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The recruitment process of any organisation is crucial to its overall success. This is because employees help to actualize the vision and mission of the organisation. Hence, the need for a proper and transparent recruitment process devoid of unethical practices. The focus of discourse at the recently held Social Issues Cluster (SIC) meeting of the Christopher Kolade Centre for Research in Leadership and Ethics (CRLE) at Lagos Business School (LBS), titled “Transparency in recruitment in the banking industry” was to highlight the ethical issues and anomalies involved the recruitment processes of banks in the country and proffer possible solutions.
The recruitment process in Nigerian banks has passed through different phases, from paid advertisements and referrals, to outsourcing with assessment centres, and other recent means. Previously, job vacancies were mostly advertised. However, most banks now recruit through referral and/or poaching of prospects from other organizations giving excuses of highly rigorous recruitment process caused by high unemployment and unemployable graduates’ rates. This has led to the unethical headhunting of talents from competitors and other firms, leaving out many prospective talents from the recruitment process.
Another unethical practice among recruiters in the banking industry is the inadequacy of the conceptualisation and design of jobs to be filled. It is not unlikely to find job adverts that are shallow in terms of description of duties and responsibilities, and specifications. Some job descriptions advertised are not in tandem with deliverables of the job and/or deliberately overrated with bogus tasks, duties and responsibilities in order to fascinate talents who prefer high and challenging job demands. Such individuals after being placed would find the jobs boring and unchallenging resulting in their exit within a short time.
Most recruitment activities which require rigorous and painstaking process to attract the right talents are being jettisoned by most banks. They prefer to headhunt and poach candidates who may likely end up not performing on the job. The banks lure most of these “stars” with huge, mouth-watering and irresistible offers which include profit sharing, allowances, incentives, and other benefits. Foreign recruits, who are poached from renowned international banks or investment firms, are also offered huge bonuses and relocation benefits besides the large salary they would receive. This amount to double standards and injustice to staff that are recruited locally. A number of banks fell on their faces using this strategy, when the margins started shrinking and the desired results were not achieved.
Another area that raises transparency issues in recruitment is the selection process. Once the screening process is done, some candidates recommended for employment by the HR officer might not get employed due to some form of interference from top management. In some banks, the final decision on employment could be in the hands of the Managing Director even after the rigorous recruitment process. Thus, the names of some qualified candidates would be substituted for “special ones”. This raises ethical concerns as regards the fairness of the whole process.
Following selection, most banks always fail to carry out a thorough and comprehensive background check on the selected applicants before placing them on the job. This raises a substantial ethical concern as it contradicts the underlying values banks should stand for. Background checks are necessary to investigate the personality, morals and integrity of prospective employees. There have been cases where people with fake certificates were employed by other banks few months after they were sacked from their previous jobs.
To address these issues, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) came up with a ‘Competency Framework Policy’ in 2012 to ensure that only ‘fit and proper persons’ are approved for appointment to boards and top management positions. The CBN assigned the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) as the accreditation agency for the policy’s implementation. The framework was created to define the minimum knowledge, skills and competencies required for operators and regulators to perform optimally on their various jobs. The framework was also meant to standardize capacity and develop competency to nurture knowledgeable, skilled and competent workforce for the Nigerian banking industry. A thorough and judicious alignment of the banks staffing policies with the framework can assist in addressing most of the issues highlighted earlier.
Banks need to take background checks beyond just character reference and qualification checks. Other checks like integrity tests, criminal record check, and even a credit history check would be necessary to most likely reduce the risk of frauds and safeguard customers’ deposits. There is a need for HR professionals to collaborate and share information on erstwhile staff beyond just the formal reference checks done. It is the moral duty of HR practitioners in the banking industry to speak up against unethical practices in the recruitment process and also ensure that ethical and transparent recruitment practices are followed through to select the right candidates.
- This article written by Zainab Dere is an excerpt of the Social Issues Cluster Meeting of the Christopher Kolade Centre for Research in Leadership and Ethics (CRLE) at Lagos Business School (LBS), titled “Transparency in recruitment in the banking Industry.” Social Issue Clusters (SIC) is a think-tank style event held to brainstorm social issues in leadership and ethics in the country and proffer solutions to them. CRLE’s vision is creating and sharing knowledge that improves the way managers lead and live in Africa and the World. You can contact CRLE at crle@lbs.edu.ng.
Zainab Dere
Dere is with the Lagos Business School
