This Wisdom of the Crowd (ACC member discussion) addresses communication between an employee's existing manager and receiving manager in advance of an internal transfer, under US law. This resource was compiled from questions and responses posted on the forum of the Employment & Labor Law ACC Network.*
*(Permission was received from the ACC members quoted below prior to publishing their forum comments in this Wisdom of the Crowd resource.)
Question:
What is the conventional wisdom around allowing/encouraging communication between an employee's existing manager and receiving manager in advance of an internal transfer? We have an employee who was on the verge of a successful transfer out of what she perceived to be a bad management situation. The receiving manager told her the job was all but hers- until he spoke with the transferring manager. Transfer has now been put on hold.
We currently have a policy that allows the current manager to speak with the receiving manager with permission of the employee. The challenge arises when:
- Employee Denies Access; There are performance concerns in the current role that the transferring supervisor wishes to communicate; or Employee trying to escape a bad manager.
How have your organizations dealt with this situation? What do you see as the legal pitfalls of allowing this communication? Do any of you have formal policies addressing this?
Wisdom of the Crowd:
- Response #1: We have a policy that our recruiter must conduct an internal reference check on the internal candidate by contacting the HR representative who has responsibility for the internal candidate's unit or department before forwarding the internal candidate's name to the hiring manager.1
- Response #2: We have an internal job posting system that allows all internal candidates to apply for open positions without the knowledge of their current boss. But, at the point when an applicant is being seriously considered for a job, the hiring manager will routinely reach out to the current manager to get information about the employee. This is an expected and unavoidable part of the process and (of course) includes the prospective hiring manager getting copies of the employee's personnel file including disciplinary notices.
- If there is a conflict between the employee and his/her current boss, the HR team will step in and help facilitate the internal transfer, but HR will never tell a hiring manager that he is not allowed to speak to the current manager about the employee before the final hiring decision is made. If HR thinks that the current boss is trying to sabotage the employee's transfer, the HR manager could escalate the discussion up to the Department Head or VP.
- The employee does not have the ability to block communication between managers.2
- Response #3: I think that a receiving manager has every right to speak to a transferring manager about the employee and would be negligent for not doing so. I do not see how an employee has the right to deny access to company information. The quality of performance reviews is key. If the employee is a poor performer, we often deny the opportunity to move. In that case, he or she has to improve and sustain performance/behavior first. On the other hand, if you have a bad transferring manager, you need to deal with that first.3
- Response #4: The issue is not what was done, managers talking to each other, but how it was done. The potential new manager should not be providing any indication that they will transfer the employee before completing their due diligence by talking to the former manager (and probably clients/customers of the employee in their former role) to get a full picture. HR should also be working with the potential new manager all along to provide context if necessary and to ensure that the former manager is not inserting any improper bias. From the employee's perspective all they should know is they are being considered for a new role and they should not see how the sausage is made.4