W2 400.2
a) Summarize and explain the major EEOC laws related to the recruiting process. How can recruiters and hiring managers reduce the risk of adverse impact?
b) Discuss three methods of recruiting to obtain a diverse group of applicants and explain why they are effective.
c) Explain the concept of employment at will. What are the risks and benefits of employment at will doctrine? How is the employment at will doctrine influenced by EEOC laws?
d) Application: Read the Module 2 Case and in-depth scenario 1. Draft a short memo to the founders of HSS to address the issues with the hiring practices. Specifically, address what laws or regulations may apply, organizational risks and discuss suggestions for how the hiring practices at HSS should be modified. You may use a word document if you like or provide your proposal in the content of your response window.
Module2: Surveying the Human Resources Management Legal
Environment
In your role as the new human resources manager for Human Solutions Software (HSS), you
have been talking informally to many of the employees at HSS. There are several issues that
have come up in your discussions.
When HSS first started more than two years ago, the hiring practices were haphazard. The main
method of recruiting new employees was to ask current HSS employees if they knew anyone who
had the qualifications that HSS needed. It was common practice to hire family members and
friends of established employees. Those practices are still being used today and have been
institutionalized by providing bonuses to employees who refer people to apply for positions at the
organization, who are eventually hired. In some cases, jobs appear to have been created to fit
with the qualifications of people whom some of the founders wanted to hire.
You have also been struck by the demographic characteristics of the employees. There are
roughly an equal number of men and women working for HSS, but men fill most of the higher-
level positions. Two of the founders are women, but there is a great deal of tension between
these two women and the other three founders. This tension seems to be based on the two
women wanting to set up a corporate structure that the men see as taking power from the
founders. It seems that the new HR department is one of the changes that is in contention.
There is also a lack of minority employees. The two African American and three Hispanic
employees are working in lower-level positions.
This morning you received a notice from the local office of your state employment security office
that a complaint has been filed against HSS. It appears that before you started as the human
resources manager for HSS, several people were interviewed for a mid-level software developer
position. The position was not advertised publicly, but several people applied for the position.
The person hired for the position is a friend of one of the organization’s founders. He is a 38-
year-old male. Other applicants for the position included the wife of one of the supervisors of
software development and a 54-year-old woman who is a friend of one of the female founders.
The woman who is a friend of one of the founders and was not hired is upset, and she filed the
complaint because she feels that she is better qualified than the person who was hired. She has
a bachelor’s degree and 11 years of experience developing software. The man who was hired has
an associate’s degree and five years of experience developing software.
After receiving the notice, you have made some informal inquiries as to what the reasons were
for hiring the successful applicant. The founder who handled HR issues before you were hired
confides in you that he did not want to hire anyone in their fifties because he wanted someone
who could “grow” with the company. The female founder who is the friend of the person who
filed a complaint is outraged that her friend was not hired. You talked to one of the software
development supervisors who was involved in hiring for the position, and he told you that he
wanted to hire the person who was hired because the person who was hired had experience that
was more directly related to the type of software that needed to have developed.
The founders are aware of the complaint and want you to educate them on the situation. They
want you to inform them as to what laws or regulations may apply and to come up with
suggestions as to how the hiring practices at HSS should be modified. Draft a short memo in
which you address the following
• What laws or regulations may apply
• The organizational risks of the current hiring practices
• Propose suggestions for how the hiring practices at HSS should be modified.
Be sure to provide good sources to support your suggestions.