Manager’s interview notes cost company big
February 12, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Interviewing, Law, Special Report
Managers often aren’t too careful about the notes they take while interviewing job candidates — after all, no one else needs to read them, right? Wrong — they might be seen by a rejected applicant’s attorney.
Interview notes got a company in big trouble in this recent court case:
A hiring manager had a practice of jotting down the race and gender of each candidate he interviewed.
The reason: to keep track of who’s hired and who’s rejected and make sure none of the employer’s hiring practices accidentally weeded out members of certain groups.
The intention was good, but, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. An African-American employee sued the company after he was turned down for a job.
Once the court saw “African-American” written on his application, that was enough evidence to allow him and other minority applicants to file a class action suit against the company. You know what that means: It’ll have to fork over a hefty settlement or spend a fortune defending the claims in front of a jury.
Keep documentation clean
The lesson for hiring managers: You never know how the notes you keep for yourself will be interpreted by an outsider.
That’s why protected classes, such as race, sex, religion and disabilities, are off limits when it comes to interview notes. Even if it’s meant to prevent discrimination, a court may not see it that way.
Cite: Modtland v. Mills Fleet Farm
February 13th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
That was a silly mistake. Everyone knows you should never keep notes directly on the application. That’s what sticky notes are for! I guess he’s learned his lesson!
February 13th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I have completed many applications that have an affirmative action questionnaire on the last page which claims to be voluntary but I wonder if it really is. If this information is not used prior to the selection and interview process, why ask it at all? HR will know the answers to those questions as soon as they meet the candidate. (You can’t judge by the name alone – a well-known comedians wife’s name is Darlene Jackson and she is Korean – but you can usually tell if they are male or female) If the company is making sure it does not discriminate against certain protected classes, aren’t they inherently discriminating against “non-protected classes”? Or if there are affirmative action “guidelines” the company must maintain (unless documentation can be provided as to why not otherwise), doesn’t this result in the same thing? I have never answered the questions – and I have never gotten an interview with those companies either! (I also know I more than met the requirements for the position too). So if someone doesn’t answer the voluntary questions, does their application automatically go in the reject pile? Is there anyone out there in HR that can answer these questions (honestly) about applications that ask the “voluntary” affirmative action questions?
Regarding this case, I wonder what caused the applicant to sue in the first place? Simply because he didn’t get the job, or because he saw the manager write “African-American” on the application?
Now, let’s look at this another way: I notice that the race of the hiring manager isn’t mentioned, but based on the complaint, I would guess that s/he is white. I wonder if the interviewer was also African-American and had written the same thing on the application if it would even be an issue? What would the applicant think about that? And if he still didn’t get the job, would he think “Oh, I guess they hired someone more qualified” or “I was discriminated against!”? I think the elder because, other than a handfull of Affirmative Action-based complaints, I have seen very few of the latter. Which brings me to wonder if the case would even be considered if the complaint was “reverse-discrimination” (which I think is a ridiculous term – discrimination is discrimination regardless of whom it is directed to) where the interviewer was African-American and “white” or “Caucasian” was written on the application.
February 16th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I agree with Susan. But on another note, if a company is mandated to hire a certain number of minority workers then the race and gender questions must be noted and answered. I believe a mandated hiring is discrimination against anybody else who’s not considered a minority or protected class. I should be able to sue those companies for not hiring me because I am white. If everyone is to be treated equally then it should be equal across the board regardless of race, gender or age.
The only items of concern should be education, skill and experience. Everyone in the low or median income classes have the same opportunities – it just matters how hard you are willing to work. No one should be given or not given a job based on race. Discrimination exists and it exists on both sides so race questions on all applications (job, loans, assistance programs, college apps etc) should be thrown out completely.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I can only answer based on the process I follow. I keep the affirmative action questionnaire completely seperate from the batch of applications the hiring manager will review. In fact, usually it’s the admin who keeps them and returns them to me until the end of the process. Again, even if I have them during the process, they are not given or shown to the hiring manager. The hiring manager determines who he wants to interview based on the experience along with other things (length of employment periods, etc) and then returns applications to me with the list of those he/she wishes to interview.
I honestly want to think that the majority of the companies follow a similar process and that on the ocasions that you didn’t get interviewed it was due to them considering other applicants who more closed matched what they were looking for. What a hiring manager is looking for sometimes is beyond what is on the job requirement.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:48 am
i want notes for interviews