Abstract
This essay will analyze and discuss LinkedIn’s business operation processes that are considered unethical. The common allegations are dishonesty, discrimination, and fraudulent collection of money from job seekers and employers promising services they do not deliver. In addition, it will critically analyze LinkedIn’s unethical campaigns through their website, which encourage subscribers to upgrade their normal accounts to premium accounts. Further LinkedIn‘s business practices that contravene the fundamental operation processes of all outsourced job agencies will be discussed.
Introduction
LinkedIn is a website that offers social networking, targeting job seekers and recruiters. Unlike other social networks which aim at merely helping people to socialize, LinkedIn has professionalized its services to benefit those looking for employment. The site offers benefits such as the ability to find people categorized according to their profession. Despite its features, LinkedIn has crossed some ethical lines by performing malpractices. LinkedIn has; however, sort to gain financial benefit without provision of anticipated services, which entails linking the best employees with recruiters (Kaufman, 2013).
Unethical practices by LinkedIn
The company’s discriminatory policy toward job seekers is highly unethical. Job seekers with premium LinkedIn accounts have a higher preference because their applications are “pushed” up by the applications pile up irrespective of their qualifications. An applicant who cannot afford to upgrade his account finds it hard to get a job using LinkedIn just like other job boards (Rosen & Viveka, 2012).
LinkedIn should amend its operations policy and avoid double charging for job vacancies advertised through its website. For example, LinkedIn charges employers for every vacancy they post on LinkedIn’s website. They are further charged for searching through the website for matching applicants. Therefore, LinkedIn charges both job seekers and employers for vacancies advertised via their website.
It is highly unethical for LinkedIn to charge job seekers since no guarantee to secure the advertised jobs is given. As a marketing strategy, LinkedIn has persuaded job seekers to upgrade their accounts to premium status and increase their chances of getting recruited by 50%. Whereas a premium account guarantees job seekers that their résumé and applications will be at the top of the applications pile (Rosen & Viveka, 2012).
The primary role of recruitment agencies is to outsource for the best candidates for available vacancies. However, LinkedIn with its current business model negates such principles. The candidates most likely to be recruited by the employers using the LinkedIn website are the premium account holders whose applications appear at the top of the applications pile. In this case, employers can ignore talented and qualified. Therefore, it is clear that LinkedIn does not care about the quality of staff their clients recruit. This is a practice that goes against the principles of any recruiting firm (Rosen & Viveka, 2012). Premium account holders who are well qualified for jobs have been most affected by these trends. This is because their applications have always been overlooked by employers. However, LinkedIn has continued to market and sell premium accounts to new subscribers despite the current trend, which is highly unethical.
For a person to be seeking a job means that they probably do have not well-paying jobs that do not satisfy them or have meager incomes, or they are simply jobless. However, LinkedIn requires that these job seekers pay for a premium worth almost 30 dollars. This is not an amount that is always easily affordable, especially to jobless people. This means the company does not give a lot of attention to the integrity of its users. This is unethical, given the reputation that LinkedIn has found itself over the past years since its discovery.
Recommendations
I would highly recommend certain practices both to LinkedIn and to its users to maintain ethically expected standards in the organization. LinkedIn should come up with a plan that is lenient when it comes to the pricing of its features. For instance, the premium account holders could be made affordable so that everyone gets equal chances of gaining access to the services. The monthly payment for the premiums accounts holders should be made affordable to all users. This reduces any chances of discrimination accusations in the future. LinkedIn could raise its ethical bar by trying to match the best-suited job seekers with their preferred employers. This will make them gain monetary benefit once the employees have been recruited. This is opposed to displaying presenting those who afford their services on the front line despite whether they qualify for those positions or not. A person could be very qualified, yet lack the financial ability. Therefore, as LinkedIn matches the proper job seeker with their appropriate recruiters then getting their share as the person gets his position. This becomes it will be a win-win situation for both LinkedIn and its users. All job seekers are also recommended to make less use of LinkedIn as a major way of looking for a job. Just like any other jobs board, LinkedIn does not offer its users complete assurance of getting a job. Therefore, when users do not rely on it entirely, they may have lower chances of ending up disappointed (Kaufman, 2013).
Conclusion
Ethical standards are fundamental in the functioning of every organization. Despite the global drive to get into financial freedom, the right order must be followed to the latter. LinkedIn is a prominent social networking website whose services are utilized by multitudes of people in the world. However, over the recent past several people have made note of its unethical standards. These include; overpricing of its features and its discriminatory policies. To maintain its credibility this organization should work on its ethical standards.
References
Kaufman, L. (2013). LinkedIn Builds Its Publishing Presence. TheNew York Times. Web.
Rosen, V. & Viveka. (2012). LinkedIn Marketing an hour a day. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Wiley & Sons Inc.