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Gyro
13-08-2012, 05:36 PM
Hi There,

Just wondering if anyone has had a situation where they have found an ideal candidate for a role but unfortunately they did not pass the pre-employment medical?

What did you do? I would like to ensure i look at all possibilities before i rule them out all together
Do you have it written in your recruitment policy, if so how did you word it?

cheers

Qld IR Consultant
14-08-2012, 07:11 AM
Completely depends on multiple factors. How did they fail it? What exactly is the role and how does a medical relate to it? etc etc.... There have been successful discrimination cases over the years on this issue.....

Gyro
14-08-2012, 10:30 AM
Thanks for coming back to me. I have heard of discrimination cases before regarding this which is why i am reluctant to make a decision.

The candidate has a medical condition that requires daily treatment for pain management. The role is office based and would require a lot of typing along with the occasional site visit. The candidate is unable to work full time and unable to work at a PC for long periods.

Cottoneyes
14-08-2012, 01:56 PM
Can you show you requiried all other positions of a similar nature to have candidates go through the same medicals? If so, I think you should be right.

The discrimination could only really come into it if you have only done a medical on this position and not other ofiice based roles. If the position was advertised as full time, or long periods at a PC is part of the role, then you should be able to exclude them on the basis of unsuitability.

Tiger
15-08-2012, 09:49 AM
This scenario was a recurring nightmare in my last position because idiot managers who didn't know any better, would say to the candidates "you'll be right mate, you got the job, you just have to do the medical"!! Yes, I can hear the collective groan out there!

With that employer, it was not uncommon for candidates to fail the PEM and I had several cases similar to the one in this discussion stream.

One candidate had even resigned his current job because he had that verbal from the manager at interview - and in a country town where jobs are scarce, that poor guy was not in a good situation! And, No, it didn't make any difference to our decision. Needless to say, that Manager took a hammering when the matter got escalated up. Another was a labor hire casual (he failed the drug test) who thought that because the Supervisor told him he was doing a good job, his application was in the bag - he took us to FWA! Fortunately he wised up before the scheduled hearing date and withdrew the matter.

In some organizations, HR has an uphill battle educating managers and anyone associated with recruitment on what you can and cannot say to candidates.

As stated by another contributor, if you have consistently applied the same selection criteria to all candidates and no one on your interview panels has said the wrong thing, you are simply making your selection decision based on the best candidate for the job following the total selection process. One thing I always insisted on was making clear to candidates that the company had a complex selection policy and that it would take time and included .. such and such ....

What is critical is that you NEVER tell a candidate he didn't get the job because of the PEM - that would definitely open up possibility for the candidate coming after you for discrimination. There will be some who push your buttons and keep demanding to know why they didn't get the job. In these situations, stick to your story ' you made your selection based on all aspects of your selection criteria and on this occasion (candidate) was unsuccessful.

Gyro
16-08-2012, 10:08 AM
thank you both for your comments i will take them onboard

All personnel both agency contactors and employees are sent for a pre-employment medical it is part of our hiring process. We arrange this one the Reference checks have been completed and narrowed the list down to a couple of people. This way as you sayTiger the decision will be based on all aspects of the selection criteria.

Thanks again for your responses