Unethical recruitment practices

I work for a Uni, great place to work and I work with some fantastic people, but there is so much favoritism, nepotism & bias when it comes to both internal and external recruitment for jobs. i.e a staff member gets an internal acting position because they know someone or they've been there 10 years. They would have had to make something up or put n/a for a number of the selection criteria, because they simply have not had the qualifications or experience. I've ignored it, but now there is a position on my team that myself and other colleagues have applied for. All of us are easily qualified and experienced for the job, yet we have this uneasy feeling they are deliberately targeting someone external, simply to get "fresh blood" in. My interview went well and the decision was due last friday. We then get an email saying the decision had been delayed a week, furthering my suspicions it has gone to an external candidate. To be honest I don't mind if I don't get it, as long as it goes to someone internal, that is the logical choice. There may be external candidates who have relevant skills and qualifications, but there are staff here that know the systems inside out and are pretty much doing the job already. A new person would require significant training and it would take months for them to get up to speed. But that logic does not seem to apply here. Anyway assuming it does go to an external person, I wanted to know if there was any basis for me to lodge a complaint about the recruitment process - Looking at the HR recruitment guidelines it states:

(paraphrased)

- recruitment processes must remain free from any form of favouritism, nepotism or biases
- ensuring it's employees are made aware of vacancies for which it is conducting a recruitment process

The job was advertised on Seek and our Uni job board 3 weeks before it was due. Most of us rarely check the job board and usually any vacancies are emailed to us by a manager, so all of us on the team were unaware of it until we were emailed on the Friday afternoon. The application was due Sunday, so 2 days later. I was on annual leave and the only reason I managed to apply for it, was because a colleague kindly phone me on the Sunday. One could argue that we were "made aware" of the job when it was advertised on the job board, but that is not making someone aware. A phone call or an email is. And yes our manager emailed us, but 2 days before the application was due? Pretty unethical and really I had 4 hours to apply for it, whilst external candidates had weeks. There is something wrong with the process if most internal candidates are completely unaware of vacancies that are being advertised for positions in their own team!

zed, does your internal job board not offer email or RSS subscription that will alert you to new jobs?

While I can see that you were upset about this, I think it's a bit of a leap to say the system is unethical. After all, the jobs are published on your job board three weeks before the closing date, so it's not like they are hidden from you.

Quote:

---

... we have this uneasy feeling they are deliberately targeting someone external, simply to get "fresh blood" in

---

This almost always grates on the internal candidates, but sometimes it's a perfectly valid thing to do. For a start it can bring a new perspective and new ideas, and sometimes there is a need to change the internal culture.

Quote:

---

Anyway assuming it does go to an external person, I wanted to know if there was any basis for me to lodge a complaint about the recruitment process

---

it's hard to say, but unless you have some evidence of discrimination, or your employer has breached their own standards, then the answer is 'No'.

What was the outcome?