Today I interviewed a potential new hire.  He met the person-job fit and person-organization fit requirements that I look for in an candidate.  The manager of the department he would be working in was also in the interview and liked the candidate. 

 Our only issue is, during the interview, the candidate gave us way too much information into the financial standing, equipment, and capabilities of a competitor of ours that he has recently left.  He wasn't malicious in doing so.  In fact I don't believe he was even aware.  He was basically just talking and using his experiences there to compare to what we were telling him so that he could get a good understanding of what we do.

 My concern comes from the fact that he mentioned, on more than one occassion, that he was still good friends with a former supervisor from the other company who was envious of our operations.  I'm concerned that if we hire this guy, and he and his friend are sitting around the dinner table talking shop - since they'll be in the same field - that he'll unknowingly give away company trade secrets to a competitor - whom we are currently beating in every area.

 How would you go about addressing this concern with the new hire?  We like the guy and want to bring him in.  What would you say?  What setting would you do it in?  Before or after an offer is made?  Would you even bother with it?

 One of the solutions I've considered is addressing the concern with him during the next meeting where we plan to make an offer, then offering training in the area of "conflicts of interest" which is typically required of all new hires anyway.

Non disclosure agreement.  They don't carry the same weight in all circuits: consult counsel.

TXHRGuy:

Non disclosure agreement.  They don't carry the same weight in all circuits: consult counsel.

A non-disclosure is mandatory on all new hires already.  My concern is with the casual, unconscience "leaking" of confidential information.  If the intent was malicious, and/or after the termination of employment, then I might recommend taking action against the individual for violation of non-disclosure.  However, if he is a current employee, and the intent is not malicious, I wouldn't want to take action but would rather find another means of rectifying the situation.

I'm thinking that the best strategy may be a direct conversation with the candidate to express the concerns.  What I don't want is to create contention, or a sense of "lack of trust" before the candidate even starts.

The candidate may not be under NDA with his former employer.  If that's the case, he may not be doing anything he isn't entitled to do.  There's nothing wrong with being hired from Pepsi by Coke and telling Coke how Pepsi works as long as there's no NDA in place.  We do that all the time by demanding of job candidates that they have experience.  In the end, it's about making sure they know certain things about how stuff gets done in their profession but they only have that information from educaitonal experiences and the context of their prior employer(s).

In short, if the guy isn't under NDA, he's not doing anything bad and, under your NDA, he may not engage in that sourt of conversation.  If, because of your industry (e.g., software development), you know that he's under NDA, I think you already have good reason not to hire this person because he has an integrity problem and it's unlikely that a short discussion (or a long one) will resolve that problem.