The concept of short listing has become a weird joke in Pakistan. In many instances, interviewers have not even seen CVs of the short listed candidates prior to the interview. A person was told on the day of interview that he was not suitable for the position since he had never worked in a public organization; surprisingly no one had noticed the fact at the time of short listing process. Similarly, a female who completed her master degree in Business Management and applied for the position in the same field was ironically asked by the panel of a reputed college about her specialization in IT. Viewing advertisement in the dailies, sometime it appears that organization have demanded all kinds of relevant and irrelevant qualifications, which is quite confusing. It also shows either the organization have not analyzed the job properly or wanting a ‘jack’, not a professional.  Sometimes it also looks by seeing advertisements, especially of international organizations, as if the advertisement were tailored to hire “someone special.”

It is also inconceivable why employers are keen in keeping potential candidates in the dark about salary of the advertised position and prefer to make a vague statement such as it depends upon the qualification of the candidate. However, the statement is meaningless because employers offer the salary that they have budgeted without offering much room for negotiations. Some of the employers might mistakenly think that vague statements amplify impression of their organizations and deliberately wish to give a false impression to attract high caliber applicants who might not apply for the position after hearing meager amount of salary.

Another common observation is that employers are keen to invite candidates at the same time and expect them to wait for hours for their turn at the reception. It is also told by some applicants that they were asked to take some kind of superficial test on the interview-day for which they were not informed and mentally prepared. With little planning employers can save their and candidates’ precious time by calling them for interview at distinct and separate hours; but it might be less satisfactory for the ego of employers and interviewers.  Similarly, they can conveniently also tell the short listed candidates about the test if they intend to take any.  It is also quite common for organizations asking a photograph of applicants with a job application, which is considered unethical in many developed countries to prejudge people by photographs.

It is not uncommon that organizations advertise jobs with high profile titles but nature of job is like assistant. Recently, a company advertised a post of AVP (Assistant Vice President) and asked for 3 years experience. The title of the job and the required experience are contradictory to each other; by and large, the AVP position requires experience a lot more than 3 years.

The above practices are not restricted to position that are offered through classified advertisements but for those which are announced through reasonably big advertisement by reputed firms and organizations. Indeed, these all companies and organizations usually claim a smart and strong Human Resource Department (HRD) in the organization.

Unfortunately, establishing HRD has become a fashion, or more appropriately, a joke in Pakistan. It seems that organizations have HRD to give impression of modernization but hardly willing to practice Values of HR. All points mentioned above are against the HR norms and values. Moreover, HRDs are ineffective because mostly non-professionals having skimpy knowledge of the field are occupying positions in the department. It is not to say that they have not memorized terminologies of the field such as job analysis, job enrichment, selection criteria, 360 evaluations or other similar words but they carry scanty knowledge of the purpose of HRD. 

Pakistani organizations have yet to realize that strong HRD not only saves money, time and energy of organizations but also reduces complaints of the candidates and employees. Job analysis is not done to hire any person on minimum salary but is done to point out right qualification and skills that are required for the job and appropriate salary. If qualified people are sitting in the HRD, they would carefully assess CVs against the selection criteria instead of inviting almost all applicants for interview. If interviews are planned properly, the candidates would not wait for their turn for hours.

Pakistani entrepreneur must appreciate the fact that their hilarious strategy of hiring people might be expedient for them but is unfair and harmful for applicants as it creates further anxiety among the unemployed. Averagely sending one application costs Rs.20; and, under depressed economies such as ours it is unimaginable that a person would get a job just after sending one application, unless the candidate takes advantage of some “other means.” Moreover, an interview can cost a candidate from Rs.20 to Rs.300 depending upon the mode of the transport a candidate uses for appearing in the interview. Clumsy strategies of hiring people not only put unnecessary financial burden on job seekers but also leave very pernicious psychological effects on the applicant and affect self-efficacy of a person. Unfortunately, the people who are having a few bucks in their pocket or/and occupying positions of authority in the organizations do not care for applicants’ ordeals from which they go through due to ongoing unethical practice in the labor market.  Being corporate citizens of the society, organizations must adopt transparent process of hiring people and follow ethical guidelines of the field of HR. They must appreciate the fact that Human Resource is as important as capital.   ©