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Many Human Resource Departments are so busy guarding their
houses against discriminatory hiring and unlawful firing that
the competition is just walking in and raiding their chicken
coop of talent.
Now I’m certainly not advocating a disregard for employment
laws but these laws and common sense seem to be growing
diametrically opposed to improving productivity and
profitability in today’s workplaces.
For example, a manufacturer was recently fined over
$600,000 for discriminating against minorities. Several years ago this
company implemented a requirement that all new hires must have
a high school degree or equivalency certificate. Sounds like a good
thing, right?
Wrong! By requiring
a high school education as a condition of employment, a
disproportionate number of minorities were disqualified.
Why? Because Blacks and
Hispanics have a higher dropout rate than Whites. Many of the jobs required
minimum reading
levels to follow the instructions and read the blueprints and
schematics. In order to
find people who could read, the company had to
discriminate. But
discrimination is illegal according to the government and so
this company was fined.
What happens now is the company lowered their hiring
standard and the next round of new hires didn’t complete high
school and can’t read.
If they can’t read, they likely will make more mistakes
and have more accidents. If they make mistakes,
it costs the company money, lots of money in re-makes and lost
orders. If they
have more accidents, they likely will be fined by OSHA for
safety violations, not counting the lost work-time and
increased insurances, but at least they won’t get fined for
discrimination.
Recently the government started to get a taste of its own
medicine. While
attempting to hire 33,000 airport screeners, they determined
that English proficiency and a good customer service attitude
were required as conditions of employment. Just four months short of
their deadline to fill all the vacancies, less than 6,000 have
been hired. Why?
Nearly half of all the candidates don’t show for the
English and Customer Service Skills testing. And for the half that
shows? Only half
pass the tests! Now in an attempt to
hire more screeners faster and to avoid challenges of
discrimination, the agency in charge is considering lowering
the standards. If
adopted, no longer will English proficiency or a good service
attitude be a required skill to guard our airports and keep
our skies safe from domestic and foreign terrorists.
If English proficiency and customer service aren’t required,
what will be? You might think that
an ability to recognize shapes would be a good test. These screeners are looking
for weapons on monitors and in handbags. Shapes recognition seems
to be a skill that is very job specific and
valid for this job. Wrong again! The shapes skills test
was dismissed as “potentially discriminatory
and to be avoided”.
The result - an airport screener was
fired this week for missing the .357 magnum
a passenger carried on a plane. While we protect the
right of every individual to be employed regardless
of their ability to perform, hundreds of people
are put at risk. So much for common sense.
And here’s the icing on the cake. Candidates applying to
become U.S. Marshals, the elite unit designated to fly
undercover and protect us in the event of an attack or
hijacking, no longer have to pass the marksmanship test. Why? Too many candidates
were failing.
Human resource professionals and senior managers must come
to their senses. When was the last time you heard about a
profitable company closing their doors because they hired the
best people? Maybe they
received a fine or two for rejecting an unqualified but
protected candidate but rarely if ever are they forced out of
business. On the other hand, how many businesses have closed
their doors due to a lack of sales or turnover even though
they had a squeaky, clean employment record with the
government? The
numbers speak for themselves – just open the business section
of any newspaper on any given day.
Sometimes selecting the most competent and
motivated employee may run afoul of all
the paradoxical and even hypocritical regulations
governing how to hire, promote and fire. But organizations who want
to employ the most competent and motivated
employees do what it takes to ensure that
their organizations remain productive, profitable
and safe – even when it means using a little
common sense.
CriteriaOne is the whole person approach
to hiring the right people, building the best
teams and keeping your top talent motivated.
To learn more about CriteriaOne or to become certified
in CriteriaOne, click here.
News Stories and Press
Releases
Cross-training makes
a strapping staff - August 16, 2002,
Central Penn Business Journal
Visions Marketing
Sees Clear Results with SELECT - August,
2002
Labor Storm Alert
- August 2002
Past Issues of The TotalView
is the Whole Person Approach blueprint that is helping
organizations to acquire an unfair share of
the best talent in the labor market.
The next Level 1 training workshop is scheduled
for September 27-28 2002. Learn when
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