Answer: Interviewing.
Another question: what’s the step in the hiring process that has the most likelihood of being legally challenged?
Answer: Interviewing.
In a review of 158 cases in the U.S. Federal Court involving hiring discrimination from 1978 to 1997, results found that unstructured interviews were challenged much more than any of the other 8 selection devices included in the review. Sixty percent of cases involved unstructured interviews. Of these 81 cases involving unstructured interviews, the challenge was successful in 59% of the cases and the organizations were found at fault. Meaning, there’s a lot of legal risk associated with unstructured interviews.
So, does this mean that we should steer clear of interviewing as a step in the hiring process for fear of legal risk? No—how interviews are conducted can make a big difference. By using structured, behavioral interviewing, you can reduce your chance of legal risk significantly. In the same study as mentioned above, only 9 charges were against structured interviews. However, of the cases that involved structured, behavioral interviewing, 100% of the cases were successfully defended. Basically, structured interviewing poses much less of a risk to organizations.
When reviewing these cases against interviewing, courts closely review three components:
