A dilemma for you to help solve please

[RTKangaMummy]

If Mr A and Mr B are interviewed on a Tuesday

Mr C and Mr D are due to be interviewed on Friday

Now if Mr A was really brilliant and just right for the job, but was going to go for other jobs the next day.

Could the job be offered to Mr A on the Tuesday?

This would make sure that Mr A knew that he had got the job

What about Mr C and Mr D?

Should they be interviewed even though the job had gone or told they are not needed?

Is that legal?

Or do you have to wait until Friday and then maybe miss out on Mr A because someone else has offered a job to him?

NO idea about the legalities I'm afraid, but I'd suggest you could maybe give a strong hint to Mr A at the end of the interview or later that day on the phone - something like 'we really enjoyed meeting you. As you know our hands are tied until we have interviewed all the short listed candidates over the course of hte week, but in advance of you going to other interviews tomorrow we'd like you to know that we are seriously interested and hope you will hold off making a decision on any other offers you may receive until you have heard from us on Friday'? If I heard something like that I think I'd guess the situation was exactly as you describe it and wait to accept an offer until I knew all the offers I was going to get - he can easily hold off a few days on formally accepting another offer.

I would either offer the job to Mr A and not waste Mr C and Mr D's time by interviewing them, or interview them and take the chance that Mr A will be offered a different job. If he's so perfect, he'll be prepared to hang on and will understand that you're under a duty to interview other candidates. He can always accept another job and then change his mind when you offer him yours.

If you're doing an EO interviewing system, then you would have to interview the others anyway, but tbh if I were the candidate and the job had already been offered to someone else, I would rather that my time and brainspace wasn't wasted on a job that didn't exist - I'd rather expend energy on a job that I've actually got some chance of getting.

I'd stop the search and wouldn't waste Mr C and D's time but only if you'd offered it to Mr A and he'd accepted.

Caligula

It is for a friend of mine but I have no idea what CO system is

The big prob is that there are lots of other jobs all advertising for simular jobs all interviewing this week.

Mr A is by far the best canditate but will also be best for every other job.

I agree about not wanting to waste time and effort and stress of Mr C and Mr D.

But friend is not sure what legal/moral duty is?

sorry meant EO

At this stage I wouldn't have said you were under any obligations to any candidate. but I'm NOT an HR expert!

Message withdrawn

EO = Equal Opportunities.

I did an EO interviewing system once, and tbh it was a complete waste of everyone's time, including the candidates - especially the candidates.

We already knew who we wanted for the job, she was absolutely right, she wasn't being offered it because she was someone's friend or lover, she was THE right candidate for the job. But my boss insisted on going through the rigmarole of interviewing five other people, who were not even in the running, just so that she could say we were an EO organisation. I felt really bad for the candidates who had spent hours preparing presentations for interview and spent money and time getting there, when they could have been spending their time more usefully.

Morally/ legally, I think once you've found a candidate you like, as long as you're not actively discriminating against another candidate because of sex/ race, you're entitled to offer the job to whoever you like.

If you had any organisational restraints on you, I'm sure your HR dept would have told you so!

btw, I'd also interview the other candidates - Mr A may be perfect, but he may not want you! (Story of my life! ) You could offer him the job, he could accept, you could bin the other candidates, then he could still attend the other interviews "just to see" then he could accept one of those and change his mind - and you'd have to go back to step 1, or have the embarrassment of calling the other candidates and telling them you would like to interview them after all, as Candidate A has found a better job!

Also, he could be run down by a bus between now and Friday! (although so could the others, of course.)

I was being dim

I have no idea whether they use that system.

Thanks for your views

I will pass them on later

Being a childminder is easy compared to this minefield.