Covid-19 has brought new challenges for companies. A number of aspects have been disrupted, including hiring. Here is one hiring case study that we want to communicate based on our learning.

We see a number of posts on LinkedIn where people lost jobs due to the pandemic situation and are asking their network to help find one. Starting from a similar post, we also had our share of experience Hiring Kadir Pathan. Here is his post on LinkedIn. Many such posts are also there on whatsapp groups.

The Hiring Phase

On the onset, his request looks good in terms of skills, reasoning that he was contractual and due to pandemic he lost his job. We were told that he did not get paid for 4 months as there was no fund for the project and he was finding it difficult to manage his expenses.

In the technical round, he failed; even though he showcased a number of skills in his profile and above LinkedIn post. It was clear he lacked skills which he claimed and listed.

Kadir Pathan used reference, follow ups, and based on multiple requests, he was allowed to join with a commitment from him that he will pick up quickly and deliver. This was a clear case of sympathetic hiring during the pandemic situation.

Here is what happens with sympathetic hiring. You feel a candidate is honestly articulating his profile and situation by publishing a post on LinkedIn asking for help. He is further trying reference and solving his problem.

This is a positive way of looking at the candidate, his immediate needs and the pandemic situation where many lost their jobs. It will make you believe and get into a mode to help in whatever way you can.

Once on boarded,

Kadir Pathan could not perform. As per policy, enough support and time was given and he was asked to leave as literally he could not produce anything. His bad luck was that all resources were working from home.

So, we could not give him in person mentoring and attention. Remote help for him was also consuming team member time. So as per process he was asked to leave as there was no progress from his side.

One thing that needs to be stressed at this point is – if talent is there, no employer will get into PIP (Performance Improvement plan) as there is lot of effort and cost to hire right resource.

Why we are writing this learning is because this fellow went and put a bad review comment publicly, irony is many employees tried to help him due to his situation, first by hiring him , giving him time to learn despite showcasing his profile as experienced, remotely supported as much as team can during pandemic .

With this new break and opportunity, ideally the focus is to learn from colleagues, thank them for support and upgrade skills.  Kadir Pathan was jobless for 4 months. He got a break and did not take things positively.

Energy and effort should be towards learning and not blaming for our own shortcoming.

He or others in the same situation should have a positive frame of mind. World has people who want to help people who are in need. Here for us, Kadir Pathan set wrong precedence and such experience will stop employers with sympathetic hiring from helping people in need.

Employers in today’s world are trying to relax policies and processes to cater to such candidates. Who knows, a small help can make a big difference in people’s lives, while still maintaining a very professional approach.

If candidate does not perform, action needs to be taken. That part has to be professional as clients trust you with work/project and that cannot be experimental.

We tried to contact him multiple times,

asked him to visit us in person and share his grievance if any. He did say he will come to talk. But since then, did not pick up multiple calls and that give us a feeling that we will continue to chase him, asking him to remove the feedback which may give him a certain satisfaction.

But what Kadir Pathan is not realizing is that if he joins some other company and they know he has done such things in the past, and same can happen to them, there will be an element of doubt to hire him.

Also an employee who cannot raise issues during employment and vent their negativity in public domain shows their weakness to articulate, handle things professionally.

If you can call and get a job using reference and multiple follow up, same can be done to address any issues. This is a clear case of back stabbing trust and leaving a bunch of people with negative feeling thinking there is no way same people will cross each other again.

In the people industry, there will be differences. That is why India gives freedom to choose employer and employer has freedom to choose employee. We want everyone to have a positive and professional approach.

If you leave a trail of negative and false claims, that will haunt you more than anyone else. One person or multiple people attempting to defame will not work. God is there and let god judge. Whoever did wrong, will be punished.

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