As I mentioned in a previous post, an Employment Practices claim can be made based on your initial hiring practices. Today’s post is all about eliminating discrimination in your dental practice from the application process to making a hiring decision.

Federal and State anti-discrimination laws are broad, including pre-employment job applications and hiring. You may be surprised how quickly a seemingly innocent question can make someone feel that they were discriminated against.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explains why these new laws were put in place:

“Employment application forms and pre-employment interviews have traditionally been instruments for eliminating, at an early stage, ‘unsuited’ or ‘unqualified’ persons from consideration for employment and often have been used in such a way as to restrict or deny employment opportunities for women and members of minority groups.”

The State of Utah Labor Commission is a fantastic resource for this topic.  I will give you a quick overview here, but I highly recommend that you take a look at their site for even more information on how to not only protect yourself, but to avoid potential discrimination claims.

ARE YOUR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES COMPATIBLE WITH DISCRIMINATION LAWS?

The rule of thumb is to ask yourself:

• Does this question discriminate against a protected group?
• Is the information provided by this question essential to the job?

During the interview process, it is normal to try to break the ice and get to know the candidate personally. You want to know if they will fit well with your team and if they will represent your practice in the appropriate way. Asking personal questions, though, can lead to a discrimination claim.

You will likely want to know if a candidate will stay with your practice for a reasonable length of time. Instead of trying to figure it out based on their answers to personal questions, such as their future plans for a family, simply ask them how long they intend to stay with you if hired.

One example I found that really struck me was about age discrimination. It is common to discover that we have mutual friends after learning where they went to high school or college. However, asking someone when they graduated could make the candidate assume that they weren’t hired based on their age.

As you can see, certain questions can make people feel discriminated against even if you are truly interested in them and not trying to eliminate them from being hired based on age or future plans.

For more information, please refer to the State of Utah Labor Commission.