Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep When Hiring Employees

If you aren't careful, what you tell applicants in a job interview can get you into trouble.

When hiring new employees, be careful what you say. If you make promises you can't keep, they may come back to haunt you later.

One of the most common mistakes that employers make when recruiting new employees is to exaggerate a little bit (or a lot) about the prospects of the business ("we're expanding like wild fire -- those stock options will be worth millions in no time!") or about the security of the job ("we never fire anybody; if you do a good job, you'll have a job for life!"), among other things. In trying to sell the applicant on the job, the employer embellishes a bit. No harm in that, right?

Wrong. If you tell a prospective employee something about a job, you'd better mean it. If an employee takes the job in part because of what you told him, then that same employee can turn around and sue you if that promise doesn't come true. This is because courts will sometimes deem promises that you make to be implied contracts. In such a situation, if you break the promise, you break the contract, which makes you liable to the employee for money damages.

Some common promise pitfalls to watch out for are:

• If you know that your company's stock is inflated and could take a nosedive any time, don't try to convince a prospective employee to work for you by promising that the employee will make a mint off of stock options. If the stock options end up being worthless, the employee may sue you for the difference between what you promised they'd be worth and what they are actually worth. Given the nature of the stock market these days, this could be a pretty penny.
• Similarly, if you don't know how valuable stock options are going to be (and really, how can you?), don't tell an employee that they are going to be worth great sums of money.
• Don't promise a prospective employee that he will only lose his job if he does it poorly, because this will limit your ability to terminate the employee for other reasons, such as personality conflicts or economics.
• If you know that your company is considering staff reductions and if there is even a remote possibility that the employee may lose his job as a result, disclose this information in the job interview. Otherwise, you may find yourself slapped with a lawsuit, especially if the employee left a secure job elsewhere to come work for you.
• Don't promise an employee that he will get frequent and significant pay increases unless you are certain that your business will be able to afford those pay increases and deliver them.
• Stick to what you know the job will consist of rather than what you think the applicant wants to hear. For example, don't tell an applicant that a job allows for a lot of creativity and initiative, when really the job is one in which the employee will be expected to simply do what he is told.
• If you describe one job to an employee in an interview but then make the employee do another job, you are leaving yourself vulnerable to a lawsuit. Although it may not matter to you who does what, it will matter to the employee.

The best way to steer clear of this promises problem is to treat prospective employees with honesty and respect. They are trying to find out whether the job is best for their lives, and they deserve to know the truth.

Not only will this strategy keep you out of trouble, it will increase your chances of finding an employee who is a good fit for the job and for your business. No one wants a disgruntled employee working for them. If you've told the applicant the truth, and if the applicant still wants the job, then chances are you've found a good fit.