ABA Family Legal Guide

Law and the Workplace

The Hiring Process

What should employers be aware of when conducting job interviews?

By their very nature, job interviews are subjective. Employers cannot help but form an assortment of impressions in judging an applicant's ambition, motivation, creativity, dependability, and responsibility. Realizing the inherently subjective nature of the process, employers should try to make an interview as objective (fact-based) as possible. Concentrating on objective information helps to avoid decisions made based on conscious or subconscious prejudice and focuses the hiring process on an applicant's qualifications and employment experience.

Employers should also try to make job interviews as uniform as possible. They should ask the same set of questions of all applicants for the same position. This allows for a better basis for comparison among applicants. It can also prevent discrimination in the content of a job interview. For example, asking an applicant "Do you type?" but not asking another applicant the same question could indicate discriminatory stereotyping if the applicant who is asked the question is a woman.