Several cases have recently come to light in which, in the selection process for a specific position in a company, candidates were asked to take a pregnancy test. This test has no type of connection with the position in question nor is it lawful or legal and in fact the company in question has been reported and fined But it’s not the only case.
In many personnel selection processes, aspects that do not concern the company or affect performance in the position offered are questioned. Some of them are even illegal. Precisely that is what we are going to focus this article on: the realization of illegal questions in a job interview
We live in a world where the job market is competitive and there are a large number of people interested in practically any possible job that can be created. Thus, when a company needs to fill a vacancy or expand and makes this demand visible, it usually receives hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of responses. And in that situation, you must choose between the candidates by filtering the opponents in a more or less systematic way something that has been done for thousands of years (it was already done in the Chinese Empire).
Personnel selection is the process by which the company, after establishing the criteria regarding the type of worker it is looking for and the knowledge needed to fill the position in question, proceeds to search for the candidate who best suits the position. For this, different techniques are used, such as psychometric tests that measure the subject’s ability in certain areas. Another of the main pillars in personnel selection is the interview.
In a job interview, a subject belonging to the corporation or company in question or directly interested in hiring a worker establishes an interaction in which you can observe the characteristics and/or aptitudes of the candidate and evaluate whether or not you may be suitable for the position offered through a series of questions or even activities.
The functions of the job interview are to have a first contact with the applicant for the position and collect information about their suitability as a candidate, in terms of knowledge, skills, aptitudes and attitudes that may be useful in the position offered in question. . But they should be limited to that: they should not enter the subject’s personal life unless it is essential for the exercise of the position.
What questions are illegal in a job interview?
Sometimes, the questions posed by the interviewer can go beyond these limits and refer to aspects that have nothing to do with the functions of the job or the skills of the individual. These questions are illegal because they violate the right to privacy, in addition to potentially involving discrimination and exclusion for reasons beyond one’s own professional competence.
Among the aspects that should not be questioned are marital status, sexual orientation, expectations of having or not having children physical characteristics (unless it is a necessary requirement for the position in question), the presence of physical or mental illnesses, race or nationality, religious or political beliefs (including information related to where one is active, in the event that one is active). do) or details of personal life irrelevant to the exercise of the profession (this does not include asking for examples of situations in which you have had to use a required skill, for example).
Thus, frequently asked questions such as: Do you want to have children in the near future? or are you married? They are illegal. If you intend to evaluate other aspects based on these questions, other strategies should be used. Even something as seemingly innocuous as age is not relevant (the same is not true of professional experience).
And it is that These questions can generate bias that leads to discrimination for ideological reasons, gender and sexual orientation or race or religion, which is against what is established by law. For this reason, although we can decide to answer them, we also have the option of refusing without it having to harm us. It is also possible to file a complaint with the labor inspection, which may result in a sanction or fine for the company in question.
Why do they do them?
Due to the high prevalence of this type of question, it is legitimate to ask why it is asked.
In some cases can be done simply to observe the candidate’s reaction to the question in question. It should be taken into account that this is a selection process and, taking into account the importance of attitude when carrying out a specific project, observing how a subject behaves when faced with a strange situation or an uncomfortable or unexpected question can serve to elicit the way of thinking and acting in the face of pressure or surprise.
In these cases the content of the answer is not relevant, but what would be valued would be the way in which the candidate answers it or even the way in which he does not answer it. That does not mean that it is still an illegal question.
However, in the vast majority of cases, what is intended with this type of question is simply to obtain direct information regarding the person’s life in order to do so. try to predict your productivity For example, if a woman is pregnant or plans to have children in the near future, the company may think that it is better to hire someone who does not have such plans, avoiding aspects such as granting maternity leave or looking for possible substitutes.
