Dear Debi, I'm not manager or head of department, but if you ask I'll say - yes. I would hire the best friends. When I think about a few best friends I have, they are people with high professional qualifications and advantages of personality.

It is my personal opinion. The selection should be based purely on the merit of the person. Friendship with a person should not matter.

OK..I have deleted an answer that was down voted anyways! I didn't read the question properly. I misinterpreted answer. Anyways, if you ask me if I would hire. I would hire if the candidate fits with the 'suitability criteria'. However, I will make sure he or she understand the reason why I decided to interview the candidate, why I decided to hire. Of course, I would also caution that that his/her work should not compromise and the expectations are to be met on strict basis. There is an evaluation period of 3-6 months. If I am not totally satisfied, I have the reason to let him/her go. This is one part of the story.

What about if the employee who recommends, is a higher authority than you? This is a tricky business. It has to be handled more careful manner.

Probably, I would make a note to file that the person was recommended by such and such employee. Then if I happen to hire the person, I will mention the reason as well. Additionally, you can logistically place to person in a department. Perhaps, it is best to place a person who is equally powerful. Any problem with the person should be documented clearly. This way, if the person get fired, you're not in a hot seat!

@ Adbulla - Hypothetically you have two good candidate with equal scoring. Only difference is that, one was recommended by a chief manager. Another one doesn't have such high level recommendation. What would be your selection process?

@ Ahed - the question is not asking if you would hire your friend. It is asking if you would hire a friend of an existing employee. Support you're the HR administrator, your subordinate or your superior recommend a candidate stating that, 'this person absolutely meet the criteria for the post'. - what would you do?

I will look on merit only. friendship is secondary. Friendship can be beneficial since they will get along well. On the other hand in case of tough action against one friend, you got to think about this issue how other friend will react.

In my case, due to 'conflict of interest' I would declined to interview the person. I would request someone in my position or my boss to interview the person. This has happened in the past. This way, if there was some issues, they cannot blame you.

Dear Nageswara

When i posed the question, I did not mean that you are doing a favour to anyone by overlooking the merit. My presumption was other things are all OK i.e. the woman/man being considered for selection qualifies on all aspects. The only thing is that s/he is the best friend of another employee in your organization.

Dear Subhash and Pandi-Perumal

My post above for dear to Nageswara should have been addressed to you as well. There is no conflict of interest here. You are the employer. You are hiring an employee. S/he satisfies all other criteria. You discover or knew before hand that s/he is the best friend of another employee.

@ Debi: I also assumed that the person being interviewed met all the standard criteria.

As a HR person yourself, most of the employers these days ask in the application form that if he/she knows any employees working in the organization.

With your above explanation, I don't see any problems at all!

On an another note, the person she mentioned (he or she) has a notorious image within the organization. May be put a good number of years, but lazy, gossiping type, harassing co-workers, etc. Of course the person that mentioned the name had no way of knowing this. As an employer, you know this fact. Would you hire her/him? ;)

Dear Debi

I did not assume it that way. Then it makes a difference. I would prefer the employee friend. It provides a more harmonious atmosphere in the organization. I think many software companies are doing that. They prefer resumes forwarded by their employees compared to others.

No, I wouldn`t hire any of my friendsi in my organization. Some companies don`t allow to two brothers or a man and his wife, or a wife and her husband to be employees in the same company.

Anyhow, work and friendship can sometimes turn out to be a bad mix. Mixing work and friendship is not advantageous for your job nor for your friendship

It is a very valid question. Sir, today in this advanced technology world what we needed most is the knowledge level of the person to perform the job. If the person is our best friend we must be knowing the energy level and his commitment towards the job. So, if we hiring our best friend or any other person for a job in our organization what we needed most is the skills and capability to perform that particular job. If anyone falls in this criteria he/she is perfectly suitable for the task to do in the organization. Anything else hardly matters for an organization. At the end I conclude that if we hire the best friend of an existing employee in our organization the most dominating factors are knowledge, skills and attitude of the person not the personal relations he/she possess.

If both my friend and a stranger are equally qualified for the job, i would prefer a stranger as it may make the things more complicated. People may view s/he differently if s/he is a close friend of mine and may arise more problems of office politics in the Chinese work contexts.

If the end result is well served by recruiting a friend then that takes precedence over all other factors....for this sake... A known devil is better then a unknown angel

Dear all

I am attaching Gallup's questionnaire that contains 12 questions on what what engages an employee for higher performance. This questionnaire was made after considerable research, tests of validity and reliability. Question number 10 in the questionnaire is: "Do I have a best friend at work."

One can imagine how important it is for an employee to have his/her best friend at the workplace where s/he works. This questionnaire on employee engagement is perhaps most respected allover.

I would hire such as long as  their jobs are not closely knitted to the point that they could conspire against the organisation.  Though there are advantages and disadvantages of such hiring, the advantage stems from the fact that it could stimulate team spirit, but on the other hand, it could also result in negative conspiracy against the organisation.  I think the major determinant of my decision is the type of business my firm is into.

I recently went through the same situation and before this my view was similar as most of you , that no acquaintances to be brought in your work.

I thinking bitching about stranger would be more satisfying than the known person.

But it was hard to hear from a friend that they can't help us in our difficult time because of this friend- employee relation. Knowing the fact and experiencing the same is harsh.