Question:
We’ve spent two months screening applicants for an extremely hard-to-fill position. My business partner, the employees we involved in the search and I fell in love with an incredible candidate.
She’s smart, charismatic, creative, funny and determined. All systems were “go” to hire her. Then we learned she has an outstanding warrant against her.
My business partner freaked out and said that this immediately rules her out of consideration. I’m having a hard time accepting this. I know our employees will be extremely disappointed.
I don’t want to start the search over again. I want to give this individual a chance. She has all the skills we’ve been looking for, along with an engaging personal style.
We believe she can great things for our business. I’m hoping you’ll say something that I can pass on to my business partner to get him to agree to keep her in the running while she resolves this situation.
Answer:
Before you and your partner make a final decision, ask your candidate to explain what the warrant is for and why it remains outstanding. Warrants may be issued by multiple agencies for behavior ranging from felonies to failing to appear for traffic violations.
An individual’s failure to have responded to an outstanding warrant may signal criminal behavior, a character flaw, disrespect for laws and regulations or be the iceberg tip of a serious problem. If any of these prove true, I agree with your partner that you don’t want this applicant, even — and especially — if she’s charismatic, a quality true of both awesome individuals and con artists.
Be especially cautious if your candidate blithely excuses herself, “Oh, I tossed those parking tickets in the back seat and forgot them.” Do you want to hire someone that disorganized for an important job?
If you keep this candidate in the running, conduct a “deep dive” reference check. This requires that you to interview the references your applicant identified and those she didn’t. Previous employers may tell you about problems that didn’t result in legal action; for example, some employers agree not to sue embezzlers if they’re repaid in full.
Although you can learn a great deal about any applicant by viewing the trial court records for every state in which your applicant has lived or worked, you’ll also want to conduct a detailed background check.
If you discover problems, or don’t trust the answers you receive from this candidate, re-advertise and find a new best applicant.
(I’ll cover how to find top-notch candidates who aren’t currently looking for job and how to rote ads that attract the best candidates next week.)
If this topic interests you, you find these posts interesting, https://workplacecoachblog.com/2021/03/resume-fraud-increasingly-prevalent-in-todays-virtual-environment/ and https://workplacecoachblog.com/2020/12/the-job-applicant-scammed-you-you-let-it-happen/
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Wise comments! The outstanding candidate’s only problem is that she has an outstanding warrant against her? As you said, find out what it’s for. As you note, it is possible that this charismatic candidate has a bit of the con artist to her. A cautionary example. People, follow Lynne’s advice here!