How to recruit a recruit

Recruitment is an aspect of business management that can go very wrong if it is not treated with due diligence.

It is the locus of many subsequent organisational failures, public or private.

Some of these failures may be due to false information given by a persuasive applicant about his or her qualifications, or about his or her experience.

There are organisations so short on qualified staff and under so much pressure to fill vacant positions that due diligence is simply skipped over, out of a combination of overconfidence in the recruiter’s own ability to discern truth from wishful thinking, and the skill of the applicant to “pull the wool” over their eyes, as the saying goes.

It has happened to me, I am ashamed to admit, at the hands of a very skillful and verbally dextrous man who presented himself as being the perfect professional candidate for the position of marketing executive.

He turned out to be a felon and was terminated during a probationary period compulsory for all employees in that company.

Recruitment to the TT Police Service (TTPS) has raised a lot of concern recently.

No explanation was ever given, for example, in relation to the denial or failure by the Commissioner of Police recently to allow a young female recruit, having reportedly passed all her statutory exams, to take the oath and be inducted into the ranks.

It brought either questions about her ability to meet the qualifications, all of which are listed in the Police Service Regulations (2007), which she claims were satisfactorily met, or what she may have done after applying that was contrary to regulations.

Whatever it was, or what the system required, raised questions when she decided to fight back.

As the dramatic headline in the Newsday stated, her attorneys, on her behalf, filed an application that the CoP should be jailed for contempt for not complying with a judge's order to stay the decision to remove her from the list of recruits pending the outcome of her lawsuit.

On the issue of the appointment of an officer, the Police Service Act only says, “The Commissioner may appoint as a trainee a person applying under section ten who satisfies the requirements prescribed.” It does not say, "
shall appoint." It says, "
may appoint.”

It also says in section 12, subsection (4): “A trainee is not a worker as defined in the Industrial Relations Act,” and that, ”a trainee shall be under the control of the Commissioner.”

For the avoidance of doubt, in case there is any, in subsection (3) “without prejudice to subsection (2) for the purpose of any law relating to any functions or vicarious liability of an employer, the Commissioner shall be treated as the employer of any trainee undergoing training with the Police Service.”

And to make it doubly clear: "Where a trainee fails to complete successfully a course of training approved by the Commissioner or for any other reason is otherwise considered unfit to be a member of the Police Service, the Commissioner may summarily terminate his status as a trainee."

It is extremely unlikely that a police recruit hoping to, but not yet having become a junior trainee under the prescribed regulations knew enough law and jurisprudence to bring such a complex claim against the head of a quasi-judicial organisation with considerable power and authority.

Any head of an organisation in charge of 6,000 employees is not expected to do all the interviewing and personally ensure that every a trainee successfully completes a course of training approved by the organisation.

I remember some years ago speaking with the head of a financial institution who boasted that his door was always open to any employee who had a grievance.

He was a total failure as a chief executive, and was eventually fired by the board of directors, who should never have recruited him in the first place. He never delegated anything, so he never had time to manage his responsibilities. He was too busy dealing with complaints.

One of the secrets of successful leadership and of management, which are two very different things, is knowing how, and to whom, to delegate responsibilities.

The police service, like any other large organisation has a fully-staffed personnel department, set up under the Police Service Act to carry out the prescribed functions of such a department.

I do not have the space in this article to list them all, but one of the responsibilities that all employers have, and that may lead to problems if neglected, is to set out in writing the technical requirements, academic qualifications, duties and responsibilities of the position an applicant is seeking.

The applicant must read, sign and agree to them and understand there are implied duties related to the reputation of the organisation itself .

Most private-sector applicants for an entry-level position are not expected to meet the strict requirements demanded of a police recruit. But certainly an employer has the right to require a certain standard of appearance, attitude and behaviour.

These are best delineated in an individual contract of employment, which, according to law, may be expressed or implied, verbal or in writing, but to avoid conflict are best set out in writing in the event of an economic downturn or breach of contract, and not left up to common-law or implied provisions.

The more important the job is to the organisation and to its reputation, the more important that it is worded clearly and in writing and include not only termination due to cause (breaches of discipline, termination clauses whether due to age – usually 65 – or tied to an in-company pension scheme or the NIS) or to physical or medical constraints.

It is important that both the employer and the new employee sign an agreement on the terms of employment and the remuneration as well as the responsibilities of the job.