Dentons has suspended and "disciplined" four trainees who were caught accessing confidential HR documents.
The final seat trainees, part of an intake of 39, were in the process of applying for newly-qualified positions at the firm when they were caught "snooping" on confidential HR documents, said a source. "They got called up to HR last Tuesday lunchtime", said the insider, "and haven’t been allowed to come into work since".
A spokesman for Dentons confirmed that "while considering the trainees' NQ applications, a number of conduct issues came to our attention concerning unauthorised access to confidential information relevant to the process". He said Dentons suspended all four trainees last week and launched an investigation, which has now resulted in all them being subjected to "disciplinary action". Dentons would not elaborate on the nature of the sanctions, but it appears highly likely that some of the super spies will not be retained on qualification.
"We expect our trainees to act with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism", said the spokesman, "and are of course deeply disappointed and saddened by this development".
Dentons' potential expulsion of trainees is the latest example of firms clamping down on shortcomings amongst the junior ranks. Earlier this month RollOnFriday revealed that Ince & Co had made the unusual decision to axe a trainee for poor performance halfway through their training contract, and that Slaughter and May had jettisoned two law students before they even started, because they failed to pass modules on the LPC.
Tip Off ROF
The final seat trainees, part of an intake of 39, were in the process of applying for newly-qualified positions at the firm when they were caught "snooping" on confidential HR documents, said a source. "They got called up to HR last Tuesday lunchtime", said the insider, "and haven’t been allowed to come into work since".
A spokesman for Dentons confirmed that "while considering the trainees' NQ applications, a number of conduct issues came to our attention concerning unauthorised access to confidential information relevant to the process". He said Dentons suspended all four trainees last week and launched an investigation, which has now resulted in all them being subjected to "disciplinary action". Dentons would not elaborate on the nature of the sanctions, but it appears highly likely that some of the super spies will not be retained on qualification.
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How it looked. |
"We expect our trainees to act with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism", said the spokesman, "and are of course deeply disappointed and saddened by this development".
Dentons' potential expulsion of trainees is the latest example of firms clamping down on shortcomings amongst the junior ranks. Earlier this month RollOnFriday revealed that Ince & Co had made the unusual decision to axe a trainee for poor performance halfway through their training contract, and that Slaughter and May had jettisoned two law students before they even started, because they failed to pass modules on the LPC.
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I think bonuses are in order, don't you?
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get real - there is plenty to blame most HR teams for, but the actions of the trainees is not HR's fault and their actions are what they are being held to account over
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Granted, the product of the search will contain information about others, but if that was not the object of the search then I don't really see the ethical issue.
Also typical HR incompetence, followed by massive overreaction to distract from said incompetence.
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But FFS, there are literally tens of millions of documents on these systems. And it's inevitable that you - innocently or otherwise - stumble across something potentially interesting. And to expect that someone doesn't look at something that directly concerns their future is asking a bit much .
Give them a stern talking-to, but HR are the ones who should be getting the real rocket. If we didn't know it was inevitable and expected that things like this would be found, they wouldn't need document security.
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HR can’t be held fully to blame but let’s be clear - they screwed up significantly. First, I would be livid if I was another trainee and they had allowed a document to be accessible that may have said I’m not getting a job on qualification. Second, in this case, there may or may not be too much damage done but imagine if this was instead an employee facing redundancy who accessed information regarding the redundancy procedures and background. They would be inviting claims against the firm.
The trainees were wrong to look but it’s an understandable temptation for a young person in that position. There is nothing understandable about the HR incompetence - that just needs a suitable rollicking also and to ensure they don’t do it again.
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And no harm was done. They would have found out a week or two later anyway.