Dodgy?

[workcorruption]

I've name changed for this and may change slight details as I don't know what to do. It's come to my attention that an internal post I went for and didn't get was given to someone who had been shown the interview questions beforehand and told what to answer.
This was reported but the person is still in post with seemingly nothing done about it.
Is this....ok? Legally or generally?

Why would the interview panel be aware? Surely, all they would see was someone who answered the questions really well.

@workcorruption sorry I meant to quote your question wouldn't the interview panel then be aware that the questions had been shown to the person? It was as much a surprise to them as it was to everyone else

but pressed the wrong button

Actually, yes! It's still wrong. I don't know why I'm being attacked here. I cannot see any reason (unless, as mentioned there were special adjustments, and although no one believes me, I find it highly unlikely) why one candidate for an internal post was taken to one side by their work friend and told what the questions were and how to answer them.

It makes it a potentially very unfair process, surely? even if one of us others had got it and I'd then found out, I'd still be pretty pissed off.

Literally every single person has protected characteristics, so this can't be right.

What is possible is that they have a disability (which is one of the protected characteristics) which means they need reasonable adjustments. Maybe an invisible disability - no-one at work knows I am autistic, for example.

The other thing that could have happened is that interviewee was coached by manager friend. I do this with people. I can take a requirement from a job description, turn it into a competency based question, and go through and help someone come up with a template answer. It's simply preparation.

Does that involve the actual questions asked?

No, usually only the interviewers have those.

But you don't know that the manager who disclosed them hasn't been dealt with, do you?

If you know for certain the interviewers weren't aware the other person had been given the questions you presumably had friends on the panel too?

What do u expect to happen?

They are given a written warning? they go back to their old job? They are fired? What is a satisfactory win for you?

Being realistic I doubt they will be fired from the role unless they are incompetent in the role they were performing .. are they incompetent?

Also their is a big different between given the questions in advance (so they can prepare) and given the answers. If there are only 6qu surely the answers aren't black and white and therefore marking is subjective.

Granted, extra time to prepare helps but can u assume they were "told what to say"?

I'm my organisation everyone knows the corporate questions in advance. The questions are "give an example of when u have showed x characteristic" so you can't be given the answer, as it has to be an example of when you performed a task.

It seems that it isn't as bad a situation or as unusual as I thought. To answer some questions - I am aware the interview panel didn't know as it was one of the panel (who has now left) who told me this in absolute horror a few days ago; to be honest, the person who got the job isn't particularly good at it - not saying I would have been, but no they're not the best candidate. Even if the questions were (which they were) 'what would you do if...' seeing them in advance would give anyone a great head start in being able to think for longer about what to say and getting a bit of coaching in how to say it
Anyway, as I sad, this is the last in s string of really underhand behaviour here and why I finally now know it's time to leave. Not so much about this one particular post but just having watched how other people have been oh so subtly let down.

I think it’s highly unethical to give one candidate the questions in advance and even suggested answers and not the others. I can’t believe pp are saying this isn’t a big deal and bringing up disability or other protected characteristics as excuses. If this s just the latest in a string of underhand behaviour I don’t blame you for leaving.

I cannot think of any situation where giving one candidate suggested answers would be reasonable.

without a protected characteristic then there is nothing you can pursue externally, there’s no legal protection for poor process, but if you have the protected characteristic of race you can explore if that was the motive for disadvantaging you against the successful candidate.

internally you could raise a grievance or call the whistleblower line (if you have one). If you’re a reasonable sized company with an HR team, they should take a dim view of this.

Don't know about dodgy but certainly lacking in integrity.

Not people I'd want to work with.

Thank you. I thought maybe it was something that was just accepted. I see that it's not illegal, but yes, it happened and the very fact that the person who did it is still in post (also having done a fair few other not terribly ethical things) and the person who got the job is still in it, really shows me a huge lack of integrity in the organisation.

Also, I’ve been on loads of interview panels and if I found out someone had done this to favour one candidate, I’d make a hell of a stink. It’s corruption of the selection process which is meant to be transparent and fair.
The only possible good thing that could happen in your scenario would be a reprimand to the person who told them the suggested answers, but I’d be wanting assurance that people were made aware that it’s unfair and must not happen again.

It's been kept very quiet. This is a couple of months on, and I've only just found out. There have been other internal interviews since then which have made us all go 'eh? why them!' which suggests a potential culture of it
Good news is I have taken holiday and applied for two jobs already!

This is possibly/likely a breach of internal policy by the manager who gave the questions/answers and also possibly a breach by the interviewee themselves (as they have had to a duty to report it).

That said, it sounds like it's been reported. It's then up to the company to investigate and decide action. Absent unlawful discrimination it's an internal issue only (assuming the questions weren't stolen etc). You can't possibly know what action has been taken - both might have been given final warnings for all you know.

*may have had a duty to report

Possibly. Still makes me very sad that it happens

Sounds like Chinese whispers. And your outrage sounds like projection about the other underhand stuff whatever that may be.