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Having a list of references won’t do you any good if you can’t get them to open up to you about a job applicant. But if you are able to get an applicant’s former supervisor on the line, you’re halfway there.

With each change in administration, there’s a change in how federal agencies operate. When President-elect Trump takes office Jan. 20, expect rapid change at the U.S. Department of Labor.

At the very least, avoid using the term in front of applicants or in any written materials describing them, such as interview notes. Rejected applicants could view the term as an age-related code word, thus sparking an age-discrimination lawsuit.

When interviewing more than one candidate to fill a job, the easiest way to prevent failure-to-hire lawsuits is to ask the same questions of every candidate. That’s especially important when there are several rounds of interviews or when a committee conducts the interviews.

Our team recently engaged in discussions with both current and former officials at Homeland Security Investigations, the workplace enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In these discussions, beyond learning about the widely publicized plans to declare a state of emergency and to involve the military and National Guard in deportation and worksite enforcement activity, we gained insights into a few of the government’s lesser-known plans.

We’ve all thought it: “I just have a good feeling about this applicant.” Relying on subjective factors such as interview skills and personality is not the best way to pinpoint successful job candidates.

The crackdown on employing individuals not authorized to work in the U.S. is coming. Your I-9s will be front and center. Self-auditing them now and correcting errors will save you a lot of heartburn later.

The concept of negligent hiring is based on the legal concept that employers are liable for illegal or negligent acts their employees commit if the employer knew or should have known that hiring the person would put others at risk.

When President-elect Trump takes office in January, expect him to make good on campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration. While Candidate Trump promised during the campaign to immediately implement a program of mass deportation, President Trump is likely to encounter time-consuming delays due to logistics and litigation.

In recent years, states have cracked down on employers that try to predict whether someone is going to be a reliable employee and not put a costly strain on their health insurance premiums. A recent case illustrates the danger of demanding pre-employment information on health risks.