THERE is bad news for the IT companies that go back on their promises

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made to job aspirants. HR experts believe that the issue is more about reputation damage for such companies than engaging in unethical practice and breach of privilege. There is a possibility that these companies could be blacklisted or given low preference by institutes in the next placement season.

Srinivas Krishnamurthi, managing director of the HR consultancy firm Expertus, said, “These companies resort to such measures because of extraneous factors and I believe that they do not have any bad intention. There is so much pressure on HR managers of the IT companies to control cost and reduce the number of campus recruitments in the wake of the US slowdown and appreciation of rupee.”

Krishnamurthi was reacting to the decision of a few IT companies which had either refused or had asked selected candidates to appear for some additional tests before they could be taken on board. IBM had given letters of “expression of interest” to about a thousand engineering students of Pune after a round of campus interviews last year and now they have been asked to take another test.

Achyut Menon, the founder of Options Executive Search, said that it is due to demand and supply mismatch. “No companies are doing it because they want to. These contractual offers have no legal binding. As much as a candidate can reject an offer, companies too can go back on their promises; but it will damage their reputations to some extent,” he said.

Experts are of the opinion that whether such actions by the companies are unethical or illegal can be ascertained only after going through the fine print of the so-called expression of interest document.

Vidya Srikumar, a consultant with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, thinks that the expression of interest or offer letters are based on mutual agreement and either party could refuse to honour them because of certain specific clauses mentioned in them.

A senior HR manager working with a multi-national telecom company who did not wish to be named, said, he is aware of companies resorting to such practices. “In the past, too, companies have done this. But it is not a good practice and they are setting a wrong precedent,” he added.

Here, what is crucial is the reputation of companies and how they will be welcomed by institutes in the future for campus placements. “Perhaps, a company like IBM, which got a first or a second slot this year, will come down to a fourth or a fifth slot. It could even have to look for campus recruitments in tier-II and tier-III cities,” said Krishnamurthi.

However, Menon argued that it will not be a major problem for a company like IBM. “Any day students would be keen to work

with a company like IBM,” he added.