The Legal Side:
How do you know that you, your hiring managers, or your HR department are making the most of candidate interviews? The first step is making sure that everyone involved with interviewing at your organization knows and understands the legal side of interviewing, what unconscious bias is, and how to avoid it. In 2019 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 72,675 claims of discrimination including discriminatory hiring practices. These need not be intentional, but can land your organization and brand in hot water nevertheless. Additionally, unconscious bias leads to inadvertently overlooking great candidates with a lot to offer. There are a plethora of laws and regulations that impact interviewing and hiring with more awaiting governmental approval:
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (sex, race, color, national origin, religion)
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Equal Pay Act of 1963
- Pregnancy Discrimination Act
- Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) (citizenship and national origin)
- National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (union membership, protected concerted activity such as discussing pay, benefits, and working conditions)
- Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) (membership or service in the uniformed services)
- Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
- Bankruptcy Act (credit checks)
- Child Support Enforcement Amendments
- Criminal History/Ban the box and more…
Best Practices:
Once this crucial foundation is in place, you can move on to designing the interview process to best fit your organization’s needs. Depending on the number of stages in the process and number of interviewers, you want to make sure that efforts are being maximized, information is being communicated between internal partners, and your candidates have a positive experience. Whether phone screening, one-on-one-interviewing, panel interviewing, or group interviewing, the process should be both consistent and documented for many reasons. Open-ended behavioral, situational, or motivational questions (and sometimes even role play) are the best ways to obtain the most information. Steer clear of yes or no questions, leading questions, or questions that have no relation to the position, the industry, or the required/desired competencies.
Other things to think carefully about are:
- Just what are the minimum qualifications to perform the job and desired qualities the ideal candidate will possess?
- The set of interview questions that will be asked of every candidate.
- How the process will be documented and shared with internal parties or other interviewers.
- How each candidate will be assessed. One part of assessing candidates is their knowledge, skills and abilities, but just as important is their attitude and passion/drive for your organization, its mission, and their role within that framework. Yes this can be measured!
- Controlling the interview can be critical to staying on-topic and avoiding some of the legal issues outlined above
- How and when will you be following-up with the candidates? Communication is key and expected. There’s nothing worse than being ghosted, and it will hurt your brand.