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Discrimination in hiring is prohibited by federal and most state laws and should be avoided at all costs. Individuals who have been discriminated against can seek redress in civil court and it can cost your company dearly in both reputation and dollars. Discrimination is prohibited against the following protected classes or groups: race, national origin, age (40 and over), sex, disability, military service, religion and color. The questions asked during an interview are the most important part of avoiding employment law discrimination. The best way to avoid any mistakes is to ask the same exact questions to every candidate who comes to your business for a job interview.

Note taking is absolutely paramount when conducting an interview. The notes you take will be the only way to verify the facts garnered in the interview. Relying solely on memory will lead to thinking only about impressions. This leads to biases and preconceptions. Whether we realize it or not, everyone has developed biases and even if they are subconscious they can affect the way we view a candidate. Interviewing is more than a gut feeling, it's about finding the best person who has the knowledge, ability and experience to do the job. Note taking is imperative for successful hiring.

It takes an extremely hard working dedicated organization to make it in the business world today. Times are tight. People have less money to spend and there seems to be a constant barrage of bad news. Businesses who wish to succeed need to not only work hard, but also to constantly improve themselves and their organizations in order to achieve success. It isn't enough to just work hard, but they have to work smart and constantly look for ways to change and innovate.

Discrimination itself is not actually illegal. We discriminate every day. When we go to lunch we discriminate against some foods in favor of ones we like. When we make friends we discriminate against some people in favor of others and we do so because of personal like and dislikes. This type of discrimination is, of course, not considered illegal.

Poor listening in the number one weakness of interviewers. Poor listeners miss the important information that the candidate is giving them in the interview and as a result make poor hiring decisions. While this is a weakness for most interviewers, the good news is that there are ways to become a better listener and make the hiring decisions that are best for your company and for your own future as a manager. Plus, applicants who rate the interviewer as an attentive listener rate your company hirer even if they don't get the job.

Every good job interview has a format. A structure that is well organized and will lead to finding the best possible candidate without using preconceived notions or biases - an interview that uses more than a gut feeling to find the right employee for a job. When your interview is well prepared and has a structure it takes a lot of pressure off of the interviewer. The interviewer just needs to follow the structure and questions and they will feel confident that they have conducted a thorough examination of the candidate.

Many companies these days have chosen to do team or panel interviewing. This type of interview involves a group of co-workers who interview the applicant as a team. This allows for several different opinions on a candidate and can result in a better interview and thus a better hire. Because team interviews involve multiple people, organization is even more key than in one-on-one interviews.

Preparing for a job interview requires a few steps of preparation. A job interview is more than a gut feeling. All of your preparation should revolve around making sure that you ask questions that are behavior-based - questions that will get information about how your candidate handled situations in their past. Past behaviors are the best way to predict future behaviors and all of the preparation should revolve around the purpose of discovering these past behaviors. Because the interview is behavior-based, personal biases and gut feelings will be taken out of the equation and the selection process will more scientific in nature. You will get a better employee this way.

Take notes! Taking notes is one of the most important parts of an effective interview. Note-taking will allow you to go back and see exactly what you were thinking when a candidate gave an answer and what they said. It's easy to forget an interview after it happens. If you rely on your memory it leads to decisions based on gut feelings. Candidates are trying to project an image and this image might be all you remember.

Sexual Harassment is still one of the most important legal issues in the workplace today. Despite years of training and focus in the media, there are still incidences of harassment reported every day. Many times it occurs because employees receive no training or very little training, but even in companies where regular training sessions are conducted the rate of harassment is alarmingly high. It's imperative that as much emphasis be placed on making the training as effective as possible. This is where video comes in. Study after study has shown that the visual effect of video makes learning stick more than any other medium.