How To Avoid 5 Hiring Practices That Can Land You In Court

In today’s economy, there are fewer positions to be filled than there are applicants looking for work. Many human resources departments and staffing agencies are accepting far more job applications than ever before.

You’ve probably received an influx of applications as well—and if you are not handling those applications properly, you could be in hot water with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and could put yourself at risk of litigation.

Three out of four businesses nationwide perform background checks, including criminal checks and credit reports, as part of their pre-employment application process. The increase in recent pre-employment screening has flagged the attention of the EEOC and has drawn the commission’s scrutiny in a way that could significantly impact your business and hiring practices.

As part of its 2008 initiative, E-RACE (Eradicating Racism and Colorism from Employment), the EEOC has focused its regulatory efforts on the language in employment applications and the impact that preemployment screening has on hiring. In a recent high-profile case, the EEOC filed suit against a well-known temporary staffing firm, claiming that the company’s policy against hiring individuals with criminal records has a disparate impact on African-American applicants.

Although the EEOC’s case was found to be meritless, this incident and other pending litigation should serve as an eye-opener for any business using background checks. Your business could incur extensive damages if you use blanket policies against hiring felons, fail to treat all job applications the same way or take improper action on something as simple as using a check box or running a background check. We are providing this guide as a tool to help you determine if your pre-screening and job application processes are in compliance with EEOC guidelines and other regulations. The following tips will help to ensure compliance with regard to pre-screening and hiring, but they only scratch the surface of a very complex issue.

Here’s the million-dollar question: how do you know if your hiring processes are compliant?

If you make decisions about hiring practices you should participate.

You will learn five common mistakes that employers make during the hiring process and how to avoid them. For example, Pepsi just settled for $3.1 million. Pepsi could have avoided one simple common mistake. Learn how to avoid this and four other common mistakes that can land you in court.

You can review the five tips at http://www.pre-employ.com/safehiring/ Or watch http://www.youtube.com/preemploy#p/a/u/0/L7rUfXgXcyM

		Joe McKenna Pre-employ.com Family of Companies View Profile