Employers with the best of intentions can get tripped up by “stealth” violations of testing discrimination laws, says Fay Hansen, blogging on the Workforce Management website.
Fay Hansen points out several situations in which employers get into trouble with their testing.
Jobs change
The first stealth problem is simply that jobs change. In today’s work environment jobs change frequently, says Hansen, and that can leave you with tests and job entry requirements that no longer are “job-related business necessities.”
Take that 100-pound lifting requirement described in yesterday’s Advisor. Have mechanical lift aids eliminated the requirement?
How about a position where data entry keyboarding speed was once an essential function, but now data are scanned or sent in electronically? Now the essential function may be database management.
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One Pool Feeds Another
Here’s another hard-to-find “stealth” problem, says Hansen. Say you select supervisors from the pool of laborers. That’s a typical approach. And let’s say those laborers all had to pass that requirement of being able to lift 100 pounds. However, the supervisor’s role does not require that lifting ability. Now youhave a stealth violation. In effect, you are imposing a 100-pound lifting standard on candidates for a job for which that requirement is not jobrelated.
Blanket Testing
Some blanket standards may seem reasonable, but often there are some jobs to which the standard should not be applied. For example, says Hansen, when you impose a standard that says, “Everyone needs a high school diploma” on all applicants, including applicants for menial jobs, you may be imposing an unlawful standard that isn’t job related.
Online screening
HR.BLR.com notes that the vast majority of tests are available online. Screening applicants online saves employers time and money by helping hiring managers determine early in the process which individuals are qualified for an interview. Many times the questions can be structured so that those who are clearly unqualified can be automatically screened out.
But there can be a stealth violation here if access to the screening isn’t readily available. Be sure that you make the testing available to all, and be prepared to offer accommodations for the testing process to applicants with a disability.
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