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Do you think bullying only occurs in big corporate houses where you have to work with a large number of employees and get smarted under a bully? Did you think a PR or an Advertising agency is free from such a social menace? Think again, ask around and you would come across anecdotes that is fit to give you sleepless nights. Such agencies fail to go through a proper induction process of forming, storming, norming and performing and end up with a lopsided organizational structure.

How do you erase this indelible scar created by your senior? Do you move to seek help from the human rights commission or speak against it and jeopardize the rest of your career growth with bad recommendations? I have been a victim of such circumstances facing bullying in the workplace for three consecutive years, which led me to do some study in this field. I wanted to know what exactly is bullying. Who is responsible for it and what could be the possible solutions?

Several definitions of workplace bullying have been provided in literature. Despite several definitions of bullying, there is a general consensus regarding what constitutes bullying (e.g. Einarsen et al., 2003). Specifically, for behaviour to qualify as bullying, it must be perceived by the victim as oppressive, unfair, humiliating, undermining, threatening, difficult to defend against or an infringement of the victim’s human rights. Furthermore, according to several authors (e.g. Vartia, 2001; Einarsen et al., 2003), such behaviour is considered to be bullying only if it recurs over an extended period of time. While I was writing this article, I felt that I had gone through each and every aspect of bullying in my workplace. I was treated in an unfair manner, humiliated and undermined by my superior Ms. SASA over an extended period of three years, which physically and mentally made me distraught. 

Bullying is a multidimensional construct and comprises a wide spectrum of behaviour that can be targeted at the work or at the personal characteristics of the victim. The more subtle types of bullying behaviour include withholding information and physically or socially isolating the victim, whereas the more overt types include setting impossible deadlines for the victim and publicly belittling the victim. Little did I realize at that point of time that setting of impossible deadlines or procrastinating the work towards the deadline is a form of bullying, victimizing me in my workplace.

Workplace bullying behaviours, as suggested by Hoel and Cooper (2000) comprises of four categories: (1) work-related harassment (e.g. persistently criticizing the victim’s work); (2) personal harassment (e.g. spreading rumours about the victim); (3) organizational harassment (e.g. removing key areas of responsibility from the victim); and (4) intimidation (e.g. threatening the victim with violence). Workplace bullying has several unfavorable psychological effects on victims (Fox and Stallworth, 2005), such as negative affect, depression, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts (Einarsen and Matthiesen, 1999). There is evidence supporting the psychosomatic model of bullying, which posits that bullying leads to negative affect, which then leads to physiological problems. Consistent with the psychosomatic model of bullying, being bullied has been shown to be associated with physiological problems, such as musculoskeletal pains, chronic fatigue syndrome (Einarsen and Mikkelsen, 2003), headaches, stomach disorders,

rashes (e.g. O’Moore et al., 1998; Vartia, 2001) and cardiovascular disease (Kivimaki et al., 2003).

Workplace bullying has widespread negative effects on organizations because it affects not only the victims but also those who witness the bullying (Hoel et al., 1999). Bullying adversely affects organizational performance in terms of output, creativity and innovation (Rayner et al., 2002). Being bullied at work also reduces the organizational satisfaction and commitment of victims (Hoel and Cooper, 2000), If an organization is to send a message to its employees that they are valued and cared for, then it is imperative that leaders themselves are aware of the various subtle behaviour that constitute bullying and that they refrain from enacting such behaviour (Fox and Stallworth, 2005).

How can this bullying stop, is there a solution to it? I think when informed of workplace bullying, leaders need to respond in ways that demonstrate to victims and other staff that the organization supports them and will not tolerate such behaviour (Brodsky, 1976; O’Moore et al., 1998; Hoel and Salin, 2003). Better still, leaders need to proactively address workplace bullying and can do so by developing formal statements and policies that indicate clearly that bullying is unacceptable and that bullying holds serious consequences for the perpetrators. Such primary interventions play a critical role in preventing bullying behaviour in the workplace (Djurkovick N et al, 2008).

Specific ways in which an organization can demonstrate that it is supportive of its employees include providing avenues for victims to lodge their complaints and ensuring that these complaints are acted on in ways that signal to all employees that the organization will protect their basic human rights. Furthermore, it is important that organizations demonstrate that they are concerned about the welfare of their employees by encouraging them, from time to time, to come forth should they have any work-related or personal problems with which the organization can assist them. An example of such an approach is the use of employee assistance programmes. It is in the hands of the leaders to stop this bullying and create a whole new world of harmony.

I was fortunate to attend the awards ceremony of the Pink slip awards last year where creative awards were given to agency and companies for creative excellence in recruitment advertising. This is a new and interesting initiative from the Times Group to encourage both the clients and the advertising agency to produce great work in the field of recruitment space which helps in companies to draw good talent especially in today’s employment market where there are ample opportunities but limited talent available.

