Discrimination: HR Trend: Degree Creep and the potential for Adverse Impact

By Michael Haberman

There is an HR trend underway that is having an impact on candidates, companies, the unemployment rate and the educational system. I refer to this trend as “degree creep” but it has also been referred to as degree inflation. While temporarily a plus for some companies it may lead to problems in the future including adverse impact discrimination claims. … Continue Reading

Good Job Descriptions Make Good Hires: A Candidate’s Early Access to the Job Description Enhances the Hiring Process (Part II)

By Mary Wright, Editor

(If you missed it, read Part I of this series here)

Picture this:  You have two candidates sitting in your waiting room.  One received the job description for the position he wants when he signed in at the front desk.  The second did not and is spending valuable time reviewing his or her resume hoping to answer your questions in a way that nets an offer of employment.

• Which candidate do you think will make a better impression on you?
• How much time do you think you will spend in with each candidate?  … Continue Reading

Hiring Employees: 4 Great Tips

By Carol Roth

Hiring an employee is one of the most crucial decisions that you will have to make as a business owner. Not only do you need to hire someone that you can trust with all of your business endeavors, but you will be spending a lot of time with this person too, so it is imperative that you can work well together. Since this process can be overwhelming and stressful, here are a few tips to keep in mind when hiring employees: … Continue Reading

If a New Hire Cannot Physically Perform the Job, He or She Can Be Terminated

Sometimes, a female applicant believes that she has the skills and ability to do a very strenuous job even if she hasn’t tried before. Especially if the job is in a largely male-dominated field, you may be tempted to hire her, even if only to avoid a potential sex discrimination claim.

Go ahead and give her a chance, knowing that if it doesn’t work out, you can terminate her. Just make sure you document everything. … Continue Reading

ADA: What is an Essential Job Function?

By  Tara Aschenbrand

This issue is particularly important in disability discrimination cases where an employee is a qualified individual with a disability if he/she can perform the essential functions of a job with or without a reasonable accommodation.  Thus, a key question both during the required interactive process in determining possible accommodations as well as in litigation is what are the essential functions of the job. … Continue Reading

Struggling to Find Hires? Take a Look at the Hidden Talent Pool

By Adam Kaplan

Each month, the U.S. unemployment rate remains stubbornly above 8 percent as companies decry the fact that they have jobs to fill but no one to fill them.

While it is true that some of these positions do require specialized skills that not many people have, a good many other job positions could be closed if the hiring manager did one or more of the following:

• Established more reasonable requirements, rather than a 20-point job description, while designing and developing on-the-job training to get the new hire up to speed fast.
• Pushed for more company-sponsored H-1B visasfor skilled foreign workers.
• Expanded searches to include people with disabilities.

People with disabilities make up roughly 15 percent of the U.S. working-age population, yet their participation rate in the workforce is roughly one-third of their non-disabled colleagues. … Continue Reading

A Quick Way to Make Traditional Performance Review Formats More About Employee Development

By  Kris Dunn

Quick idea today from the front-lines on performance management.  Regardless of how progressive you are, most HR pros are in various stages of implementation with a performance system that has the following horizontal components:

• Goal
• How we’re going to measure it
• How you did in the rating period in question
• Rating

You’ve got something like that, right? And it never seems like it’s about the employee’s development right?  To much suck, not enough sunshine. … Continue Reading

4 Things We Hate About Job Descriptions (and how to make them better!)

By  Cali Ressler

We love getting emails from our readers, fans, employees who work in a ROWE, and those who wish they did. We get to read your stories about how having complete autonomy over how to approach work is changing lives; it’s always a thrill to get those. We also read many Why Work Sucksstories; some of those really make us want to bang our heads against a wall out of frustration and sympathy for you. … Continue Reading

A Great Job Description Requires Constant Review and Revision

By the HR Specialist

There’s a good chance that what your employees actually do every day has little in common with what’s written in their job descriptions. That’s a problem. Inaccurate or in­­complete job descriptions can cause legal liability for ­­employers, especially if the EEOC or the De­­part­­ment of Labor comes calling.

Make it a practice to routinely review your job descriptions. It’s a good legal defense, and it will also help you recruit the right employees and manage their performance. … Continue Reading

Hiring — 5 Myths About Essential Job Functions

By Steve Bruce

“Chances are, the boss isn’t screaming, “Where are those job descriptions?” But come court time, come EEOC investigation time, come ADA lawsuit, it’s going to be, “What, you didn’t update the job descriptions?”"