What Are Ethical HR Issues?
Human resources (HR) professionals are privy to a lot of private information about individuals employed by a company. This, combined with the role that HR professionals play in hiring and firing, means that the field is full of complicated ethical issues. In an effort to avoid being unethical, many companies have clear-cut policies about what actions HR professional can and cannot take.
Other People Are Reading
-
Features
-
HR professionals are involved in the hiring, supervision and firing of employees. Decisions made by the HR department can affect whether an individual is able to receive and maintain their job and the compensation that he receives for his work. For this reason, HR professionals must maintain the ability to make unbiased decisions.
Incentives
-
HR professionals are often responsible for setting salaries and compensation for a large number of employees, including for top executives. In some situations, an HR employee may be responsible for setting compensation for co-workers with whom they are friendly or for managers with influence over the HR professional's job. These professionals can therefore face an ethical problem in deciding how much these people should receive.
-
Privacy
-
HR professionals are exposed to a large amount of information about employees that is not meant for the consumption of the general public. In addition to the information an employee places on their resume and their application, HR professionals may know information culled from a background check or from a variety of employee-monitoring tools, such as email monitoring programs. The HR professional faces a number of ethical dilemmas in whether to use personal information when making decisions that affect the employee.
Performance Evaluation
-
Many HR professionals will be involved in regular performance evaluations of their co-workers. Because these appraisals are made for co-workers, the professional may be tempted to make their evaluations based not solely on the employee's performance, but on personal feelings about the employee as well. An HR professional may have a bias towards a friend in the office and a prejudice against an office rival.
Solution/Prevention
-
To avoid becoming entangled in ethical issues, HR professionals should attempt to identify conflicts of interest and other possible ethical complications before they arise. In many situations, HR professionals should recuse themselves from certain duties. For example, an HR professional should find someone else to perform a performance evaluation on a person with whom they are friends. In some cases outside parties should be consulted, such as in setting compensation for senior executives.
-
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images
