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Your employee referral program could backfire if it leads to too many employees who are alike in terms of sex, race, age or other protected characteristics. In fact, courts regularly penalize companies that rely too heavily on employee referral programs, saying they foster homogeneous workforces and perpetuate discrimination.

Under increasing pressure, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has entered the next phase of immigration enforcement—strict scrutiny of Forms I-9 and workplace raids.

In a significant new development, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division has issued a memo elevating immigration violations to white-collar crime status. At the same time, it’s also expanded a corporate whistleblowing pilot program to include immigration violations.

Earlier this year, the Littler Mendelson law firm surveyed 350 in-house lawyers, business executives and HR professionals and asked them what their greatest concerns were for managing employees this year. Here are their top three.

If you’re planning on hiring teenagers this summer, remember the Fair Labor Standards Act has strict rules regarding the jobs and hours teens may work.

During the hiring process, critical insights often emerge between the lines of résumés and during unguarded moments in interviews. For HR professionals, detecting these signals—whether they’re explicit comments that raise eyebrows or subtle inconsistencies in background verification—requires expertise and careful attention.

Despite the carefully planned interview questions and hiring rubrics, hiring decisions often hinge on one factor above all others: whether the interviewer simply likes the candidate. This personality-based assessment not only undermines objective hiring practices but perpetuates workplace inequities that follow employees throughout their careers.

ICE is looking for undocumented noncitizens who lack valid work permits, as well as employers that aren’t doing their best to hire only work-eligible employees. But even employers that seemingly have their I-9 paperwork in order may find an ICE officer in their lobby.

Having a group of employees interview job applicants is a great way to identify the best candidates. But a would-be supervisor may disagree with a hiring committee’s candidate recommendation. If that happens, be sure to document exactly why he or she rejected the committee’s choice.

Most claims of hiring discrimination are sparked by inconsistencies in the interview and selection process. That can include the types of people interviewed, the questions asked and even the length of the interview. That’s why it’s best to inject as much consistency into the interview process as possible.