Non-recruitment of family members

[dbrooker]

We are an office of 32 and are currently recruiting for an entry level admin assistant. Three of our existing staff have indicated that their daughters are interested in the job. We haven't had a good record with this kind of hire in the past (before my time) and I can just see parents two and three complaining about their offspring especially in time if there are issues with offspring one. We have decided to put a policy in place that says essentially that family members cannot be employed. Does anyone have a policy that we may use and I would be particularly interested in any problems that members may have encountered in this area.

[Tiger]

We are an office of 32 and are currently recruiting for an entry level admin assistant. Three of our existing staff have indicated that their daughters are interested in the job. We haven't had a good record with this kind of hire in the past (before my time) and I can just see parents two and three complaining about their offspring especially in time if there are issues with offspring one. We have decided to put a policy in place that says essentially that family members cannot be employed. Does anyone have a policy that we may use and I would be particularly interested in any problems that members may have encountered in this area.

I think you're doing the right thing having a policy in place around this issue. Employing family members can be asking for trouble although in one medium sized (350 employees) company I worked in during the l990s, we employed four members of the one family at some stage!! It worked because the father was a tyrant and the three sons were kept in line by him. Other examples where it can work is when the jobs are in different locations/buildings or where the jobs have nothing to do with one another.

The scenario you describe however could be a minefield because, in my experience, employing the young ones is always a challenge (so many want to run the show from day one) and the last thing you need is an interfering parent if you have to discipline or performance manage the offspring.

I can't share any policy template with you but policies are about capturing the rules/guidelines you wish to communicate, being clear and succinct and then rolling (communicating) it out to your employees. When policies are new or revised, it's always a good idea to have a signature sheet at your comms session so they can't later say they know nothing about an amendment or new policy.
Tiger

[Moz]

...the last thing you need is an interfering parent if you have to discipline or performance manage the offspring.

Or a junior employee saying "do you know who my mum/dad is?"

My only reservation/niggling concern about such a policy, is the spectre of discrimination.