Are Companies Unethically Using Consultants for Recruitment? Share Your Experiences

Consultant Recruitment Practices: Ethical Concerns

Recently, it has been observed that some organizations have been providing vacancies to consultants. The consultants put in their efforts and share valid profiles with these organizations or companies. However, after a period, the company's response might be "vacancy on hold."

Is it appropriate for the organization to call the candidates after some days, interview them, and finally employ them? Is this a part of good business ethics? What should be done about such organizations? Have any recruitment consultants experienced such incidents? Awaiting your inputs...

Employment and Hiring Practices

Any person can seek employment anywhere. A company can employ anyone for any position within the framework of its own rules, with some exceptions. When a company is hiring someone, it has the full liberty to expect maximum output from its employees. Whether this is ethical or not is a moot point. When an individual leaves a company, they take with them a wealth of tacit knowledge. In fact, many competitors poach such employees for their own vested interests, often resulting in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Similarly, a company can choose to hire or engage a consultant to gain the desired benefits. Peter F. Drucker describes individuals in this category as "knowledge workers" and predicted that it would be challenging to prevent these individuals from changing positions. He wrote about this towards the end of the last century.

Regards, V.Raghunathan