N/A asks "I have discovered that a senior manager in my firm has misled us about his qualifications and education. What should I do?"
Mark Thomas, Hoth Associates, Hoby responds "There are two separate things you should do to deal with this. The first is to find out and deal with any immediate problems caused by this situation, and the second is to put a process in place that will ensure this does not happen again.
At this stage you are only conducting an investigation and not taking any disciplinary action. Once you have this information you need to decide whether it has a direct impact on his work for you.
Although lying or being “economical with the truth” at interview could breach the duty of trust and confidence that is part of any employment contract, it does depend on individual circumstance.
For instance, there have been cases where an employee has failed to disclose that a gap in their employment was due to a period of imprisonment for defrauding a previous employer and this has been found to breach the duty of trust. In other cases, it has been a period of unemployment that the employee felt would reflect badly upon them.
You may conclude that the qualification is a critical requirement for the job he does. If you decide that you have a well-founded cause for concern, you need to start a disciplinary procedure."
Date: 22/04/2008
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