I am currently in the job market so this review of interviewing is very timely. I have also been involved as manager in several organizations and have been faced with the responsibility of hiring the best candidate for a position; both directly and as a senior manager responsible for others conducting the hiring. It is a complicated and it is always difficult to find the right person to hire. First, there is a need to understanding what you can and cannot ask during the application and interview process. What is legal, what is not. Next, how do you conduct the interview, what is the best interviewing technique? Should you use situational or behavioral style questioning, question the candidate’s job knowledge or review worker requirements? In some cases you will need to use some of all of these techniques. And, you will need to be flexible to adjust the techniques to match the level and kind of job you are hiring for.
During a job interview, have you ever been asked any of the following questions?
- Do you have kids?
- Are you planning on having kids?
- How soon?
- Are you married?
- Thinking about getting married?
- To a man or a woman?
- What do you think about working in an all-female department?
- Newsome, what kind of a name is that?
- Are you a U.S. citizen?
These questions are all illegal. If you haven’t had a lot of experience interviewing, it might seem difficult to identify interview questions that are not legal, so here are a few identifiers: any questions that touch upon your age, race, national origin, gender, religion, marital status or sexual orientation are not OK. Illegal interview questions have been around for as long as there have been interviews. Being asked an illegal question, whether overtly or in a more surreptitious way, puts the job candidate in a quandary and puts the hiring manager and their company at risk. Most of the time when inappropriate questions are asked it comes from a place of ignorance rather than maliciousness. But illegal questions might signal many negative aspects about work culture and toxic employees, or they might just be dumb questions.
In the assignment video there are fifteen questions to consider either as legal or as illegal. There are eight that should be considered inappropriate or illegal.
- Are you a US citizen?
While this might sound like it is a passable question, it is not. A better way to ask would be, “Are you legally eligible for employment in the United States? Or, “Are you authorized to work in the U.S.?”
- How many children do you have?
Marital and family status is not being interviewed. Anything regarding the candidate’s living situation, roommates, fiancés, spouses, children, etc., is off limits. It is natural for an employer to want to gauge how busy you are in your personal life and determine if it interferes with work responsibilities. But it is illegal to make a hiring decision based on this factor. If you can commit to the necessary work hours and agree to the job requirements, your other responsibilities shouldn’t matter.
- Have you ever been arrested?
It seems reasonable to want this information but in the US you are innocent until proven guilty. It is possible that you were arrested but not convicted. A better way to ask this type of a question would be, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime? If so, when, where and what was the disposition of the case?” This question is probably better served as part of the application where specific legal clauses can be included and reviewed. Most job applications include questions about felony convictions, along with a disclaimer saying that a conviction won't necessarily remove you from consideration. EEOC policy requires that employers must weigh a variety of elements when factoring convictions into hiring decisions. These include the nature and severity of the offense, the time that has elapsed, and whether the offense has any relation to the position advertised.
- What charity work do you do?
This is an inappropriate question as it can easily cross over into questioning a candidate’s religious affiliations or even race. You might be able to ask what types of hobbies do you have?
- Do you need any special accommodations to do the job?
Another tricky question when it comes to dealing with potentially disabled candidates. Fortunately, the rule is fairly straightforward; if there is no reason to believe that the applicant is disabled, you cannot ask whether the applicant needs any special accommodation. If there is a reason to believe that the applicant is disabled, because it's obvious or because the applicant told you about a disability, then you can ask whether the applicant needs any special accommodation.