What are some common ethical dilemmas that HR professionals face during the recruiting process?

While there are anti-discrimination laws in place that protect individuals from illegal treatment during the hiring process, the ethics of recruiting go beyond regulation and can impact the reputation of both a company and an individual recruiter.

Here are some of the more common ethical dilemmas that can arise in recruiting:

Posting a job ad for a position that does not exist. There are a few reasons this may be done: to see what talent might be available in a potential new location; to attract passive candidates to build up a talent pipeline; to use up remaining postings in an expiring contract with an online jobs board, if only to collect resumes; to see if current employees will respond to a blind ad, indicating they are ready to jump ship; or to foster the idea that the company is growing and stable, rather than the opposite.

If, for any of these reasons, a job ad is posted when no open position actually exists, applicants, employees, clients and customers may be led to distrust the company or recruiter due to unethical practices. Reputations can be ruined quickly with a simple social media post; allowing only actual openings to be advertised will alleviate this risk.

Some ethical ways of researching talent availability in a new location include:

• Gathering demographic data. Do your research to find out about the education level, cost of living and unemployment rates in the area. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, local unemployment agencies and other government groups have this information available and will provide it at no cost.
• Talking to local business groups. The Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club or other local business groups can provide information on the employment climate in the area you are considering.
• Reading local publications. These newspapers or journals can be a wealth of information, as they may discuss the local labor market or highlight growth or shrinkage among local industries. Review the sections in which the hiring and promotions of local employees are announced, to see where people are being hired and what types of positions are highlighted. Most of these sections also have listings of job openings in the area. 
• Data mining resume databases. Sites like Monster or LinkedIn, where people can post resumes, will give you a good idea of talent availability in the local market. Use these resources not only to assess availability, but also to target top candidates if you choose to move forward.

For information on ethical ways to attract passive job seekers, see SHRM's How to Target Passive Job Seekers.

Misrepresenting the duties or requirements of an open position. This generally occurs when a position is difficult to fill, or a recruiting quota needs to be met and desperation sets in. Promising more autonomy or authority than a position has can lead to an unhappy hire and even more cost to the employer when the new hire quickly leaves. The same holds true for hiring someone who is overqualified, or hiring someone who is underqualified and becomes overwhelmed and unproductive. To maintain ethical practices and integrity as a recruiter and for your company, be completely transparent with applicants about what the job they are applying for entails.

Unethical employee referral practices. While a popular and successful tool to hire quality candidates, employee referral programs can create ethical issues of which HR should be aware. These issues can arise when senior-level employees make a referral and expect a hire, regardless of merit; a referred candidate is hired, and there is a sense that the referring employee is indebted to the hiring manager for "doing him or her a favor"; and special interests, such as a client referral, carry weight over merit.

An extreme version of this can be found in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 2015 investigation into the investment firm JPMorgan Chase & Co. The firm's client referral program bypassed normal hiring processes to favor the children of Chinese businessmen for open positions, leading to heavy fines.

Less extreme but still impactful ethical issues include perceived favoritism for hiring a senior level's recommendation or fear of retribution if a senior level's referred candidate is not hired. Employees' being consistently passed over in favor of high-level referrals can also breed morale and turnover issues.

To ensure ethical standards, ongoing monitoring, including confidential employee feedback, of any referral system is required. Also consider making all referrals temporarily anonymous or limiting the levels of employees who can make referrals through the program. Focus on a candidate's merit, and highlight the reasons for the referral (e.g., experience, dependability, etc.) instead of focusing on the referrer. And be wary of any special favors being asked of HR that would circumvent normal hiring procedures.

Unethical use of social media. There are certainly legal risks in discovering and using protected-status information (e.g., age, ethnicity or religion) against an applicant; there are also ethical concerns.

At its most flagrant, unethical behaviors include recruiters' creating fake social media accounts to gain access to applicant profiles to mine private information about them and access their friends. Even when candidates are notified that you will be looking at their accounts and thus require them to provide social media passwords (not legal in some states), you've crossed a line into their private lives and accessed information that is not job-related and therefore should not be used against them. But what is seen cannot be unseen, so ethically—and legally—there are limits to using such information.

Additionally, any information discovered on social media that cannot be independently verified  lacks credibility and would be risky to use in a hiring decision. For example, a victim of identity theft may have no idea that a fake social media account in his or her name exists, nor that employers may be using it unfairly to assess his or her candidacy.

To maintain ethical standards, consider limiting social media as a screening tool to positions requiring a social media presence or skills. At a minimum, conduct a risk-benefit analysis with your attorney to determine if such screening is advisable. If it is, create standardized assessments and use multiple raters. In all cases, verify the accuracy of any information found that could potentially be used against an applicant.