© BP 2006

Ethical DilemmaStanding for what is right

BP Annual Graduate Recruitment Campaign

One of the key deliverables for HR function in BP is an annual Graduate and Interns Recruitment Campaign.Every year, every HR professional, regardless of the main occupation, is supposed to support this deliverable by participating in interviews.

So do I…I joined BP as a graduate hire, so I had a personal belief in the importance of this programme for BP and my country’s youth…

I, my girlfriend and her close friend…

I have been dating a wonderful lady for the last 4 years…I’ve first met her almost at the same time when I joined BP…She is 21, a student, graduating this year…We love each other…Well, at least I love her

She has a classmate, a smart young man, studying Petroleum Engineering at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy. They have been close friends since the elementary school. His name is Alexander. We know each other.

Alexander is also graduating this year, and apparently he applied for the Graduate role in BP. By a pure chance, he was supposed to be interviewed by a Senior Petroleum Engineer and myself from HR. While a Senior Engineer is in charge of the technical part of the interview, HR Adviser is taking decision on behavioural competency of the candidate – level of awareness about the company profile, projects in the country, problem solving ability, team working, academic achievements…to mention just a few.

Unexpected call…

As candidates arrive to the interview venue, they can see the exact schedules of their interviews at the reception desk – including room number, start time, and interviewers’ names…

Just before the interviews started, I’ve received a phone call from my girlfriend, saying that I would be interviewing Alexander today, and asking me to help him to pass the interview successfully. I’ve started to explain her, that he was a smart young man, he should be alright, but anyway I couldn’t help him in any extraordinary way…She cut me short and said she was sure I could.I realized that Alexander called her, and asked to call me, as soon as he noticed my name in the interview panel for his discipline…

Interview…and post-interview

Surprisingly for me, Alexander did not perform well at all during the interview…He was not good at technical questions, and even worse at behavioural questions. We had much stronger candidates on the day, so at the end of the day, as we were “washing up” the candidates’ performance, I had no other chance but to reject him.

When I met with my girlfriend in the evening, I told her over the dinner, that Alexander did not perform well during the interview and we rejected him. I asked her not to tell him until tomorrow, when he receives an official notification from BP’s Recruitment Team.She went mad about the news, and asked why I didn’t help me, since I knew he was her best firend…I tried to explain her that I couldn’t and wouldn’t do that, as it would put me in breach of both my professional standards and BP’s Code of Conduct.

Ethical dilemma

Later on, my girlfriend called me and explained that Alexander’s father was badly ill. He had couple of months left to live, and he always wished his only son to work as an Engineer for a major oil & gas company.She asked me to forget about the professional conduct for a moment, and think about this situation from a personal standpoint and help Alexander to get on-board BP.She has never asked me for something so much before. However I realized that she never worked for a major international company, and shamefully my country realities are very much different from the western standards.In our culture, a lot of problems are handled based on interpersonal relationships and individual judgement, rather than objective assessment.Despite of this, I tried again and again to explain her, that in BP we work differently. We have an independent assessment panels, providing objective assessment of individuals’ skills and qualifications.On top of being completely unprofessional and unethical, it would be extremely unfair to reject someone else’s interview results, based on my knowledge of Alexander and his family situation.I assured her that everyone might have similar or even worse situation in family, but this has nothing to do with their right to compete and be selected for a promising job with BP.Our conversation went nowhere that day, and she left extremely unhappy with my course of actions…

What I stand for

The other day, when I came into the office, I opened statements from BP’s Code of Conduct, which I signed up for and which I promised to stand for.I will stand for the Code regardless how it affects my personal life…I believe I did a right thing…Not only because I am afraid to lose my job, but because 5 years ago, someone else’s strong ethical stand for the Code, allowed me to start my career with BP, it helped me to get promoted year-on-year and achieve the professional heights I desired to achieve…As I prepare this presentation for IE, my relationship with my girlfriend are still not recovered from that incident for many weeks now…I suffer from this, but I did not doubt even for a second, that I did a right thing…For me, for BP, and for my country…

Thank you