Would you employ this person?
4-07-2008
Will the winner of The Apprentice, Lee McQueen, ever stop making the headlines? First, it was because he was found to have lied on his CV. This time, he has managed to attract more media coverage when he phoned in sick on his first day of work for his boss, Sir Alan Sugar.

According to press reports, the 30-year old former recruitment sales manager, who secured the £100,000 a year job after winning the popular BBC TV series, phoned in on Tuesday morning this week, to say he was feeling ill.

An insider told one newspaper that the no-show by McQueen, who returned from a week's holiday in Spain with his girlfriend a couple of days before he was due to start his new job, would make Sir Alan Sugar "really cross".

Speaking to the Press Association, an Amstrad spokesperson said the company had known about McQueen's "flu-like virus" for three or four days. "He's frustrated that he can't be at work because he wants to get going but he knows that he needs to be at home," the spokesperson added.

OK, so he lied on his CV about the amount of time he spent at university; now he can't even manage to turn up for his first day at work - is he really deserving of this job? Would you be happy about employing him if he wanted to work in your organisation? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below.

Kind regards

Lucie Benson
Editor

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Sleeping on the job
25-06-2008
Did you know that today, Wednesday 25 June, is National Siesta Day? Yes that's right - today is the one day in the year when your boss may just have to accept the fact that you are having a quick snooze on your keyboard.

National Siesta Day is now in its third year, and the man behind it is Noel Kingsley, who has been having a daily nap in the afternoon for over 18 years, and is keen to promote its benefits:

"Having a regular 10-20 minute nap as part of a lunch break has been shown to be extremely beneficial to our health, well being and performance," he said in his blog. "Research from NASA the space agency shows that a short nap can increase your alertness by 100% and your productivity by over 30%."

According to Kingsley, we humans are the only mammals on Earth that go through a whole 24-hour period with only one session of sleep.

So, does a Spanish-style kip in the middle of the day have its place in British business? Would you have a 20-minute power nap after lunch if you could? Do you think it would improve your productivity? Let us know your views by posting your comments below.

Thanks,

Lucie Benson
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Naming and shaming
23-06-2008
New laws tackling illegal migrant workers came into force in February this year. The rules mean that employers face fines of up to £10,000 per staff member and a two-year prison sentence for knowingly employing illegal workers.

Four months on, the government has now decided to name and shame the UK employers that have been fined for employing illegal workers. The vast majority of the 35 businesses were restaurants and take-aways, and they were fined a total of £303,000.

HRZone.co.uk carried out a poll back in February, which showed that 37% of employers do not check the legality of workers until the candidate has accepted the job offer.

So have your checking processes changed since the new regulations came into force? Tell us by voting in our poll and leaving any comments below.

Has your legality of workers policy changed since new rules came into force?

Yes, I've started checking workers' legality as a result of the rules

No, I know about the new rules but don't check workers' legality

No, I didn't know about the new rules and don't check workers' legality

No, I was checking workers' legality before the new rules came into force

Results!

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Pants on fire
6-06-2008
I was at a recruitment conference this week, and I got talking to a couple of the delegates there. We were discussing background checking and what constitutes a lie on a CV, because, let's face it, most of us have exaggerated the truth to some extent during our time as job hunters, but, as recruiters, where do you draw the line between a 'white lie' and something more serious?

I know I have already blogged about this issue, but it has come to the fore again recently because of the latest episode of The Apprentice where one of the contestants, Lee McQueen, told a bit of a porky pie and misrepresented the length of time he had spent at university. It turned out to be quite a falsification though, as he said he had spent two years there, when in fact he dropped out after just four months.

However, Sir Alan Sugar must have deemed it to be pretty insignificant because he sent him through to the next round. Tom Flanagan, an employment partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, said: "In this instance, it seems that it was perceived to be a relatively minor lie, and Lee had proved himself over the previous tasks to be up to the job at stake, which is perhaps why Sir Alan let it pass."

However, Flanagan also pointed to another example involving Patrick Imbardelli, who resigned from his position as chief executive, Asia Pacific region, at InterContinental Hotels Group last June, after it was discovered that he'd lied on his CV.

So what should an employer do? Sir Alan had the advantage of knowing McQueen beforehand and seeing for himself that he was up to the job, therefore took the decision to turn a blind eye to his lie. But what about the rest of us, who may not have that benefit? How much of a lie does it have to be before employers feel the trust and confidence between them and the candidate has been undermined?

In a recent blog by Evil HR Lady, she answers a question about terminating an employment contract due to the employee lying on application. Her suggestion? To do a thorough background check before hiring. Which is certainly sound advice, but, once that check has been performed, it is still down to the recruiters to decide for themselves whether the lie is such that the person cannot be trusted, and therefore cannot be employed. Or whether, like Sir Alan, it can be overlooked because they just might be the perfect person for the job.

Lucie Benson
Editor
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Dishonest employees risk being blacklisted
9-05-2008
The big news this week has been about the National Staff Dismissal Register (NSDR), set to be launched later this month. It is basically a database of all employees who have been dismissed or have left employment whilst under investigation for acts of dishonesty toward the company. Major companies such as Harrods, HMV, Selfridges, Reed Managed Services and Mothercare are all backing the initiative.

The NSDR will allow employers to search the database to check whether potential employees have faced allegations of stealing, forgery, fraud, damaging company property or causing a loss to their employers and suppliers. It is being implemented by Action Against Business Crime, which is a partnership between the Home Office and the British Retail Consortium, and came about as a means to tackle the average annual loss to business of £497 million through staff theft and fraud.

But what is actually quite worrying about this is that an employee does not have to have a criminal conviction to appear on the register. What happens if a person appears on the database who has been accused of theft, but it hasn't been completely proved, and then this potentially innocent person becomes instantly unemployable?

Over on the BBC News website, a policy officer at the TUC makes a significant comment about a potential flaw in this initiative by saying that the register could lead to people being excluded from the job market by an employer who falsely accuses them of misconduct or sacks them because they bear them a grudge. A good point.

This is a government-backed scheme that seems to have started as a good idea in principle, but may not have really been thought out properly. There is a good discussion about this over on HRZone's sister website, UK Business Forums, so have a look at that, and let me know your thoughts.

Lucie Benson
Editor

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