Win lawsuits by documenting consistent, equitable interview process

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.

Follow these interviewing rules:

• Require hiring managers to submit interview questions in advance for your review. Look for questions that trigger discrimination claims, like lightning-rod queries about age, child-care plans, religion and disabilities.
• Tell interviewers to stick with the approved questions. Tell each interviewer to take notes on the answers.
• Have every interviewer sign and date their notes and forward them to HR for retention in case of a lawsuit.
  

Recent case: Donna sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, claiming race discrimination was the reason she wasn’t hired. She said an interview committee used subjective criteria to reject her.

The Port Authority explained that the committee asked all applicants the same questions, which were all job-related and designed to address applicants’ technical knowledge, general competency and communication skills. Plus, it said no interviewers “injected their own additional subjective criteria into the evaluation process.”

The court sided with the employer and dismissed Donna’s lawsuit. It concluded that no interviewers deviated from an approved-in-advance list of questions. Each noted their reactions to candidate answers, ranking applicants by assessing how they responded. (Glaesener v. Port Authority, 3rd Cir., 2024)