How To Avoid Age Discrimination When Hiring In The Workplace
When you are an employer or the person in charge of making personnel decisions, you need to understand the importance of age discrimination. When you hire employees, you can face severe legal issues if you discriminate against a candidate due to his or her age. The following are some important things to keep in mind to make sure you and those you are in charge of do not make hiring decisions based on another person's age.
What Is Age Discrimination?
Age discrimination falls into the same category as any other form of discrimination. The concept is not hiring someone because you think the candidate is either too old or too young to do the job for which you are hiring.
To help avoid age discrimination in the workplace, it is beneficial to attend and proctor some training sessions with all employees and members of management on age discrimination to ensure everyone is aware of what contributes to it. Make sure all employees have access to the proper training so that your company's age discrimination policy is clearly spelled out. Once everyone understands the concept of age discrimination, it is crucial to quickly identify any issues from that point forward and deal with them accordingly.
What Should You Consider When Making Hiring Decisions?
There are several things to consider when you are making your hiring decision. While a potential candidate may be older, he or she may be willing to stay with your company than a younger person who is willing to move around to different companies to advance his or her career. So, you would benefit from hiring older candidates.
Be sure to keep all aspects of age discrimination law while you are conducting the interview. For example, it is illegal to ask someone their age, what year they graduated from school, or anything else that lends to knowing their actual age. If you are in charge of a team of interviewers, be sure they are fully trained in age discrimination laws as well. If you or anyone in your company violates age discrimination laws, you could potentially face a lawsuit.
Once you fully understand age discrimination, you will have a better idea of how to hire based on capabilities and experience and not consider age. A good rule of thumb is to pair employees of various ages together so that they can work together and tap into each other's talents and experience. This is a great way to grow value in the company and create a healthy team.
For more information, consult an employment law office today.