The legal issues in the process of selecting new employees are sensitive and must be treated cautiously by the managers in charge. Legal knowledge for managers in charge of employee selection processes helps alleviate legal problems. On the other hand, ethics in the selection process is important in ensuring that all candidates are treated in a fair, transparent, just and professional manner. Ethical issues affect employees and employers the organization.
Overview of legal and ethical issues
When conducting an employee selection process, the human resource department experiences several legal issues. These issues must be carefully addressed to avoid any negative implications after the process is complete.
Drug testing and pre-employment premedical
Drug tests are important during the employee selection process because they are used to establish whether potential employees abuse drugs. Furthermore, they are used to determine the individual’s honesty and character. However, drug tests cannot be conducted at will because the law regulates them. The potential employees are protected by law from forced drug tests. Therefore, drug tests cannot be conducted on individuals who are not yet employees of an organization.
A pre-employment medical is a medical test procedure conducted on potential employees before they are employed in an organization. Some organizations require potential employees to undergo these tests to ensure their employees do not suffer from some medical conditions. However, the law protects all potential employees against employment discrimination based on their health or medical conditions.
Credit and background checks
Employers insist on checking the background information of their potential employees to ensure they are of sound mind and good conduct. Furthermore, there is the need to check the credit history of potential employees. This helps in determining if the individuals are responsible and trustworthy before employing them. However, the law provides a specific manner in which the background and credit checks should be conducted to avoid infringing on the privacy of potential employees.
Immigration and alien hiring
Hiring individuals from different countries or continents is not similar to hiring citizens. Immigrants require work permits and must be legally allowed in the country before they can be considered for jobs. The hiring of noncitizens must be done in line with the law. Failure to adhere would imply that the organization violated labor laws when hiring immigrants in a similar manner as citizens.
Presentation of false information
Potential employees may give false information about their personality, skills, experience and knowledge to gain advantage over others. This is an ethical issue that employee selection specialists must stop to ensure only qualified individuals get jobs.
Employment contracts
Employment contracts are a sensitive legal matter which employers must strictly follow the laws while preparing. Employee contracts are binding for both the employer and employee. Therefore, all terms and conditions must be keenly weighed and discussed avoiding disagreements in future. The formulation of employee contracts is clearly stipulated in labor laws and must be followed. The type of employment must be specified, whether interim or permanent and the termination terms must also be clearly spelt. Wages and salaries should also be specified in the employment contract.
Human resource manager, Gilliland-Moore wines
Legal and ethical implications of employment contracts vary depending on the type of employment contract. Employment contracts can be for interim or permanent jobs. The employment contracts also differ depending on the level of employment in an organization. The legal implications of the employment vary from the binding terms of the contract to the potential legal action taken if the terms are broken by one or both parties. The employment contract has terms on wages, bonus earnings, work specification, termination terms and measures taken if the contract is not adhered. Once the employer or the employee does not adhere to these terms, the affected party has the right to take legal action against the other. Other legal implications are the terms of termination of employment contract. If one party decides to terminate the contract, they will have to pay the other party for the early termination. However, the contract termination could be mutual.
There are several ethical issues in employment contracts. Ethical issues in employment contracts include transparency and honesty when enforcing the contract. In addition, some employers include terms in employment contracts that limit the freedom of employees. Other employers also intentionally misuse their high bargaining power to underpay their employees. Lastly, some employees also use false information to bargain for better terms in employment contracts than they deserve. These are unethical practices make employment contracts inefficient.
Gilliland-Moore Wines should formulate employment contracts for its new employees in line with the legal requirements. The contracts must be formulated by experts with legal knowledge in employee hiring. This will help avoid legal conflicts between employers and employees. The contracts must also be enforced strictly according to the terms. Ethical issues can be mitigated by ensuring that the selection process is conducted thoroughly by competent individuals. Potential employees must also undergo background checks to ensure the information they provide is true.
References
Cascio, W. F., & Aguins, H. (2005). Applied Psychology in human resource management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Edwards, J., Scott, J. C., & Raju, N. S. (2003). The human resources program-evaluation handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Losey, M., Meisinger, S., & Ulrich, D. (2005). The future of human resources management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
