How Should We Handle a New Hire's Relieving Issues with Her Previous Employer?

Dear Seniors,

One of our new joiners has not been relieved from her previous employer with proper notice. We received communication from that company via email and a letter as well. In response, we asked the employee to meet with the officials of her former employer to complete her relieving formalities there. Given her good performance and financial background, we informed her that she could continue her service with us after resolving all disputes. Following our instructions, she visited her previous employer and submitted her resignation. However, they did not accept it and insisted that she either stay with them or serve a notice period, which she was unwilling to do. Consequently, they withheld one month's salary for not providing proper notice and notified her that she would not receive any benefits.

Subsequently, we obtained a declaration letter regarding her improper relieving, indicating that any issues raised by her previous employer would be her responsibility. Ten days later, we received another letter from that company detailing the events so far and requesting us to urge her to serve a notice period and leave properly.

It appears that their true intention is to cause her hardship rather than adhere to ethical practices and policies. Please advise on how to address this situation and assist me in drafting a response email.

Thank you,

Divya

Perhaps the following will assist you...

Communication with Previous Employer

Dear XXXXXXX,

We thank you for your recent communications regarding (name of person). As a matter of courtesy, we had already asked her to contact you to complete her formalities with you. We understand that she has made such contact. Our position now is that we cannot instruct (name of person) to fulfill her obligations with you, as we played no part in her initial appointment with yourselves. This is a matter between you and (name of person).

Yours Sincerely,
(Your name)
(Your designation)

I hope the above helps.

Regards,
Harsh

I second Harsh and Vinod. You have been supportive towards your new employee. Respect the other firm's proceedings and do not be influenced by them. They need more time; ask for a deadline, beyond which they would ask for nothing more. The Knowledge Transfer or even the handover process is time-bound. Hence, they have little support by their side.

Wish you all the best!

Handling Background Checks and Document Verification

Where was your company's background check and document verification process? It seems your HR department accepted a new employee without checking relieving letters. Now, do one thing: don't reply to that organization at all. If you respond by stating that it is between the employer and employee, it does not reflect well on your company's goodwill. Such a reply, if made public, could harm your company's reputation.

Try verbally speaking with that employer and see if things can get sorted out. If they send a legal notice to your employee, your employee will also face more problems.

Regards

My comments are for conducting a holistic analysis of the incident. I am providing this disclaimer because a few members prefer not writing anything extra ("essay" in their language) other than what the poster had raised a query about. The analysis is as follows:

a) The whole issue has arisen because of improper background checks and an inadequate recruitment process. Since Ravi has raised this point, let me not dwell on it further.

b) While recruiting, what Divya or her colleagues did not take into account is the fact that this newly joined employee had abandoned her previous employment. Her employers could have been bad; however, she should have shown patience to complete her notice period. If she can abandon her previous employer, she possibly could abandon Divya's employers as well. This risk has been overlooked. The suitability of her candidacy at the time of selection and her performance after joining has overshadowed her opportunistic tendencies.

c) Now coming to the candidate's previous employers: why did the HR department not have a policy on employees who abandon their duties? The employee abandoned her duties. For this, they had deducted her one month's salary. Ideally, when this employee approached them, they should have told her to do proper clearance from each department and calculated her "Full and Final Settlement" dues. As per the notice period, they should have made deductions and closed the matter. Instead, they preferred to send a second letter to Divya's employers. This blowing hot and cold is sheer nonsense. This speaks to their poor work culture. Also, at that company, there is an HR who is very much like a general member of this forum. If HR behaves in this manner, then who will give value to HR? The incident brings to the fore the importance of HR's systems and processes.

We talk so much about leadership. Leadership at a lower level is seen in small actions like these. Let us not acquire vision at the cost of sight!

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

Thanks for your comments, Mr. Ravi and Mr. Dinesh V Divekar. It helps to understand the importance of a proper background check for a new joinee. I agree that it's our mistake that we haven't done a background check. However, it is not that we have accepted the new joinee without verifying her documents, and there's nothing wrong to be felt about our recruitment process. We used to schedule the date of joining based on the time required for the candidate to serve notice with his/her present employer before joining us, and the same way in this case as well. After joining us, the new joinee asked for a week's time to submit her relieving letter, which we accepted, keeping her appointment letter on hold. Within this time span, we received communications from her former employer about her improper relieving, which was also well addressed at our end.

It's also not that we did not take note of the risk stated by Mr. Dinesh, but considering her financial position and performance, we chose to ignore it.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Now, ultimately, what is the conclusion? What decision have you taken to solve this issue? As the employee has joined your company, it means the appointment letter has already been issued. Keeping the appointment letter on hold won't do you any good. The employee is still working with you, and work is being allocated to him/her.

So, to keep the employee working uninterrupted, what are you going to do? Alternatively, you may need to ask the employee to leave. If so, how? By issuing a termination letter that states the clause of the offer letter, mentioning that if declared information is found to be fake in the future, the employee would be terminated immediately. Think about it.

Dear Mr. Ravi,

We have a general practice of giving an offer letter to the candidate who has been selected. After the candidate's joining, only upon the submission of all the required joining documents, we will release the appointment letter.

During this time frame, we received communication regarding the improper relieving of our new employee, which was addressed in favor of the employer. However, considering her financial situation and job need, we have decided to retain this candidate instead of terminating her. Consequently, we have requested her to provide us with a declaration letter stating that she is unable to submit her relieving letter due to not serving the proper notice period with her previous employer, resulting in the forfeiture of her salary. Any issues raised by her previous employer will be addressed by her personally.

Upon receiving this declaration and verifying the other documents, we have decided to release her appointment letter. We hope that by now she understands the importance of adhering to proper work ethics.

Thank you.

Divya