The excellence awards are given across various industries such as finance, banking, pharma, BPO, technology and software etc. What is disturbing a bit here is that the big agencies are not involved in creating communication on recruitment ads and you mostly find mid-sized agency do this of which some of them has become specialist in creating only recruitment-advertising campaign. The larger agency does not recognize this has a major revenue earner and exciting opportunity for their creative team to do inspiring work. Hence invariably designing the recruitment advertisement takes a back seat. I only look forward with the introduction of Pink slip awards we get to spot larger agencies also create purposeful communication with strong idea for their clients and brands in the area of recruitment ads. Lets also remember recruitment advertisements is one of the most powerful way of building the corporate image of the brand internally, externally and to the company stakeholders.

Corporates ought to focus on creativity and original ideas:

In the 80s and in even in the 90’s corporates used print media with powerful communication to sell their companies to attract good talent. Since the only means of communication available was the daily press and business magazines limited space was allocated by media companies to release ads. Most publications earmarked some space and special dates in a week to release these recruitment ads and as a result the recruitment space was cluttered. Most of the appointment advertisements appeared in the supplements of the main issue in black and white for senior positions and you had the classified ads, which permitted companies to release ads for junior posts and walk in interviews.

The country is today in its growth path and industries have started flourishing across category and the need for quality talent is required on a continuous baisis. Earlier we had very few industries that used to advertise for manpower. That has taken a quantum leap and today the industry has grown leaps and bound beginning from BPO, Healthcare, Finance, Banking, Advertising, Media and Entertainment, Insurance, Software &Technology and the growing FMCG and Retail segment. All these up-and-coming industry are giving sleepless nights to the HR team and Search consultants, as there is a huge gap between demand and supply. The HR team is pulling all stocks and strategy to get the right candidate through various communication tools and headhunters. In doing so companies have forgotten the pivotal role and significance on the role of PR and recruitment advertisements, which has a strong pulling power for job seekers to respond. Companies now have realised this and are actively engaged in infusing newness with original idea and creativity on recruitment advertisements to beat the clutter and draw quality talents to their organisation. Also more companies are waiting for opportunity to get their companies covered on HR stories to supplement their image and credibility

What drives to create great recruitment ads?

If you pick up any newspaper containing recruitment ads you will notice high clutter and the paper is filled with a whole of lot advertisements without any differentiation. This has been the perpetual problem even decades back when we did not have job portals. Since most advertisements were in black &white it was all the more challenging for brands to shout and stand out. With the advent of colour the scope to increase one’s bandwidth in terms of creative opened up. To create great communication in the recruitment space the first and foremost objective is to speak truth to your prospects. You should not promise them the moon and disappoint them. Give a complete run down of the company right from its values, culture and the vision of the company. In your communication you must enlighten about the entire structure and the person to whom the prospect would be reporting in the work function. This is most critical as attrition rate invariably occurs due to lack of job satisfaction or the wrong chemistry with the boss. Many companies to create a strong image and build credibility release full-page advertisement to attract talent. This is one way of showing the bigness of the company and communicating to the prospects that we are a large conglomerate with strong guiding principles. Some MNC’s also try follow to create a design & grid with the right tone and style and use them as a template. This holds good if the post one is advertising for is at middle level. But it is always better to try and be different even within that template to catch your audience’s attention.

PR plays an important role in building credibility and image:

While through advertising you are able to get prospects to respond. It is PR with the help of stories in HR is what helps company to establish credibility of their company. Today more and more companies are looking for opportunities to be present on exclusive and industry related stories on HR topics. With huge attrition rate and shortage of talent , stories on HR has been keeping corporates on their toes to bring in attractive and friendly HR polices to nurture and retain talent. Being present in various articles and forums by brands is also being noticed by prospects to get better understanding of the corporates before one deicide to work with a particular company. Since HR is a very important tool in building the corporate image of any organisation companies needs to be more pragmatic and innovative in evolving their PR strategy to attract and retain good talent and thereby strengthening the equity of the corporate brand in the employment market.

Adds values to the corporate brand:

A well thought out communication for a recruitment ad has direct bearing not only on the future prospects but also the stakeholders, business partners and employees within the company. A good recruitment ad also builds credibility and image of the organisation so long as the company paints the correct picture and information of the organisation. The power of recruitment ads also helps in enhancing the position of the company in the prospects mind by maintaining the right style and tone consistently in their communication. This is where creative excellence for recruitment ads will play a major role as that will motivate clients to think out of box and get their brand across in the most unique and outstanding manner instead of churning out the run of the mill formatted ads. Any piece of communication to attract talent must exhibit a good career path to entice the job seekers to respond. If that promise is delivered through strategic recruitment ads we will be able witness more and more HR personnel pushing their communication partners that much extra to create advertisements and implement hard working PR strategy to deliver great value to the brand and motivate and attract quality talent to the organisation.