ASKING THE WRONG QUESTIONS CAN LEAD TO A LAWSUIT
Last week, the Miami Herald published a story written by Diane Stafford entitled "Ready to hire? Don't ask wrong questions". The story, referring to an article in The HR Specialist newsletter, listed a number of questions that may be asked during an interview that may be viewed as discriminatory. Some of the questions listed are:
Are you married? Divorced?
Do you have children? Do you plan to start a family?
Do you rent or own your home?
What church do you attend?
Do you have a disability or illness?
As Ms. Stafford points out, "Some of these questions might seem laughable. Some might seem logically designed to figure out how responsible and worthy the applicant might be. But the threat of lawsuits prompts employers to tread carefully in personal probing."
All of the above brings to light the use of the internet to conduct background investigations on potential employees (and even current employees). Sources for internet background checks include search engines such as Google, social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, high school or college web sites, and even corporate web sites where the applicant worked prior to the application for a new job. Sites that can be checked also include news sources, such as newspaper or television websites, public records, such as assets, lawsuits, bankruptcy and home ownership, and the websites of religious institutions.
While many HR professionals will not ask questions such as those set out above, many will not hesitate to use the internet to conduct background checks. They do so without realizing that they may get answers to questions that they otherwise could not or should not ask in the interview process. One may be able to determine sex, race, age, family status, religious affiliation and even disabilities by performing internet research.
Practice pointer. When conducting internet background checks for potential employees, HR professionals need to be careful where they look and what they do with the information they discover if the information can form the basis for a claim of discrimination if the applicant is not hired. Using the internet to conduct background checks may lead to claims of discrimination when an applicant is not hired.
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