You’re in a precarious legal position if you rely on word-of-mouth recruiting to get the word out about job openings at your company.
Why? Because people invariably tell their friends and relatives–most in the same gender or race group as they are–but don’t tell anyone else. Word doesn’t get out to the wider community.
Using word-of-mouth has gotten one employer in trouble with the EEOC this week.
In a lawsuit filed this week, the EEOC alleges that ACM Services, Inc., a Rockville, Md.-based environmental remediation services contractor, violated federal law when it refused to hire women and African Americans for field laborer positions and subjected two female employees to sexual and national origin harassment before firing them.
The root cause of the failure to hire women and African Americans–unless you believe that the company was intentionally racist–was the reliance on word-of-mouth recruiting.
So cut that off if you are still relying solely on that. Otherwise you’ll find yourself in legal hot waters.
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Joe's HR and Benefits Blog 