Question
As the human resources manager, you want to ensure that your company’s hiring practices follow all applicable laws and preserve the rights of employment candidates.
Develop a questionnaire that managers at your company will use when they are interviewing applicants. This document must contain the following:
- The name of the position for which the candidates will be interviewing
- At least 12 permissible questions that will be asked to all candidates
A summary of illegal questions that should never be asked in the recruitment process
Answer
Interviewing Questionnaire
Interview questions should be carefully selected so as to preserve the rights of employment candidates and to ensure that the company’s hiring practice are in accordance with all applicable laws. Interview questions should aim at evaluating the suitability of the various job candidates in respect to the vacant position. The questions should be carefully selected by the HR team to ensure that the selected candidates are the right ones for the job. The following set of questions will be suitable for interviewing job applicants for the position of Payroll Manager at Walmart Retail Corporation.
- Tell us a bit about yourself.
- What are your major strengths? In line with this, what do your consider as your major weakness?
- You have been working at company X. What is the reason for leaving your job? In other words, why do you want this job?
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time with regard to the position you are applying?
- What was your previous job salary, and what salary are you looking for currently?
- Why should we hire you as the Payroll Manager?
- Describe to use your greatest failure. Did you learn anything from the failure, and how did it change you?
- Now that you are interviewing for the position of a payroll manager, what are some of the actions you can take to improve the current payroll system at the company?
- What enterprise resource planning systems are you familiar with?
- Suppose that a very upset employee comes to you complaining about an inaccurate pay. This is the second time the employee has received an inaccurate pay. How would you handle such a case?
- Describe some of the critical employment laws that guide this industry.
- Can you describe yourself as an organized person?
There are a number of illegal questions that cannot be asked to the candidates. These are the kind of questions that do not either relate to the current job position or go against the employee rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws any form of discrimination by employers based on color, religion, sex, gender, origin, and race (Capozzi, 2006). Similarly, employers should not ask questions relating to any of the outlawed forms of discrimination. The following is a set of questions that will not be asked to the job candidates.
- How long have you lived in the U.S., and what is your country of origin?
- What are your plans with regard to having children, are you planning on having children soon?
- Do you have any children?
- Are you aware of any pre-existing medical conditions that may impact your career once you are hired? Do you currently take any medications?
- What religion do you profess? In line with this, how many holidays do you expect to celebrate yearly?
- How many times have you spend nights in jail? What was the cause in each of the case you identify?
- How well do you think you can perform the duties associated with this position compared to men (for a woman candidate and vice versa).
- Do you currently have any debts?
- Are you an alcoholic? How often do you use drugs?
- What is your current age?
In conclusion, it is important to carefully select the interview questions. Some interview questions are not only offensive but are also a form of discrimination. For instance, employers should not ask questions relating to gender, country of origin, religion, or other such questions which may contribute to discrimination.
Reference
Capozzi, I. Y. (2006). The Civil Rights Act: Background, statutes and primer. New York: Novinka Books.
