Am I allowed to perform a background check in one employee in Germany

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

We are in a Software company, and I am managing a development team.

One of our senior developers has shown a weird performance, making simple mistakes, and lacking some knowledge on basic topics.

I have developed a strong gut feeling that his credentials and degree may be fake. Reason being, I did some "smoke" checks, such as consulting some initial services about degrees in his Original Country, and found no records of him.

When he entered the Job, there was no background check(we actually don't do it).

If he has a fake degree, or no degree at all, we may be dealing with a complicated situation, because he is under a work-permit that requires a degree as well, I don't know how to proceed.

I obviously don't want to investigate that openly, because I don't want to expose him, in case I am wrong.

What would be legal procedure that I could perform to check his diploma and certifications?

Can I ask him to bring the copies? Can I enter in contact with the University?

Update:

We have come to discover that he has lied the institution name in his CV, he said Institution ABC, and it was from another University. Is this a crime?

manpreet 2 years ago

Falsifying your qualifications is a severe offense, which will lead to him being fired, his visa could be revoked, and he might even be forbidden to come work again in the country. Before you commit to checking his background, you might want to talk to him about his underperformance. Schedule a meeting ASAP with him, and try to understand if his trouble can be fixed, or if he's not qualified for the job. For the rest of the answer, I'll assume you have had this meeting and you concluded he is not qualified and there's not much you can do to improve his skills.

We may be dealing with a complicated situation : Having a fake href="https://forum.tuteehub.com/tag/degree">degree is a breach of contract. In the case where he put false information on his resume and claimed it was true, he lied on his qualifications, which led to you hiring him, which you wouldn't have done otherwise. The situation will be complicated for him, but not for you. If you consider he is not fit for the job, and you can prove he falsified his qualifications, you can probably fire at will (please forgive the pun).

Can I ask him to bring the copies? Can I enter in contact with the University? You can do both of these things, but it would be better if the actual request came from HR. HR simply has to say "We need these documents for administrative reasons" and that's it. They can also call the University and ask them for his transcript, to ensure he did follow the classes he claimed. If he cannot deliver and/or the university claims he has no transcript, he's probably guilty.

In any case, when you have determined your steps, contact a lawyer. You're dealing with a law-heavy case.