Three unfair recruitment advantages prejudice job seekers in South Africa.
Internationally, regulations have been instituted to ensure fair recruitment practice. In South Africa, unfair recruitment persists, suggesting prejudiced wage negotiations.
Three Unfair Recruitment Advantages
When one party to a negotiation has more information than another, it is referred to as an asymmetric information advantage. This means both sides in the negotiation are not equal.
For example, you want to make me an offer to buy my car and ask me if it’s ever been in an accident. I know that if I say ‘yes, there were three’ you may cancel the deal, so I say ‘only a minor fender bender.’ I withhold information purposefully in order to seal the deal in my favour.
When you’re looking for a job and face the following three unfair recruitment advantages, what will you do?
UNFAIR INFORMATION ADVANTAGE ONE
No pay ranges in job adverts
- don’t employers know how much they offer and who they hope to target?
- do they omit because money doesn’t matter even though the only way employees survive in our economy is to earn a salary?
UNFAIR INFORMATION ADVANTAGE TWO
Contacting candidates to ask about pay expectations
- if no pay is advertised, why should potential candidates volunteer their pay expectations? What’s fair about that?
- if the employer doesn’t know what to offer, why should candidates be coerced into providing this market research?
UNFAIR INFORMATION ADVANTAGE THREE
Demanding payslips from candidates
- information is used against the applicant’s interests, breach of trust
- pay-slips are used to price-fix wages
- job applicants are coerced into divulging sensitive employer information, the equivalent of industrial espionage in order to undermine fair competition for talent
#HRMustFall
Let’s bring it down South Africa!
