As your business grows, you want to hire the right candidate. While they seem simple enough, hiring comes with many challenges, including the potential for discrimination to appear.
Even the accidental appearance of discrimination may land your company in hot water. In 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tallied up 61,331 charges of discrimination. The below tips may help you enhance your hiring process.
1. Draft detailed job postings
Care and thought should go into creating a job description. Doing so allows you to objectively detail the requirements of the job and provide potential candidates specifics that will help them determine if they should even apply. Pay special attention to the words used. Additionally, consider adding a brief and succinct sentence regarding your anti-discrimination policy.
2. Keep interview questions neutral and consistent
Although every interview has its unique nuances, ensure you always ask the same questions. Focus those questions on the duties of the job. If you need to probe further due to an answer, ensure you stay neutral and avoid any topics that may bring about legal issues.
3. Train all interviewers
Whether you have an HR team or one person doing the hiring, establish a training protocol. Any person conducting an interview should have a clear understanding of company policies and anti-discrimination laws. Conducting practice interview sessions helps ensure the interviewer can stay on task, even if asked non-neutral questions by a candidate.
Interviews have a way of bringing unexpected surprises. Careful planning and training help ensure you maintain standard processes across the board.
