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

Hello All,
I went through a situation where a applicant sent out a email to top management people that the interviewer is charging money to select his profile. After detailed investigation we found that the applicant is sending a false acquisition against the interview and spreading rumors which is affecting the company\'s Brand image. Is there a way we can stop him and take legal action against him.
Please Advise.
Regards
Kumar

Dear Kumar,
How are your managing your brand as an Employer with your existing talent pool and future talent base? What is your strategy while maintaining a relationship with the candidates who are being rejected during hiring ?
What you have mentioned is very unfortunate. However, rather than identifying measure 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 taken pool ? What are they communicating? How have they anchored the brand with the talent base ?
We can suggest you many branding programs depending on the sector of your firm and target segment for talent.
Looking forward to hear from you !

We just had an 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 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 cyber crime branch for tarnishing 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 meeting with him to understand the root cause.
Just observe from his discussion that what is major cause for doing so. If he is doing so just because of his rejection, then you may follow whatever stated by Mr. Divekar and if there is really something in your organisation as he is saying then you need to relook into your system.
Reason is whatever, but you just try to make him understand that your organisation is not like that & you do fare treatment with all.
Rgds/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 & 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 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 / behavioural 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 as shifting from Engineering to BPO, I got rejected in GECIS. The HR rep. was so empathetic while explaining me why my profile was not a fit. It took only 4-5 minutes for her to do so but I got clarity in terms of my candidature.
I also know companies who call candidates and take feedback about the interview process.
We can't stop such people who make false acquisitions 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 on candidates, especially where their livelihood is at stake, and they need to earn money to support a family, or to maintain 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 so many times on this forum, successful Recruitment and Selection requires a properly thought out process which will meet the needs of the organisation 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 etc. is to develop a standard questionaire 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 it's 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 act has caused you immense mental strain and tension and his reckless act has costed you, your reputation and hence 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 in place.
How others act is not in our hand, what is in our hand is how we can act and should react, kindly concentrate on what you can control and govern and not what you cannot.
Regards
Octavious