Handling Job Interviews

Interviewing for employees in the San Francisco Bay area is no longer a routine process, but one that must be approached carefully to avoid violation of various employment laws.

Federal law states that no one can be refused employment on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability.  Employment qualifications based on these categories must be bona fide and reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the business.

Not only do you need to be careful in the interview, but you must also use care in developing your employment applications and your employment advertising in San Francisco Bay Area publications.  Until these rules become second nature, all written employment materials should be reviewed by your attorney.

What follows are some examples of proper and improper questions during the application and interview process:

Age: Do not ask an applicant’s age or date of birth.  Questions which are indicative of a person’s age are equally problematic.  Thus, you should avoid asking when an applicant attended or graduated from elementary or high school.  You may, however, ask whether an applicant is over the age of 18.

National Origin: You are not permitted to discriminate in hiring based on national origin, but you must confirm that each new employee is legally permitted to work in the United States.  Therefore, during the application and interview process you may not ask that an applicant produce naturalization or alien registration information.  After you make an offer, the applicant will need to prove that he or she has the right to work in this country, and you should simply inform applicants of this fact.

You also may not ask an applicant about his or her “mother tongue,” native language, or language most commonly used.  If use of a language other than English is related to the particular job’s functions, you may ask whether the applicant can read, write, or speak that language.

As always, if you have questions, please call our office at 650-422-3313.