Question

Topic: Other

Guidelines For New Hires

Posted by Anonymous on 9/9/2009 at 12:48 AM ET 500 Points
I was hoping to find a HR website much like this but I thought I would post on here as well. I work for a company in North Dakota. There is a current job opening at the company I work for. Last week myself as well as two other of my coworkers interviewed 4 candidates for the open position. We discussed briefly at the end of last week which one was our favorite of those four and asked that the HR lady check this candidates references. Over the weekend I decided I wanted to interview one more person this week before making our ultimate decision because I am not 100% sold that my personality will mesh well with this other girls personality. I asked HR if I could go ahead and set up this other interview and was given what I feel is a line of bull"""". Below is the letter I got from HR. Keep in mind at this point we have only interviewed 4 people and called the references of one. No offer has been made to anyone yet.

Email from HR-

From an HR stand point if we choose to interview "Anna" we will have to re-interview the rest of the candidates for discriminatory reasons. It would be one thing if we hadn't found a qualified candidate to go ahead an interview "Anna" but we found "Nancy" who is very qualified for the position. So in this case we would have to open up the position again a re-interview to determine why "Nancy" would be out of the running. My suggestion is to move forward with "Nancy".

***Names have all been changed to keep their identities private.

Can someone please help me with solid bullet points or reasons as to whether or not she is full of crap or as to how it could possibly be discriminatory like she said above.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 9/9/2009 at 7:43 AM Accepted
    Dear Inspired,

    Your head of HR has a point and, as odd as it might sound to you, she is doing her best (and doing her job) to prevent YOU from getting sued!

    YOU, as an interviewer cannot change your mind hither and yon just because you believe there will be a personality clash with "Nancy".

    Legally, if "Nancy" has the desired qualifications, experience, and skills, and if, as a shortlisted candidate, she beats the others on your current list, you cannot change the game and pull in another candidate at the last moment, just to suit yourself. If you do this, "Nancy" could, and possibly quite rightly in the eyes of the law, claim that you discriminated against her based on something you could not prove, and based on something that is NOT in the job description or that was NOT part of the information communicated to the candidate at the time of the interview—meaning, your gut feeling.

    As an interviewer, you are responsible for carrying through with your nondiscrimination obligations. You've GOT to understand that the law says candidates are interviewed according to the work-related criteria for the job that they are being interviewed for.
    This means you must keep your interview questions focused on those criteria.

    My understanding here is that your head of HR is protecting you from yourself. She's trained in HR law. You are not.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/9/2009 at 11:02 AM Accepted
    Trying to judge someone's "personality fit" at an interview is an exercise in futility. Someone might seem like the spot-on person, but how they interact on a daily basis is what matters long-term.

    Also, be careful to push the "it's Nancy-or-me" feelings in your company. You don't want to make people choose sides. If you deeply believe that Nancy will be a bad hire for tangible reasons, share them with management. If it's emotional reasons, look within to see how you can learn do deal with someone who might "push your buttons". From a management perspective, it's better to have a cohesive team with a range of viewpoints than a single mindset.
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