Users Guide to the Principles for Professional Conduct
| Index to Ethics Guide |
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Principles for Employer Professionals
4. Seeking Special Treatment
“Neither employment professionals nor their organizations will expect, or seek to extract, special favors or treatment which would influence the recruitment process as a result of support, or the level of support, to the educational institution or career services office in the form of contributed services, gifts, or other financial support. ( See Career Services Principle 4 )
Intent
Students will have access to employers of all types, most notably
those that might otherwise be precluded from participating or being
presented in a fashion that garners student attention.
Rationale
Organizations contributing to a career services office or its college
is not inherently immoral. A contribution can be a means of bringing
attention to the organization, as well as an investment in the institution
from which candidates are hired. The problem, at least from the
standpoint of the Principles document, emerges when a recruiting
organization seeks treatment that in some way threatens the intended
fairness of the recruitment process for students and other employers
with whom the college collaborates. When contributions are intended
or have the effect of crowding out other, less affluent employers,
then students may in effect be denied ready access to the full range
of opportunities they would like to consider and are entitled to
have.
It should also be noted that employers who contribute to a career
services office and then demand or even request special treatment
may be subjecting career services professionals to charges of having
a conflict of interest. A career services office which decides to
provide special visibility to a contributor deserves to be accused
of placing financial issues ahead of the obligation to provide full
and equal treatment for students. While one could argue that these
funds make it possible for the career services office to provide
better service for all students, one must recognize that a small
number of students—usually the “best and brightest” and those
in areas of high demand—are the ones being targeted by the
contributors and the ones whose needs will be receiving the most
attention.
Scenario
An employer—an alumnus of the college—has made several
sizeable contributions to the career services office and the computer
science department. His company’s college relations coordinator
has been slow to respond to an invitation to take part in an upcoming
job fair. Late respondents are being placed in rooms that are not
immediately adjacent to the main floor. The alum calls the career
services director and asks if his company’s representative can be
placed in a more favorable location. This would mean exchanging
places with another organization that has registered on time. The
alum mentions his contributions and implies that these may dry up
if the request is not honored.
Resolution
The career services director certainly does not want to cause the
alum to pull the plug on future contributions, which benefit many
students. In addition, the loss of contributions to the computer
science department would not only harm that department and its students,
it would jeopardize the career services director’s personal standing
in the college and the impression of the office. On the other hand,
the director is obligated to treat all employers fairly and make
good on the office’s commitments.
Assuming the alum is a reasonable individual, there should be room
to implement a solution. Elements of this solution might include
working with the college relations coordinator to use extra publicity
efforts to inform students about the company’s presence and location
at the job fair. Perhaps the computer science department would like
to hold an information session/reception for the company the night
before the job fair. A communique to the advisor of the student
computer science organization, as well as its officers, could bring
sufficient attention to the company’s upcoming visit (and location)
that the supposed disadvantage of its table location would be negated
and much positive awareness would be raised.
The career services director would also be advised to contact the
alumni office director and computer science department chair to
apprise them of this situation and the intended response.
Resources
"The
Commercialization of Career Centers: Ethical Consideration for Practitioners."
Journal of Career Planning and Employment, Winter 2001.
Principle 5. Use of alcohol
in the recruitment process
