Many companys say no to hiring employees` relatives

New Delhi: The next time you apply for a position in a company where your relative is employed, there are chances your application may not find favour.

Spread across sectors, quite a few entities have policies that bar relatives of employees from being recruited in the same company, according to HR experts. "Companies may not want employees to mix their personal life and professional life as this could become a distraction. Family problems or disagreements may affect work culture. "... and also filial or conjugal sentiments may affect professional conduct, impacting work-life balance of members," E.Balaji, Director and President of Ma Foi Randstand, a staffing services firm, told PTI. In many cases, hiring restrictions apply only to the immediate relatives of employees such as spouses or siblings. Staffing firm Manpower Services India`s Head (Organisational Learning & Marketing) Namr Kishore said that employment of relatives in the same area may cause series of conflicts and problems relating to favouritism and employee morale. "In addition to the claims of partiality in treatment at work, personal conflicts outside the work environment can be carried into the work place," he noted. Companies` decision not to recruit relatives of employees is mostly due to concerns about risk management and corporate governance. For instance, majority of the data-sensitive and IP-based high-end technology companies have policies in place about hiring relatives of employees. "Some information and communication industry companies encourage such practices (of not recruiting employees` relatives). This practice is less prevalent in manufacturing, infrastructure and oil and gas sectors," Balaji said. He noted that companies such as in as medical care, wellness, education and training, media and entertainment industries are "mostly neutral" and hire employees` relatives on an optional basis. Experts feel that rather than hindering talented people from getting good jobs, such restrictions would usually turn out to be beneficial for the company in the long term. Companies, which have the policy of not hiring employees` relatives, usually ask the candidate to disclose whether he or she has any relative working in the firm. Namr Kishore pointed out that in many organisation, once the relationship is established between employees after getting hired, "one of them is given a notice to resign from the company". PTI