How to raise a concern with my manager?

Taiko

Hoping for some general advice here, on what is a little bit of an odd situation.

My team are getting a new member of staff shortly, and the candidate has been selected. A few weeks ago, my line manager had emailed me the application forms for two candidates and asked me to print them off, these contained names/addresses. Being a pretty stable team (no new staff within the last few years), curiousity got the better of me and I had a brief skim of these. Names etc couldn't really be helped as they were the first bit on the form.

In a quick Google search of the person being offered the position, it brought up a deleted LinkedIn page, but the 3rd link was a newspaper article from October 2017. This has the candidate, whose address I remembered as it's close to me and a relatively unusual place to recruit from for the role, in a court article, showing they had been convicted of assault and fined in October 17. I don't believe this was mentioned on the application, and I was not part of any interviews at all. The fine was several hundred pounds.

My questions therefore are:

- When would this likely have been considered spent? Own searches suggest one year, but I'd like to check that I've interpreted correctly.

- Assuming this is not spent, it would appear they have then lied on their application. Given that I probably shouldn't have seen this information though, could I even approach the manager with a concern?

martinthebandit

You could wait until you have officially got the information and then raise the issue with your manager.

Or wait till the person is in place and make your own judgement as to their character etc before deciding what course of action to take.

Grumpygit

Why do you need to raise concerns with your manager?

Ask yourself these questions...

Does it matter to you if they didn't disclose the conviction (if it was even them)

Will it affect you or your team if it is the same person?

I can totally appreciate the act of reading something that you were asked to print but if it is the same person and they were fined and not imprisoned, it's unlikely to be a significant crime they committed.

If it is the same person and it comes out that they didn't disclose the conviction and it's against company policy, then they will pay the price of that.

I wouldn't say anything as it's none of your business.

It could be said that your manager made an error of judgement in asking you to print off sensitive documents given that you weren't involved in the interview process.

But one other thing.....do you know that the candidate that has been selected is the person who was found guilty of assault?

Tigsteroonie

It's one thing to briefly skim read the printed applications out of curiosity. It's quite another to then search for them on google.

Personally I don't think you should mention at all what you found. Whilst you may have a legitimate concern, you have also demonstrated that you cannot be trusted to carry out instructions (to simply print the application) and handle sensitive information.

Taiko

Grumpygit wrote: »

Why do you need to raise concerns with your manager?

Ask yourself these questions...

Does it matter to you if they didn't disclose the conviction (if it was even them)

Will it affect you or your team if it is the same person?

I can totally appreciate the act of reading something that you were asked to print but if it is the same person and they were fined and not imprisoned, it's unlikely to be a significant crime they committed.

If it is the same person and it comes out that they didn't disclose the conviction and it's against company policy, then they will pay the price of that.

I wouldn't say anything as it's none of your business.

It could be said that your manager made an error of judgement in asking you to print off sensitive documents given that you weren't involved in the interview process.

But one other thing.....do you know that the candidate that has been selected is the person who was found guilty of assault?

On the last point, 100%. Unusual name, same age, and the article listed the same road name.

My colleagues are kind of similar to me in some respects. When I joined several years ago, I'd already had Facebook requests from people, and they knew a lot about my own background/interests.

Thanks for the feedback.

ohreally

Taiko wrote: »

My colleagues are kind of similar to me in some respects.

Snide.

This individual has been punished and paid their dues. The court knows the circumstances, do you?

Say nothing, at least for the time being.

Is an assault conviction a barrier to being appointed?

agrinnall

Does the recruitment process ask any questions about convictions? If it does and the person didn't mention it then they have lied in their application or interview, and that probably is something that your manager or HR should be made aware of.

Does the job require a criminal records check? If it does then the conviction will show up and management can decide whether it is relevant. If it doesn't then it seems that management don't care so there's no need to tell them.

ssparks2003

You are not the recruiting manager, in fact you are not the manager at all. You was given clear instructions what you was required to do yet because you are the village busy body you took it upon yourself to perform your own special background check to assure yourself only the "right sort" get employed.

If a member of my team came and raised a concern in this manner to me they would get pretty short shrift from me, and told in no uncertain terms to keep there nose out of other people's business.

Taiko

The application asks about convictions, which was not declared.

The role profile could, depending on client allocation, bring into contact with vulnerable adults, although never alone and likely to be increasingly rare. Whilst I was asked to consent to a basic check being undertaken, I'm not sure if it actually was. Paid it no real attention when I joined, as the only thing I've ever had was a single speed awareness course.

Newtothis92

Personally I would probably do as one poster suggested above. Wait and see how they are when you meet them. Your speed awareness was a one off.. his conviction could have been too (while I'm not condoning assault, or speeding :cool:)

Then if they seem like the kind of character you want to report you could approach your line manager with something like "the name was ringing a bell when I met them but I couldn't place them.. ended up doing a Google search and found this article which is where I remembered reading the name from. Not sure if this has already been declared to you but thought it would be in the interest of the business for you to know"

I agree with other posters that you could come off worse after googling applicants when you're not part of the interview process

Smodlet

Seems to me, OP, as if the subtext in your post is actually a text; "no new members for several years". I doubt Mother Theresa would meet with your approval, were she available.

Go ahead, "report" your findings which you should never have undertaken in the first place; perhaps your manager will be grateful... Or you might end up with a warning. You are best placed to judge the likely outcome.