How Do You Handle Friends and Family Asking for Job Help When You're in HR?

One of the problems of being in HR is having your relatives, friends, and acquaintances pester you every day to help them secure a job. Unsure about how to handle this situation?

You have faced one side of the situation where they are constantly asking you to help. Imagine yourself in a situation where you find countless individuals in dire need of jobs. You would sincerely like to help them, but that cannot always happen. You can only help them get the word out to those who are hiring and not secure an offer. Please acknowledge your limits to yourself and to others. Remain as earnest and eager as you are to help. The rest will fall into place in time.

Employment, whether in your organization or any other, is a function of an established need of the organization (which need is to be properly defined in terms of the candidate's education, competence, and experience). All job aspirants, whether your own relatives or others you know, are often oblivious to this critical reality as their need to get a job could be very pressing.

You, being a common denominator for the organization's need to recruit and the aspirant's need to secure employment, have to be rational yet kind and sympathetic. You should be more educative than populist, and you have to create and maintain a balance. Yet, without compromising the competence requirement of any organization, you must help people to become more "employable" and guide them to secure employment.

This is the only effective way you may be able to help relatives and acquaintances and do justice to the organizations. Trust you find some pointers to a solution you are seeking.

Regards,
Samvedan

July 14, 2013

First of all, leave behind the thought that they are your relatives, friends, or acquaintances. You should follow the organization's policy. If any vacancy arises and some of them meet the criteria, you can recommend them for employment. That way, you can help them.

As somebody rightly said, put yourself in their place; you would expect the same thing that they are expecting from you. Hence, help the people as much as possible, leaving aside the thought that they are your relatives...

Thanks,

Deepak M.

I have been in this field for over 30 years. I do not recommend anyone for any post, but I will forward their resumes to known people and also to all placement agencies. Nowadays, anyone can send their resume to all agencies and register as well. Recommendations will not work. Show them that you are strict and disciplined and will not recommend anyone. Take the resume and pass it on to your friends and placement agencies. If it benefits him/her, then it is okay. Do not go out of your way to help.

Regards,
Rammohan
Delhi