Case Study When qualified applicants are scarce, recruiting becomes extremely co

Question

Case Study

When qualified applicants are scarce, recruiting becomes extremely competitive, particularly when two companies go after the same candidate, as often happens in the case of searching for professionals. After interviewing three short-listed candidates, a high-tech company, Company X, made an offer to one and advised the other two candidates that they were unsuccessful. The successful candidate was given one week to consider the offer. The candidate asked for a week’s extension to consider the offer but was granted only an additional three days. At the end of the time period, the candidate verbally accepted the offer and was sent a contract to sign. Rather than returning the signed contract, the candidate informed Company X that he had accepted a position at Company Y. He had received the second offer after verbally accepting the first position at Company X. The second company knew that the candidate had verbally accepted Company X’s offer. Before accepting Company Y’s offer, the candidate had consulted a respected men- tor who advised him to ignore his verbal commitment to Company X and to accept Company Y’s offer. There were no substantial differences in the salaries being offered by each company or in the work that each would expect the candidate to perform. The candidate simply saw Company Y as the more prestigious of the two employers. This scenario can be in the US or Canada.

Questions

Did Company Y act ethically, knowing that the candidate had verbally accepted another offer?

Explanation / Answer

Legally speaking, Company Y did no wrong by offering the job to the qualified candidate in spite of knowing that the candidate had already committed to the Company Y, though verbally. The contract did not come in force and hence Company Y’s act was legally justifiable.

However, ethically speaking, this act is wrong and hence shall not be fair because the candidate gave false hopes to Company X, especially in the time when qualified applicants are scarce in the market. It rather leaves them in the situation of dilemma as to how to proceed with the job vacancy so designed for that candidate which shall now not be accepted formally by the candidate. Therefore, in such a scenario, it shall rather be appropriate, though the ethics of the recruitment process is breached, that the candidate should be apologetic to the Company X, explaining the reasons for not being able to accept the offer. In fact, being honest and transparent with the real reason behind declining the offer after verbally accepting it, might bridge some gap in this ethical dilemma scenario.

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