News on HRM, 13 Sept 2013

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Dancing for a job

13 Sept 2013

British electronic retailer, Curry is believed to have forced potential employees to dance for them during the interview at one of its outlets.

One candidate, Alan Bacon said he felt “degraded and humiliated” and compared the experience to a scene out of popular British comedy “The Office”. He was asked to perform a robot dance in his suit in front of a group of strangers, to the tune of a Daft Punk song.

The 21-year-old said, “I really needed the job so I thought I'm going to get this over with, I'm going to smile, I'm going to do it. But inside it wasn't a very pleasant experience.”

"There was an older gentleman there who was telling us just before the interview that he was made redundant from his last job and had recently had a child so he was pretty desperate for this job and (we were) watching him having to dance to rap music," he added.

Meanwhile, Curry has launched an investigation and has invited all the candidates back for another interview where they will have a "proper opportunity” to demonstrate their capabilities and potential contribution.

A spokeswoman for Curry's owners Dixon Retail said, "We are extremely disappointed that one of the management team at the store in question did not follow our official recruitment processes on this specific occasion - formal processes that ensure we attract, inspire and retain the right sort of people.”

"We are investigating the store member who held the recruitment session. We are extremely sorry to those interviewees impacted; all are being asked to attend another interview where they will be given a proper opportunity to demonstrate how they can contribute to our business," she added.

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