Should I hire him?

[Lambstu]

Hi, I work in the pharmaceuticals industry and our HR dept is useless so not sure where to get advice. I am hiring for a position and the only applicant is hated by a current employee. The applicant looks good on paper, and has previously worked at the company so has good experience. I’m inclined to hire him. I know that it will cause an issue for my current employee though as she has told me in the past of the problems she had with him (personality clash, perhaps he did overstep it a few times but I think she should be able to get past that as it didn’t seem like the situations she described were a massive deal) and she has said that she would never be able to work with him again. I know if I hire him she will be unhappy. Would she be able to raise a grievance against me for hiring him? Or go off long term
sick with stress? Can I just tell her it’s happening and ask her to get on with it / make the most of it.

I’ve recently hired in a similarish position. In this case the employee I was looking to rehire had clashed with a previous manager in our organisation. I spoke to the old manager, asked them in interview about reflections on situation, and also asked other previous managers and colleagues about them. You’re all managers why can’t you ask them for advice and they know that you are considering him? Can just say he’s applied and you want to hear more. In my case we hired them as all feedback back was that it was a personal clash between the two and all other managers all said they would rehire them if they had the opportunity. So please do your research with at least some previous managers.

Hiring someone is always a bit of luck. If you listen to her what if she doesn't like the next person either. Not everyone fits in straight away it can take time. You're only getting one side of the story listening to her, there may have been reasons for them nor getting along.

HR Director here. This poster is right*.

Why are you even discussing candidates with other (junior) staff unless they are part of the panel?

*there’s no appeal process for not being recruited unless a protected characteristic is used as the reason.

What a horrible comment. You don't care because she's easy to replace.

I haven’t discussed it with her.

She told me about him, how much she disliked working with him and how she’d never want to work with him again. This was a separate discussion some time ago, I can’t remember when, maybe 6 or 9 months ago. It wasn’t in the context of hiring him (the role wasn’t even advertised then!) it was in the context of discussing a previous piece of work.

How confident are you that her comments weren't because he was a sexual predator?

We had one somewhere I worked and after he was gone, the remarks you've referenced from your employee are the kinds of comments women would make. They rarely discussed it in specific terms, for obvious reasons.

If he had been brought back, people would have been upset, made a fuss, gone off sick, raised grievances... And they would have been right to do so.

Your arrogance will be your downfall.

Apparently he overstepped a few times.

That could mean anything from stopping her printing run, to touching her up so I'd be a little hesitant about just thinking it is a personality clash until I knew the full story.

Have you spoken to her past colleagues? Over stepping could be something like saying she needed to get in on time or spend less time chatting.

You could of course turn him down and find she leaves anyway.

Because she doesn’t care about her existing employee?

And also doesn’t care about harmony within the team.

It wasn’t a sexual thing she hasn’t mentioned anything like that. More that he was difficult/rude verbally and she got the brunt of it as they did clash personality wise. I do believe her.

If he knows she's there he may not accept. Usually I find it takes two to have that sort of clash. He may equally think she was rude and verbally abusive.

Ooof! What kind of boss are you?! If you only have one applicant something is very wrong.

WRT to the bloke, how did he 'overstep'?

If the post is senior, specialist and difficult to fill she may be fortunate to have one applicant.

As for the offence it seems she found him rude and didn't get on with him. No mention of how he found her.

I'd be very suspicious that his behaviour might have been motivated either by her being female or by her being junior to him. I'd rather run understaffed than tolerate having sexists or bullies on my team. Actually, no rather about it. I will not tolerate sexism, bullying or any other forms of toxic behaviour.

Is she generally easy going? Do you have any issues with her and does she have any issues with other people? Is she someone who moans about people generally?

I don't know the legalities but can you not speak with anyone^^ else in-house who would have worked with him? Surely that's ok. If you day 'someone who used to work here has applied, do you remember him..'

For me, as a manager. I would be listening to all staff, regardless of "five of them do that job" and taking all views into account.

This. Personally I would run a mile from someone who had been so rude to another member of staff that she didn't want to work with him again.

I'm with @Barleysugar86 and @woahboy. How good is her judgement generally? Have been on a ridiculous number of appointment panels and someone with real live knowledge of a candidate is far far better than going on the impression they create at interview. Is she a good solid worker who doesn't readily take offence or a drama Queen who will have 50 fits at the first opportunity? Does she take offence at her current team-mates or bosses? You could end up with a rotten hire at senior level on your hands and that is very difficult to handle - particularly if, as you say, your HR department is useless.

Is it possible that HR are not, in fact, useless, but have already given the legal (and maybe also moral, in terms of duty of care to the current employee) position on this? But that didn’t suit OP’s agenda?
Just a bit of devil’s advocate there. No offence to OP.

In terms of her judgement, yes I do believe her, she wouldn’t say something untrue. She isnt very agreeable tho, and is known to be argumentative at times.

I think it’s more she won’t be held to ransom
her threat of leaving is worthless

Her staff member hasn't threatened to leave. She gave her account of his bullying long before he applied for a job and said she wouldn't put up with that behaviour in a role again.

Well perhaps she's not lying. If she's not very agreeable and known to be argumentative it sounds pretty likely she'd run into someone who won't take shit and stands up to her. No wonder she doesn't want to work with him.

Anyone not known for histrionics saying they would never work with someone again I would take seriously. That’s a strong statement.

I agree with others that one toxic person on a team can be extremely distructive

What you need to work out is whether this is a personality clash that was handled poorly on both sides. Or if this guy is an a*hole who is generally “difficult/rude verbally”

It sounds like she has given you specific examples of the behaviour she found objectionable.

I would treat this like any other red flag and probe it in a follow up interview . For example, you could ask:
how he handles conflict in the workplace,
how he develops good working relationships with people he disagrees with
how has he handled personality clashes within a team

This will all give you more information, as well as something concrete to go on that is rooted in the interview evaluation.

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll certainly ask him some of these follow up questions and will probe a bit with people that have worked with him before. I suppose what I’m still not sure on is if i have a duty of care to her or not.