You’re a well-intentioned employer.
You’d never deliberately favor a male job candidate over a female, or offer a man more money for the same job than you would a woman.
So why should you worry about the issue of gender discrimination?
Here are three good reasons:
- Good intentions don’t necessarily equal good hiring practices. Well-meaning employers can still be unintentionally negligent in hiring.
- Gender discrimination goes two ways. While most companies are concerned with discriminating against women, men can also be affected.
- We live in a litigious society. One small oversight can potentially lead to a lawsuit.
Not surprisingly, the best way to protect your CT business is by being prepared. Here are a few tips from A.R. Mazzotta. While they’re not a substitute for professional legal advice, they can help you prevent problems and hire smarter:
Start at the source. Fair hiring starts with fair recruiting. Ensure that your recruiting practices do not disproportionately favor or exclude one gender. Implement best practices from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to widen and diversify your candidate pool.
Review your hiring practices. As we stated in an earlier post, interviewers are prone to subjective biases – and may be completely unaware of it. Carefully inspect your hiring practices to make sure your team isn’t unintentionally favoring candidates similar to themselves. Train all interviewers to avoid asking illegal interview questions, especially those related to gender-based issues. Finally, require interviewers to delay hiring judgments about applicants and to always support their opinions with evidence.
Cast a wide net when recruiting. Use a variety of recruiting tools, including job boards, job fairs, social networking sites, your company’s website and internal job postings. Diverse recruiting tactics appeal to a broad group of potential applicants, both male and female. If your recruiting efforts have historically attracted more applicants of one gender than the other, make it clear that you welcome qualified applicants of both sexes.
State your hiring policies in a comprehensive employee handbook. By clearly spelling out your policies in writing, you can protect your company against hiring discrimination claims.
Self-monitor. Conduct periodic audits of pay rates for each position by gender, to uncover gender pay disparities. If you do discover discrepancies, act promptly to correct them.
Work with a reputable CT recruiter. When you work with a CT staffing agency like A.R. Mazzotta, we assume many of the risks associated with hiring – such as making sure that non-discriminatory procedures are followed. Simply put, we make it safer and easier to hire great people! To learn how we can help you minimize your hiring risks, contact A.R. Mazzotta today.