C234 Workforce Planning: Recruitment and Selection - Set 3 - Part 1

Correct Answer: Protecting individuals from unlawful discrimination and ensuring fair treatment

Employment law establishes minimum standards protecting candidates and employees from discrimination and unfair treatment while defining employer obligations.

Correct Answer: A trait such as race, sex, or age that law shields from employment discrimination

Protected characteristics are attributes such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability that anti-discrimination laws forbid using in employment decisions.

Correct Answer: A candidate's job-relevant skills and experience

Hiring decisions must rest on job-relevant qualifications such as skills and experience, not on protected characteristics.

Correct Answer: It can suggest discrimination based on protected characteristics

Questions about family or marital status are not job-related and can indicate discriminatory intent, exposing the employer to legal risk, so they should be avoided.

Correct Answer: Are you able to perform the essential functions of this job with or without accommodation?

Asking whether a candidate can perform the essential job functions, with or without accommodation, is job-related and lawful, unlike questions about protected characteristics.

Correct Answer: The fundamental duties that a position exists to perform

Essential functions are the core duties central to a role, distinguished from marginal tasks, and are central to accommodation and disability-related determinations.

Correct Answer: It must be job-related and necessary for effective performance

When a practice causes adverse impact, the employer must show it is job-related and consistent with business necessity to defend it legally.

Correct Answer: Proactive measures to improve employment opportunities for underrepresented groups

Affirmative action involves proactive efforts to expand opportunities for historically underrepresented groups, with specific requirements varying by jurisdiction and context.

Correct Answer: Demonstrating fair, consistent, and lawful decision-making

Documentation of criteria, evaluations, and decisions provides evidence that hiring was fair, consistent, and based on job-related factors if challenged.

Correct Answer: It can create disparate treatment and legal exposure

Applying criteria inconsistently can mean treating similar candidates differently, which may constitute unlawful disparate treatment and undermine defensibility.

Correct Answer: Tests must measure characteristics genuinely needed for the job

Pre-employment tests must assess abilities genuinely required for the job to be fair and legally defensible, particularly where they produce adverse impact.

Correct Answer: When it is job-related, lawful, and applied consistently

Criminal history checks should be job-related, comply with applicable laws that may restrict their use, and be applied consistently to avoid discriminatory impact.

Correct Answer: Delaying inquiry into criminal history until later in the hiring process

Ban-the-box laws remove criminal history questions from initial applications so candidates are evaluated on qualifications first, reducing unfair early exclusion.

Correct Answer: They can perpetuate existing pay disparities and may be legally prohibited

Basing pay on prior salary can perpetuate historical inequities, and many jurisdictions now prohibit asking about salary history for this reason.

Correct Answer: Providing equal pay for work of equal value regardless of protected characteristics

Pay equity requires that employees performing equal or comparable work receive equivalent pay, with differences justified only by legitimate factors such as performance or experience.

Correct Answer: Employees are subject to employer control and receive certain protections contractors do not

The classification hinges on factors such as behavioral control and integration into the business, and employees receive protections and benefits contractors typically do not.

Correct Answer: Legal penalties and liability for unpaid taxes and benefits

Misclassification can result in liability for back taxes, benefits, and penalties, since authorities enforce proper classification based on the actual working relationship.

Correct Answer: Employment that either party may end at any time for any lawful reason

Under at-will employment, common in the United States, either party may end the relationship at any time for any lawful reason, subject to important exceptions.

Correct Answer: Termination that violates anti-discrimination law or public policy

At-will employment does not permit terminations that are discriminatory, retaliatory, or violate public policy or an implied or express contract.

Correct Answer: Dismissing an employee in violation of law or contract

Wrongful termination occurs when a dismissal breaches anti-discrimination law, an employment contract, or public policy protections.