base, using RPO can offer
lots of advantages. These firms are staffed with seasoned pros who know their markets and offer
service agreements that make it a low-risk proposition. This is better than becoming frustrated to
the point that common sense and good ethics get compromised.

Look Inside

Larger organizations have many talented, culturally aligned, and productive employees who
would welcome an opportunity to do something different. Leading-edge firms, such as Dell and
Schlumberger, have developed internal systems that allow recruiters to locate people with
specific skills within the organization.

The systems capture employees' skills, performance history, education, and interests. These
employees are usually passive, or not looking for an internal move and not aware of the
opportunity.

Yet, they are often eager to take a look at that opportunity once they are approached. These
systems also allow actively looking employees to add personal information or apply directly for
posted positions. When there is a need to fill very highly specialized positions, internal people
are frequently the best qualified to do so with the least amount of training.

Short-Term Training and Coaching

Many times employees can be given skills more quickly than we think. Cisco, IBM, and
countless other organizations have put together short-term, intensive training programs that
enabled employees to gain new skills and become productive in a matter of weeks. This is often
no longer than it takes to source, screen, interview, and hire a candidate from outside who, after
being hired, still needs time to become productive and to learn the new culture.
With e-learning, mentoring, and coaching, employees can be given skills they need quickly while
being productive.

Rotations

Sometimes it is a good practice to let people rotate through several jobs so that they acquire at
least some skills in many areas. This way they can be moved to fill gaps very quickly and with a
minimum of additional education.

Rotations can be done frequently but on a short-term basis so that the impact on the employee's
current position is minimal. It just takes some creative thinking to make this work without much
bother. Do this in slower times, when work tends to be less than normal.

Educating Hiring Managers

Times are changing and with this comes the need for managers to better understand the talent
marketplace. It will be harder and harder to find qualified people over the next decade.

For some jobs, including certain finance positions, nursing, and pharmacy jobs, as well as
management positions, there will be a crisis. Even aggressive stealing and blatantly unethical
practices will probably not meet the needs.

Managers must have a better understanding of these issues and you as recruiters need to make
the business case for managers approaching talent acquisition from a variety of ways, rather than
to simply go outside to meet every need.

Talent acquisition is getting more complicated and requires recruiters who are strategic talent
advisors more than just "order takers." The best recruiters do not need to use unethical practices
because they have learned more options and have sold those internally.