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How to Create a Fair Hiring Process (part 1)

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The hiring process is a higher-risk area of HR that can expose employers to potential discrimination claims and other legal challenges, if not managed properly. This is because by its very nature, hiring someone requires preferential treatment – only one candidate will make it to the end of the process. The line can be thin between rejecting a candidate due to lack of qualifications for the position, and rejecting a candidate due to implicit bias based on the candidate belonging to a protected category.


Every employer must take care to ensure that their hiring process identifies the best candidates fairly and effectively, without illegal discrimination. 


Read on for optimal practices in screening resumes and conducting interviews. And stay tuned for next week’s HR Snapshot, which will continue this theme of how to avoid discriminatory hiring by presenting necessary steps to include in your overall recruitment process. 


How to Screen Resumes


Before screening resumes, identify clear criteria of what you are screening for, and make sure those criteria are based on the job requirements so you can objectively evaluate candidates' qualifications, skills, and experiences.


Proper screening criteria are generally job-related, such as:


  • Number of years of experience in a relevant industry

  • Skills and proficiencies that match job requirements (e.g. fluency in another language, computer literacy, graduate-level degree)

  • Ability to present information clearly and concisely


IMPROPER screening criteria generally focus on personal characteristics, such as:


  • Gender

  • Age

  • Ethnicity

  • National origin


How to Conduct Interviews


As with resume screening, interviews should include a structured set of questions that focus on understanding a candidate’s ability to perform the job requirements, rather than their personal characteristics.


Here are some examples of questions TO AVOID during an interview:


  • "How old are you?"

  • "When did you graduate from college?"

  • "How much longer do you plan to work before you retire?"

  • "Are you married?"

  • "What does your partner/spouse do for a living?"

  • "Do you have children?"

  • "What childcare arrangements do you have?"

  • "Where were you born?"

  • "What is your nationality?"

  • "What religious holidays do you observe?"

  • "Do you belong to a particular church/religious organization?"

  • "Do you have any disabilities?"

  • "Have you ever filed for workers' compensation?"


Instead, ask about specific job-related experiences, problem-solving abilities, and situational responses to gauge how well candidates would perform in the role.


This could include questions like:


  • “Can you describe a time you faced conflict at work? How did you handle the situation?”

  • “What tasks make you feel the most energized? The least?”

  • “What do you like most about working in a team? The least?”

  • “Can you provide an example of a time you successfully managed a project from start to finish?”

  • “What is your familiarity with using Microsoft Excel?”


Consistency is Key!


Maintaining consistency in the hiring process is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of illegal discrimination. Use a standardized set of evaluation criteria for all resumes, and a standardized set of questions for all interviews. This approach allows candidates to be assessed fairly based on their skills and qualifications rather than subjective impressions.


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