Rescinding an offer

Jayhawk

We have an applicant that we have extended an oral offer of employment to in Illinois. All of her employment references checked out great. However, when our client that we work with in Illinois found out about our decision to hire her, they stated she was not allowed to work on any of their accounts because of a past history they have with her. They would not give any more details than that and just said that she was not allowed to touch any of their accounts. This is the only client, unfortunately, that this new employee would be working with and we have no other work for her to do. We cannot jeopardize our contract with the client either. We would like to rescind the offer before she starts....any suggestions on problems we may face?

Don D

Hopefully you had it understood that her employment would be contingent on her successfully passing a pre-employment drug screen and background check. If you had that in place, no problem.

cebudragonlady

Wondering: does your contract with the Client allow the Client to pick which of your employees will handle their accounts ?

Chari

Jayhawk

Thanks for the response. No, our contract does not, however, we cannot afford to lose this contract to keep an at-will employee that has not even started yet. They have requested to have an input as to who we hire to work with them in the future.

For clarification, these employees work directly in the client's office everyday, but they are our employee.

Gillian3

There have been cases where scenarios like this have created lawsuits, but they typically involve people moving for a new job that has disappeared, being enticed to leave a former employer under false pretenses etc. Yours doesn't sound like these so there probably isn't much of a problem.

Pork

Jayhawk: It is difficult to understand how you have a client into which you would hire a new employee to handle this client's interest; yet, you have no one else on your current staff of employees with whom you would have special trust and confidence to handle this very important and profitable client. If you did, why would you not promote or transfer a current good and quality employee to handle this very important client that you can not afford to lose? Place the new employee with another client that has no personal knowledge about the new employee's past history, whatever that may be. I question the strength of the relationship with your company and the very important client who will not tell you the specifics of the issue they may have with the new employee, who otherwise checks out with no issues!!! Something stinks here and it ain't "HOG Manure"!!!

PORK

smaces_twin

Are you SURE the person you talked to at your client's can be trusted. They may have a personal agenda and that could pose a problem. A follow-up call with someone else at the firm with knowledge of the situation may be helpful.

Also, I disagree with Pork's advice about putting them on other client's accounts. If I trusted the client's info, there is no way I would want that ee working for me. Get your ducks in a row and RESCIND!

TN HR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-04-04 AT 02:53PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Agree with smaces. I would not want that ee anywhere on the premises. Why would I want to jeopardize my relationship with the one and only client I have? It matters not if the info is valid or not. The bottom line is that the client has explicitly voiced their discontent. Without a diversified book of business to absorb the potentital loss, the answer is too easy.

Gene

Sorry, I misread the original post to mean that this is your one and only client. I would still tread lightly. Aside from an offer, assuming you are an at-will employer, you've done very little towards establishing an employee-employer relationship.

Pork

"ALL OF HER EMPLOYER REFERENCES CHECK OUT", WITH THAT STATEMENT I stand by the recommendation to let another strong employee handle this client's account and put the new employee to handling another client's account. Smace-Twin, I am like you and can easily believe that the person with whom the poster spoke may have a personal agenda. Additionally, "something still stinks here" and it ain't PORK. Given there is some truth to this work history, we have not been told, then I too would recind the offer of employment, immediately.

PORK

Jayhawk

Oh my....let me clarify once again, sorry, no other employee can perform the job duties required in that office, that is the only office and client in that city that we work with, and she was hired specifically to do that job for the client, which she knew. She also did not disclose on her application that for a brief period she was employed by a an affliate of the client many years ago.

There is a chance that someone on the client's side has a personal issue with her, but unfortunately, we cannot take the chance and lose the client. I hope this clears up some confusion.

mbeam

If you had her complete an application, there may be a clause in there indicating disclosure. You may be able to rescind based on not disclosing to you especially if this was after she knew the client she would be working for.

May want to press the client a bit for more specifics - would ask them to put themselves in your positon. It would be helpful to know why this individual isn't a good fit at their organization especially since her references checked out fine.

Pricehcs

You've got another "out" right here. She did not provide you with accurate information on her application. I've seen this situation myself directly. You are hiring for a single, specific engagement, where you new employee will be performing (consulting?) services for client X. There is only one unique job for this new employee to work, however, it turns out (small world), that the new employee is not eligible to work at the engagement based on the client's decision.

You can rescind for the false application or even more directly, for the fact that her job with your company is/was contingent on the client accepting her into the engagement you proposed her for...

#1 thing a consultant shouldn't say: "I could tell you the answer right now, but we're committed to a three month project..." #-o

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-05-04 AT 07:43AM (CST)[/font][br][br]You said it all Jayhawk! Your company simply cannot afford to risk losing the client. Rescind the offer. The applicant is disqualified because, SURPRISE, she does not meet the requirements of the job. One requirement of a customer service job, perhaps the most important, is to establish and maintain an excellent ongoing relationship with client or customer base. The customer base and only client is the client this position is assigned to. She is not able to establish and maintain a successful ongoing relationship with that client as stated by the client. She is disqualified. Nobody would roll the dice and take a chance on hiring her into this position or any other similar position in the company.

(edit) Several have mentioned that her references checked out fine. Any of us who are involved in that process know that all you got was dates and job title and maybe a splattering of meaningless drivel with reference checks. A major customer's negative evaluation of this person far, far outweighs a ton of relatively meaningless employment history verifications.