Applicant Sending False Accusation Against The Interviewer To Top Management People.

Hello All,

I encountered a situation where an applicant sent an email to top management alleging that the interviewer is soliciting money to select his profile. After a thorough investigation, we discovered that the applicant was making false accusations against the interviewer and spreading rumors that are negatively impacting the company's brand image. Is there a way we can put a stop to this and pursue legal action against him?

Please advise.

Regards,
Kumar

Dear Kumar,

How are you managing your brand as an employer with your existing talent pool and future talent base? What is your strategy for maintaining relationships with candidates who are rejected during the hiring process?

What you have mentioned is very unfortunate. However, rather than identifying measures to avoid such situations, I suggest you start building your brand as an employer. What is your target talent pool? How do you approach them? What are the calendar events that you have to connect and reinstate the brand with them?

Do you have a company blog and LinkedIn page? How about Facebook and Google Plus page for your firm? How do you interact with your talent pool on a daily basis? Who are your brand ambassadors to the target talent pool? What are they communicating? How have they anchored the brand with the talent base?

We can suggest many branding programs depending on the sector of your firm and target segment for talent. Looking forward to hearing from you!

We just had another case as shared by Brillian. Escalating a rejection to the CEO.

He shared how a candidate who was rejected wrote a letter to the CEO and what happened thereafter. We thank him for sharing the measures taken by the employer to avoid such situations in the future! Enquiry and corrective measures are essential. However, to resolve it from the grassroots level, branding and communicating with the talent base on a regular basis is essential.

Dear Kumar,

What (Cite Contribution) has written is about long-term measures. As of now, you need to take short-term measures as well. Do you have prosecutable evidence for maligning the company's image? You can sue the job candidate provided you have concrete evidence. To maintain credibility in the market, sometimes we need to take tough decisions. So is this one. I strongly recommend approaching the cybercrime branch for tarnishing the image of your company. Further investigations will decide whether it is worth going ahead with litigation or not.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

Call that candidate and have a meeting with him to understand the root cause. Just observe from his discussion what the major cause for doing so is. If he is doing it just because of his rejection, then you may follow whatever is stated by Mr. Divekar. If there is really something in your organization as he is saying, then you need to relook into your system.

The reason is whatever, but you just try to make him understand that your organization is not like that, and you treat everyone fairly.

Regards,
Jitender

Dear Mr. Kumar,

From whatever is mentioned by you, I suggest you have a telephonic talk with the candidate, if not done so till date, and understand from him the grievance he has - the gravity of the issue, the "realness", see the flow of communication if various events he is mentioning are in flow or there are gaps. I have interviewed over 3,500 candidates till date from Chemical Manufacturing, Power Plants, Retail, Automotive, Engineering, and Fabrication industries but not come across any such case. Yes, some young applicants become a little emotional sometimes with what they perceive as wrong (non-objective or unfair) questions.

Some things you may think on:

From that candidate's point of view:

a) Why would anybody do this much?

b) Does the candidate have so much time at disposal? Especially if he is working currently somewhere OR unless we are in the 1970s, where each job was difficult to come by. Today, people have so many options.

c) Are you sure you have not missed any part in investigating on the concerned official?

From the Company's point of view:

a) What is the Company's assessment on the candidate, his nature/behavioral traits during the interview?

b) Is the candidate related to somebody in your office, especially an opposite sex? So much so that the candidate is desperate to come in.

c) Did you receive any feedback on this from your Top Management?

If no reaction is received from Top Management, I bet you cannot do much, except forgetting.

Just another perspective:

I remember when I was shifting from Engineering to BPO, I got rejected by GECIS. The HR rep was so empathetic while explaining to me why my profile was not a fit. It took only 4-5 minutes for her to do so, but I gained clarity in terms of my candidature.

I also know of companies that call candidates to take feedback about the interview process. We can't stop those individuals who make false accusations, but as Cite Contribution had mentioned, a systematic process takes care of most of it!

I am sure this is not an isolated example and has happened before to others.

Trying to find a job is stressful for candidates, especially when their livelihood is at stake, and they need to earn money to support a family or themselves. Continual failure to secure a position leads to stress, and prospective candidates reach a point where they will lash out.

As I have said many times on this forum, successful recruitment and selection require a properly thought-out process that will meet the needs of the organization to find suitable staff but is also open, fair, and completely transparent. In that way, you can avoid all problems.

One of the easiest ways to avoid problems, which include accusations of bias, discrimination, etc., is to develop a standard questionnaire and scoring sheet for each position you interview for. In that way, every candidate is asked exactly the same questions, and the panel scores the candidates' answers based on what they said, their attitude, skill set, etc. At the end of the interviews, the panel can use the score sheets to rate the candidates and decide who will be offered the job.

The point of all this is that you have a complete written record of how the panel reached its decision and why. If later there is a dispute, then you have the evidence to prove that it was a fair and transparent process and that the successful candidate was chosen on merit.

In this case, you need to call the unhappy candidate in, discuss with him/her how the decision was reached, and why the successful person was chosen. Then this unsuccessful person should be asked for an apology or reminded that further action could be taken.

The days of making any sort of decision, let alone one as important as staff selection, on a whim, are over. Everything you do needs to be backed up with hard evidence so that everyone knows how the decision was reached. It will solve most disputes, I can assure you.

Dear Kumar,

Please send a legal notice to the last known address of the candidate, clearly mentioning that his actions have caused you immense mental strain and tension. His reckless behavior has resulted in damage to your reputation, and therefore, you are planning to file a legal case against him for defamation.

As soon as you send this letter, I assure you that things will fall into place. Remember that we cannot control how others act, but we can control our own actions and reactions. Focus on what you can manage and govern, rather than what is beyond your control.

Regards,
Octavious