Pre-Employment Testing and Associated Legal Issues and Challenges
Hiring is an essential process that plays a significant role in organizational success. A company with effective hiring procedures tends to benefit from lower turnover rates and higher productivity. Hiring the wrong people not only disrupts the management process but also wastes training and development resources. Pre-employment testing is one of the tools that ensure effective hiring process. Various pre-employment tests can be employed in the forthcoming hiring activity and they are associated to several challenges including legal concerns.
Individuals working in a trucking company, especially drivers, need to be free from drug issues to avoid accidents and other related inconveniences. Therefore, drug and alcohol tests would be significant in the coming hiring process. Drug and alcohol tests help to detect illegal drug use and excessive alcohol consumption that might harm one’s performance. When conducting these tests, however, there’s need to keenly observe the ADA regulations that requires confidentiality and prohibits access to lawful prescriptions of an individual’s drugs (Ford & Harrison LLP, 2000). The ADA also regulates the timing of the alcohol tests since its jurisdiction considers alcoholics as persons of disabilities.
The testing of performance of job-related functions and physical agility tests would also help to improve the hiring process. Applicants will be required to describe or demonstrate their ability to perform various activities to ensure they are allocated areas where they can optimally perform. Physical fitness testing including bending, sitting, walking, and lifting will be performed before applicants are accommodated. The ADA, according to Ford & Harrison LLP (2000), permits pre-employment test aimed at measuring applicants’ skills and abilities to perform various job-related activities. While we intend to make reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities, we will be keen to illustrate that the test is consistent for the required position and the business necessity in incidences of screening out applicants with disabilities.
There are various steps that the company should take when implementing the above pre-employment tests. We have to determine the necessary tests, develop tests that appropriately assess the skills, knowledge, abilities, and characteristics, and monitor use of the tests during hiring. Written or oral questions are effective methods of evaluating knowledge while skills are best assessed by demonstration. The tests to be used will be researched using appropriate guidelines including the Mental Measurement Yearbook (MMY), which provides regulations for commercially available pre-employment tests, and the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of 1978 (Chambers, 2015). The hiring team aims to make the tests accurate, convenient, and competitively priced.
These tests are beneficial but also have drawbacks. Pre-employment tests, as stated earlier, are pivotal in boosting the productivity of an organization and minimizing turnover. The process eliminates human bias by emphasizing the required skills and behaviors (Chambers, 2015). However, we run the risk of litigation if the hiring process is linked to any discriminatory practices or violations of regulations. We, therefore, intend to strictly follow the regulations of pre-employment testing. Another potential challenge would be tailoring the testing programs to suit candidates from foreign regions. To solve this, we will explore laws and customs that are prevalent in many countries and practice cultural tolerance.
The pre-employment tests to be performed are drug and alcohol, performance of job-related functions, and physical agility. These tests will help to hire the best personnel, thus, productivity and low turnover. The process is, however, faced with compliance and global issues. Therefore, there is need to strictly observe pre-employment testing regulations within the country and beyond.
References
Chambers, B.A. (2015). Evaluating pre-employment tests. Collector (0010082X), 80(122), 36-38. Retrieved from File 305473605- Evaluating Pre-employment Testing.
Ford & Harrison LLP. (2000). Pre-employment testing. Venulex Legal Summaries. Retrieved from File 305473605- Pre-employment Testing