How to Hire Without Getting Sued

I used to do a lot of seminars and speaking engagements for various groups on topics relating to human capital.  One of the more requested topics was the title of this post.  There are a few good practices to be sure to consider in order to avoid suits from your candidates as you hire new people.  And hiring is beginning to increase!  This is the good news.

The bad news is that some new regulations have impacted the hiring environment and you need to be aware of these as you set about finding that long-awaited new hire.

The OFCCP has released recent guidelines around internet candidates.  If you use web job search services, such as Monster, Career Builder, Snag-A-Job or other such applications to advertise your open positions, be sure that you are clear about stating the steps in the process for applying for the job and the background and experiences you will require in order to be considered as a qualified applicant .   Otherwise, anyone who leaves a post or submits a partial request must be considered, whether they have the qualifications or not.

Also, ask all QUALIFIED applicants to respond to various requests throughout the process, such as attaching a resume, completing an application and returning it within the deadlines you communicate, providing complete references (phone numbers, names and job titles) of supervisors within any prior work experiences, or answering job related questions, in order to show their continued interest in the position.  If the candidate doesn’t respond, then drop them from the selection process.

One of the issues with using on-line services is that they are so accessible and you are likely to get many, many responses to any job postings you open up.  Without the extra steps, anyone who even leaves a partial interest has to be considered in the process, whether they have the qualifications or not.

Make sure that you establish the criteria for selection and stick with it.  If you post the job qualifications, then ultimately hire someone who lacks these qualifications, anyone who does have the qualifications and who applied has a cause of action to sue you for discrimination.   Not good.  If you find that the person you require is not within the pool of candidates who apply, better to close out the listing, refine the qualifications and repost the job opening than to just update the current listing.

Here is an example for you to ponder over.  Recently, a school district in New Jersey posted a job opening for a Kindergarten teacher.  In the ad, they stated that all candidates must be NJ certified, have security clearance, have a degree in Early Childhood Education and that they have 1 year in teaching children in grades Pre-K through grade 3.  Over 600 applicants applied for the job.

The School Board ultimately hired an internal candidate who had served as an aide for the Kindergarten class for 2 years.  She had a degree in Social Studies, not Early Childhood Ed, and had supported the teacher (not led the instruction of the class).  So in essence, the only requirement she met was that she had security clearance.  Hmmmm.  I would bet the farm that there were MANY individuals who did apply for the position who met the criteria better than the individual who was ultimately hired.  This would be a good claim to pursue, were you one of the candidates who was not interviewed or considered and who had the proper qualifications.

Treat all applicants the same and consider them on the merits of their qualifications, background and experiences.  If you don’t believe a person will fit your environment, because he/she has green hair, lots of visable tattoos and does not dress appropriately for a business interface with customers,  make sure that the person you do hire doesn’t also have a bunch of tattoos that you just didn’t see during the interview process, or that your secretary isn’t sitting at the front desk with his hair dyed Daffodil this week, since it is springtime.  Do you follow the line of reasoning?

When you start splitting hairs over how people dress and what they do in their personal life, you are bound to have some problems in the selection process over inconsistent selection criteria.  I am not even sure that we can require that people not to have Daffodil hair or visable tattoos these days.   But if you choose to set such requirements at your place of business,  ensure that you are expecting not just applicants to live within the guidelines and that you act to correct those individuals who work for you and fail to meet your guidelines.

Wait until the successful candidate has accepted the position and actually started work before you notify other candidates that the position has been filled.  I hate to tell you how many times I have been told that someone thought they had the job filled, then found out that the finalist has chosen to take another more suitable (in their minds!) position at the last moment.  This step of waiting will enable you to move to Plan B on your list, should Plan A not work out as planned.

There are many, many, many other things to think about as you hire, such as taking care when  handling confidential data, being sure to gather references and check backgrounds, paying the appropriate wage for the work of the position (rather than for what the candidate attempts to negotiate) and a raft of other considerations.  Happy Hiring!