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Grab something to write with and let’s take a quiz. The
results may save you from becoming embroiled in a costly lawsuit.
Check off the boxes next to the questions you can legally ask job
applicants either on your employment application form or in interviews: 1. __How many days were you sick last year? 2. __How did you learn to speak Russian? 3. __Are you a U.S. citizen? 4. __Have you ever been arrested? 5. __Have you ever worked for this company under any other name? 6. __What kind of car do you own? 7. __Have you ever been known by any other name? 8. __What clubs or organizations do you belong to? 9. __Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation claim? 10. __How did you break your leg? 11. __Do you expect the leg to heal normally? 12. __Is there anything in your religious beliefs that would prevent you from working on a Saturday or Sunday if needed? 13. __Do you rent or own your home? 14. __Are you currently taking any medications? 15. __Since you’ve volunteered information about your
medical condition, what accommodation would we need to provide were we to hire
you? The only three questions on the above list that are
legal are #5, #10, and #15. If you passed with flying colors, congratulations!
If not, read on. Did you know that 53 percent of U.S. employers have been
sued by job applicants, employees, or former employees and, of those that go to
trial, the companies, despite their high-priced lawyers, win only about 35
percent of the time? The real shame
of this is that many of these cases would never have been filed if the companies
had used a standardized, systemized hiring process and the hiring managers had
been trained in what can and cannot be asked during interviews. While your
lawyer can make sure your job application form contains no illegal questions, is
anyone monitoring every interview to make sure the questions asked in person
conform to the law? A survey by Bernard Haldane Associates underlines how real
the problem is. They found that more than one-third of 400 job-seekers polled
had been asked an illegal question by a hiring manager. Most of the illegal
questions pertained to race, age, marital status, religion, ethnic background,
or physical disabilities. Unlike Human Resource professionals, most business owners
and line managers are not well-versed in the fine points of federal employment
law. Therein lies the liability. Most of us have seen enough newspaper headlines to realize we
shouldn’t ask about race, marriage, religion, children, and age. There are,
however, two times these kinds of mistakes are typically made. The first is when well-meaning interviewers start
talking about themselves and their families. In an effort to “break the
ice,” they then ask questions more appropriate to a social setting. Although
their intention was just to tell the applicant a little about themselves, they
inevitably end up saying something like: “My daughter just joined the soccer
team. How about you? Any kids in school?” The second is when we get caught up in the interview
and spontaneously ask the question that comes to mind without a thought as to
whether it is discriminatory or could possibly be seen as discriminatory by the
applicant. Here’s a good example: You look at the application and notice the applicant attended the same high school you did, so you tell the applicant you share the same alma mater and say, “What class were you?” This innocent remark could make a case for age discrimination. Here’s the one that trips the most people up: “What
kind of car do you have?” This equally innocent inquiry presumes everyone owns
their own car. Whether a person owns a car or not has nothing to do with how
well they can do the job. The right way to ask this question is: “Do you have
reliable transportation? There are three ways to limit your legal exposure when it
comes to hiring: 1. Structured Interviews The best line of defense is a good script. We call it a
structured interview form. This tool is a literal way to make sure everyone is
on the same page – asking the same, legal questions of every applicant, every
time. We develop structured interviews by conducting a job
analysis, interviewing hiring managers and people currently successful in the
position, and through corporate surveys, but there’s no reason you couldn’t
do the leg work and come up with your own.
Doing the job analysis is the crucial part because this is where you
define what you’re looking for. Once finished, the job analysis tells you
which questions to ask to find out if the applicant has what it takes. The use of a structured interview ensures all questions are
not only legal, but tailored specifically to the job in question. And they
definitely guaranty better results than the “I’ll just wing it” approach.
While this tool is met with some initial resistance at times, it
doesn’t take hiring managers long to get used to following a structured
interview script. Once they understand that it keeps them out of legal hot water
and allows them to evaluate applicants more easily and fairly, they take to it
readily. 2. Training Interview training pays for itself in three ways:
Besides what can and can’t be asked, an interview
training program will cover the ins and outs of how to get applicants to tell
the truth, how to plan for the interview, which kinds of questioning techniques
work best, how to determine which questions to ask, as well as how to control
and how to close the interview. I find we get the best results – a higher rate of
retention and later use of the information learned – when we build our
interview training workshops around interactive experiences, so we usually start
with a fictitious, fun example and take what’s learned there and translate it
to a real world example. First we pick a fun job, like hula dancer, and brainstorm
the mental and physical capacities, attitudes, personality traits, and skills
needed to be a great hula dancer. From this list, we develop our interview
questions. This exercise produces only legally-sound questions because they are
naturally focused on what it takes to do the job and nothing else. Then we move
on to real life, and do the exercise for truck drivers or store clerks. 3. Policies & Procedures Manual If training or structured interviews are out of the
question, than the least, and best you can do is cover what can and can’t be
asked in your policies and procedures manual.
You could make this a long and complicated document, filled with examples
from the long and complicated EEOC and ADA rulings and guidelines, but you
really don’t need to. The minimum caveat every hiring manager needs to know and
remember is: “If it isn’t
related to the person’s ability to do the job as it is spelled out in the job
description, don’t ask it.” Don’t ask about daycare arrangements, or health, or past
drug use, or relatives, or age. If your real concern is whether they can be at
work on time, every day, instead of asking whether they have reliable child
care, ask: “Is there any reason why you might not be able to be at work on
time?” Stick to questions that tell you whether or not the person can do the job; it’s the best way to stay out of court. |
