Are companies too serious when it comes to hiring?

Posted by: Mindy Fineout

Hiring the right person is a serious matter and is not to be taken lightly. Job growth is steady but, with high unemployment, is not growing at the rate we’d like to see. This means that when it comes to hiring, most companies are at an advantage. However, that advantage could also mean added pressure to pluck the perfect candidate out of a deep candidate pool.

You might remember the journalist that blogged, in news release format, about his job offer from an East Coast newspaper. I thought it was an original, creative, and funny idea. But the company disagreed (due to the journalist using a company logo in the post without approval) and rescinded the job offer.

I can understand where the company is coming from. It could see this violation as an indicator of the employee’s behavior moving forward. The unauthorized use of a logo could be an early warning sign that the person could put the company at risk by not following company policy during his employment. Consider the idea behind behavioral interviewing: Prior behavior is likely to repeat itself. But there are other factors to consider. Was the logo copyrighted? Was the new hire informed of the policy about proper use of company logos? Was the company being ultraconservative?

Companies have the right to be selective, and they should be, but the newspaper’s job retraction might be taking things a bit too far. This candidate must have met the requirements of the role or the newspaper would not have offered the job. This person was obviously proud that he was hired by that company or he would not have put in the time and effort to write the blog post. I would hope that companies are inspired or proud of a person that wants to work for their company.

In fact, the blog post could have been used as an effective recruiting tool. Imagine showing a top candidate a copy of the post to demonstrate how proud new employees are to be working at the company.

Being conservative might not always be the best route. With so many things to be serious about today, perhaps companies should embrace the creativity of employees and see if there’s an opportunity to use it to increase visibility and recruiting efforts.

But then again, I think I have a pretty good sense of humor. What do you think? Was the newspaper’s job retraction too harsh or was the company justified in not hiring the person? Let us know in the comments below.

This post was written by former Seamless Workforce contributor Donna Vespe.