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Hire Learning — Online Resumes Challenge EEOC Rules

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Every day, 36 million resumes are transmitted online. Employers are required to make an honest effort to determine each applicant’s sex, race and national origin to show they’re not being discriminatory in hiring.

Many employers say the volume of electronic resumes is making it difficult to meet the requirements, which were set by EEOC in the ‘70’s, before the Internet. An applicant’s attributes tend to be invisible on the Internet. It is the great neutralizer because the employer doesn’t see the applicant, they just react to the information on the resume.

That safety from discrimination makes it harder for employers to collect the data the EEOC needs to ensure companies are hiring a diverse workforce. Experts say that while there haven’t been any lawsuits yet against companies that have failed to keep their resumes in a row, that doesn’t mean companies can assume the rules are toothless. Larry Lorber, former US Deputy Asst. Sec. of Labor, said that it’s only a matter of time before lawsuits start popping up.

In an effort to patrol equal opportunity hiring but still be fair to employers, the EEOC has appointed a task force to review its resume guidelines, and they should be ready in about one year. The chief question will be just how the government defines the term “applicant”.

“There are all kinds of ideas that have been floated about, and I think it has to be a happy medium”, says Cari Dominguez, EEOC Chairwoman. It can’t be every one who clicks is an applicant, and it can’t just be the people who are interviewed.

“By the time you get to the interview process, you know that those individuals are probably meeting qualification requirements and are serious contenders. So there’s got to be something between the clicking and the interview.”

In the meantime, employers like Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company are coming up with their own solutions. They have received more than 800,000 resumes online since winning the contract to develop the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Whenever someone submits a resume through their site, a dialogue box pops up.

“Once they submit the resume, a form comes up and it tells them that it’s a voluntary disclosure form, and it asks them for the race, gender and national origin information,” says Jan Killion, lead recruiter for Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed stores the electronic resumes in its active files for a little over two years, and then moves the unused resumes onto permanent tape drives. The company has hired about 2000 workers since winning the contract. So even though only a fraction of the applicants are ever considered, the company still has to store and track every resume because every one is considered an application.

Mr. Lorber’s recommendation to employers: either implement a system similar to Lockheed’s or clearly state on their web site that they will only accept applications when they have open positions. Otherwise, applicants can legally assume that they are being considered for a job.

V. Godinez,
Dallas Morning News

EEOC rules on applications were developed before the Internet, and they just don’t mesh with the new technologies.

Cari Dominguez,
EEOC Chairwoman
 

NEW E-EMPLOYMENT CENTER

Achievement Tec is now offering customized e-Employment Center websites to enhance the application and pre-screening process of clients.

These unique sites will offer online applications, resume attachment capability, pre-screening criteria questions, as well as allowing the applicant to take an assessment—all before your company interviews the applicant. The sites can be customized to offer selected information about your company, its benefits, available jobs, etc.

There is no cost for the applicant to submit an application and resume or to take the assessment online.

Once submitted, you can then view the pre-screening responses – again, at no cost – to determine whether you are interested in pursuing that applicant.

When you decide they are a viable candidate, you can then view the application / resume at a cost of only $2 per application.

Still interested in this candidate? Then view the assessment to determine job-fit. Price to view the report is determined by the choice of assessment and the quantity purchased. Again, there is no cost unless you actually score it.

Consider the savings you will experience with your own e-Employment Center, both in reduced advertising costs and time required for your HR staff to call each applicant, ask pre-screening questions, and then make a determination of their potential.

To view an active site, go to www.acehiring.com. (please do not submit information, as this is a customer’s site)

There is a one-time fee to set up, secure & customize each company’s site.

“Most companies do not realize where this information comes from or how it is obtained, let alone whether or not they are compliant.”

POTENTIAL PITFALLS OF CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS

Criminal records can be obtained from online public databases, state repositories or direct from the county courthouse. This is where most employers are misled and confused.

First, online public databases may not be in full compliance with federal law, because their information is not up
to the minute, nor complete. You can tell if they are pulling records from this source if the turn around is very quick
and very inexpensive. For more info on this issue, check out this site: www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/allan.htm

Statewide repositories only contain contributed information from participating counties. The disadvantages here: records can be out of date; rarely include all available records; some states do not require counties to participate; are simply not available in other states, and tend to be slower and more restrictive than county searches.

County searches offer complete up-to-date records. They include convictions with full dispositions, as well as active warrants, pending cases, deferred adjudications, probations, dismissed counts, and more. All county records are up-to-the-minute and fully accessible to daily searches.

Although criminal records are considered public information, the employer must still obtain a signed Release from their job candidates, if they are using a consumer-reporting agency to retrieve these records. Additionally, the law requires a “separate disclosure” and a Summary of Rights to be given to the applicant. If you are missing any of these documents in your procedure, you may not be in compliance.

One more thought – be wary of vendors that tell you misdemeanor and felony searches are conducted separately – and billed separately. That happens in a VERY small percentage of counties.

Achievement Tec is a full service search firm. We do not utilize public databases; we conduct all of our record searches “fresh”, and we help you stay compliant.

 

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