Most companies have an aggressive recruiting program that attempts to get talented prospects into the hiring process as quickly as possible. The hiring process often involves several interviews, a few personality tests, and then in-depth discussions with the departmental manager who is doing the hiring. But should you get a lawyer involved in the process as well? These days, it is important to have a lawyer look at your entire recruiting and hiring processes to make sure that there is nothing there to get your company in trouble.
The number of state and federal employment laws that affect your hiring process has increased dramatically in recent years. The processes and methods you used 10 years ago may very well be illegal now, and using them could get you into a lot of trouble.
You need to write out each part of your recruiting and hiring processes and let a lawyer look them over as soon as possible. Your lawyer will help you to make the changes that will bring your method back into compliance with all of the laws.
Another area of the corporate hiring process that has changed a lot is the kinds of questions companies can ask candidates in interviews and on the tests that are given. The laws have changed and people tend to be more sensitive to certain types of questions these days. One wrong question could have candidates questioning your entire process and causing you a lot of problems.
Unfortunately, the best way to handle this situation is to plan out all interview questions in advance and have them approved by your lawyer. If you want to give your managers a little room to improvise, then you would need guidelines for improvised questions that were approved by your attorney.
One area that has become extremely sensitive in any corporate hiring process is rejecting candidates for positions. Inevitably, you will have candidates contacting you weeks after their interview to find out where they stand in your process. For most of those candidates, indicating that you have settled on someone else is not enough of an answer.
This type of situation can be tricky because there are candidates out there who desperately want to improve their job hunting skills, but they cannot get the information they need because companies will not be specific in their reasons for rejections. But you also have the people who are angry at not getting the job and looking to sue the company for discrimination or some other reason.
When it comes to rejecting candidates, you need to have your attorney map out a process that the company sticks to in every instance. Your attorney will let you know what types of details you can give, how to address questions from candidates about rejections, and how you should execute the entire rejection process in a way that does not set your company up for a lawsuit.
If you do not have your attorney involved in your hiring process, then you could be making mistakes that could cost your company a lot of money. You need to get your lawyer involved and have them draft the recruiting and hiring policies that will keep your company's processes legal and fair.
