Manual for Azerbaijan companies Rena Safaralieva

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by race; 

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by disability; 

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by age;  

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by belonging to a certain social and cultural group, etc. 

 

Such forms of discrimination can manifested in the hiring, promotion, and dismissal from a job. All the 

above given forms of discrimination, regardless of their reasons, shall be considered as serious violations 

of ethical principles.  

 

In Azerbaijan today, the most frequent form of  discrimination is based on sex, with its extreme form 

being sexual harassment. Very often serious contradictions emerge between gender equality principles, as 

set forth by the legislation, which made possible  a mixed-gender work environment,  and actual   male-

female relations in the business environment. In Azerbaijan, the situation is aggravated by the fact gender 

inequality and discrimination by gender are not even widely recognized. Often the same men who 

reverently stand up when their female colleague enters a room would pay a woman less for the same job  

as their male colleagues.  Both foreign and local firms give preference to young women in their hiring, 

which contradicts both ethical norms and labour code of Azerbaijan.  

 

Sexual harassment 

 

Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination. As a rule, the public perceives women as victims of sexual 

harassment, although men are not immune to such discrimination. Sexual harassment in the work place 

might take different forms: jokes of a sexual nature, verbal insults, ambiguous gestures, forced sexual 

relations. There are no official statistics in Azerbaijan with respect to sexual harassment, but facts testify 

to the widespread nature of this phenomenon. As a rule, victims of sexual harassment prefer to conceal 

such facts, as they are afraid of bad publicity and are often not able to prove the crime. Victims also do 

not believe that they will be able to defend their rights. As a result, a victim of sexual harassment is often 

forced either to quit or to tolerate the humiliating conditions in the workplace. 

 

Please compare two newspaper announcements below.  

 

♦

 

Waitresses are wanted at the White Club, a prestigious restaurant. Three shifts: 11.00 - 00.00; с 13.00 

- 00.00; с 17.00 - 00.00. Personnel is given a lift home by an office car.

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♦

 

Dish washers are wanted at a restaurant: women up to 30 years of age of pleasant appearance.

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The first ad looks quite serious: it states work time and some other conditions. The second ad seems, at 

the very least, strange. Why should a dishwasher be young and have a nice appearance? We believe that 

no comments are required here.  

 

Now let’s discuss other cases of corporate internal problems. The illustrative examples given below are 

typical of the workplace in Azerbaijan.. Some of these problems occur with considerable frequency, and 

some staff members believe they can be pardoned, because “everybody does so”.

 

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use of office services and properties for personal interest;

 

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handling of  personal business during working hours;

 

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giving or taking gifts in exchange for favourable conditions or other advantages;

  

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blaming other people for one’s fault;

 

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misappropriation of the fruits of another’s labour;

  

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faking illness in order to obtain sick leave;

 

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deliberate extension of lunch time;

 

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falsification of quality and quantity parameters of the work performed; 

 

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deliberate delay of implementation of tasks assigned;

 

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hiring employees of competitors to learn their trade secrets;

 

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disclosure of company’s confidential information.

  

                                                 

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 Echo newspaper, 3 October 2003. 

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 Birja newspaper 4 November 2002.  

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Employment and task assignment 

 

Western companies have designed a system of human resources management, which envisions certain 

criteria and rules regulating employment procedures. Both the employee and the employer agree on 

ethical and other rules to be followed upon employment, promotion, dismissal, job evaluation, building 

relations with other staff members, which shall be followed regardless of the colour of skin, age, sex and 

views of employees.  The hiring and all other phases of employment and promotion or dismissal  shall be 

based exclusively on the principle of profession ability. A good manager should always make 

professional decisions based solely upon the skills and professionalism of a job applicant.  

 

At the same time, employees enjoy certain rights. All these conditions shall be explained to applicants for 

a job. If a proposal of temporary employment is made, an applicant shall be made fully aware of the 

temporary character of the prospective employment. At the same time, if an applicant is to pass a 

probationary period, he or she shall be informed of the duration of the probationary period and what will 

happen at its conclusion. If an employer does not specifically mention overtime, an employee shall be 

entitled to suppose that no overtime is envisioned. Employers should also clearly understand that 

efficiency of performance is closely correlated to clear understanding by the employees of the range and 

volume of their assignments. 

 

 

Performance evaluation 

 

Before proceeding to discussion of performance evaluation, let’s have a look at a dilemma, which 

managers face every day.  

 

Someone by the name of Etibar has worked for one of the departments of your a company for quite some 

time. He is a nice guy, but he simply fails to fully cope with his assignments. You are a human resources 

manager and one day he asks you to give him a letter of recommendation, because he has found a new 

job. Having familiarised yourself with his dossier, you see that his previous boss had given Etibar quite a 

high assessment, while you would qualify his performance as no more than satisfactory. What kind of 

letter of reference would you give Etibar?  

 

Let’s look at  international experience in this sphere. In the U.S. managers distinguish two different 

approaches.  

 

 

I. Formal performance assessment  

Many big enterprises annually conduct a formal assessment of their employees’ performance with 

relevant documents added to their dossiers. As a rule, results of this formal assessment of employee’s 

skills impact salary rates. Appendix II offers a sample of such a performance evaluation.  

  

2. Informal performance assessment  

Informal assessment implies consistent recording of performance of an employee within a year. In this 

case, a manager evaluates his or her subordinates’ performance on the basis of routine implementation of 

tasks assigned. Routine observations are summarised in an annual assessment, therefore, every employee 

strives to perform his or her tasks with maximum diligence. Such an approach also prevents possible 

unjustified claims of staff members for increase of salaries.  

  

Now let’s review our case through the prism of the two above mentioned internationally accepted 

approaches. What positive results do you strive to achieve by taking this or that decision?  

 

First of all, you can obtain precise information on professional qualities and productivity of each staff 

member on a daily basis. Secondly, you are in a better position to manage your subordinates. Thirdly, this 

will enable your subordinates better see their strong points and weaknesses to rectify the latter. And last, 

but not least, these records can come in handy, when you are asked to produce a letter of reference for 

your subordinates and to objectively judge their professional skills.  

 

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