Chatham-Kent is "ahead of the curve" when it comes to avoiding nepotism in their hiring practices.
The topic was brought up during Monday night's council meeting after Councillor Trevor Thompson brought forward a successful motion in 2017, requesting that a report be completed regarding hiring practices within the municipality.
Thompson hoped the report would help eliminate the public perception of nepotism in the municipality. He said he has received a few letters from residents accusing the municipality of unfair hiring practices.
However, the report presented to council showed that the municipality takes great strides to avoid such things.
Chatham-Kent's general manager of corporate services, Cathy Hoffman, said there have been policies in place for quite some time regarding family members in the workplace. She said being proactive about the issue is one of the reasons the municipality has, so far, been able to avoid any major problems with unfair hiring practices.
"I would say we are ahead of the curve in this regards," Hoffman said. "We did turn our mind to these matters really at the time of amalgamation."
The municipality’s employee code of conduct specifically addresses family relationships within the workplace and states that "nepotism, the appointment to a position or the receipt of an employment benefit based on one’s kinship or family relatives, is prohibited." It goes on to add that the municipality prohibits employment situations where relatives would be supervised by one another or given preferential treatment in being recruited or selected for vacancies.
The report stated that because Chatham-Kent is a large employer in a relatively small community, it is expected that there will be employees working for the organization that are related to one another.
According to comments made during the council meeting, there are currently around 130 relatives working in various departments across the municipality.
The employee code of conduct also has an employment of relatives policy that states "all employment-related decisions are to be free from any real or perceived improper influence based on family members."
During the interview process with the municipality, candidates are required to disclose if they are related to any municipal employees. According to Hoffman, there is no formal internal recommendation process for municipal staff who might know a potential candidate.
"Certainly we do have an informal method of referral and that's both from employees inside the organization and from colleagues out in the community," Hoffman said. "Sometimes you meet talent along the way, and we do receive referrals that way. Those individuals do still have to go through the formal recruitment process though."
Besides applying through the formal recruitment process, any family members of municipal employees who are considered for employment must possess the necessary qualifications and be considered the most suitable candidate for the job.
Thompson said on occasion he gets approached by residents who are curious as to why they never received an interview or a call back after they applied for a job with the municipality.
Hoffman said every job application is case specific and encourages anyone with further questions about their application to call the municipality's human resource department.