Page - 1

As the competition in the Indian corporate houses is multiplying very fast, unfair employment practices are also increasing very rapidly. Such practices are most commonly seen currently in the process of recruitment.

It has been found that large number of Indian corporate houses are advertising, and subsequently, inviting applications for
various positions right from junior to the top management with highly ambiguous designations such as Head-Finance, Head-Sales, Head-Marketing, Head-Supply Chain, Head-Human Resources, Head-IT, Head-Customer Services, etc. Here the word 'Head' is highly ambiguous because it does not give any clue about the exact level of the position in the organizational hierarchy. The word 'Head' could mean anything right from junior executive to the Executive Director or CEO. It differs widely from company to company and each company has its own interpretation of the word, Head.

Therefore, it is extremely easy to mislead, confuse or manipulate a prospective candidate with the 'Head' designation. As a result of this process, many senior level candidates are applying for a very senior level position with an assumption that the designation 'Head' could indicate Vice President or Senior VP level position. However, during the process of interview, the same candidate finds that the position is perhaps of much more junior level than his/her current position (may be of Senior Manager level), which he/she would never intend to accept and, hence, it becomes a matter of shock and pain for that prospective candidate. This manipulative behaviour is multiplying in the Indian corporate houses like a cancer.

In recent past, it was found that a candidate of Vice President level of a highly reputed and prestigious Indian corporate house was being misled and manipulated to appear for the position of Senior Manager at Tata Motor Finance for one of their Business Units, which was a far more inferior and junior position than the position which the candidate was holding already. Moreover, while short listing the profile, nobody had even bothered to enquire from the candidate whether he was ready to appear for the interview of such junior level position. Most interestingly, the above candidate was being finally interviewed by a Senior Manager of the company which turned out to be a complete pain and shock for the candidate.

In another case, an MNC Supply Chain company had misled and manipulated a candidate of Senior VP level of a highly prestigious MNC to appear for a General Manager position without even asking him whether he was ready to accept such a position. Only during the course of interview, the candidate came to know that the specific position was very much junior than the position which he was holding currently and, therefore, this job-proposal was not at all acceptable to him.

In several other cases of recent past, it has been found that by misleading or manipulating a prospective candidate, many Vice President level candidates of highly prestigious corporate houses are being interviewed by the Assistant Manager level junior executives, which goes beyond the standard organizational protocol of any company, and the respective candidates feel highly insulted and pained.

Next

* Contributed by: -
Joydip Dey is a Post Graduate in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur, and has spent more than 15 years in the Fortune 500 Technology Companies, and is currently VP-Human Resources at Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., New Delhi.