How to Evaluate Your Employment Practice for Discrimination

Having discriminating employment practices can be dangerous for your company. Even if you do not realize that your employment practices are discriminatory you can end up on the business end of a discrimination law suit. If you have had employees complain in the past that you were not giving them a fair chance at a promotion, job or raise, or if you haven't ever had a complaint filed against you before, now is the perfect time to evaluate your employment practices for discrimination.

Step #1 - Look at the Wording in Your Business Materials

The first place to look for possible discriminatory practices is the wording of your business materials. Look at how you refer to your employees when describing policies related to promotions, employee selection and compensation structure. If you use the term he only or the term she only you can get yourself into trouble, as this can denote that you have a sex preference when making decisions related to employment. It is better to use the term "employee" or to alternate using he/she or him/her in your business materials.

Step #2 - Examine the Qualifications You Use to Determine Employment Activities

The next place is to look at the qualifications that you have set up to help you determine if an employee should be hired, fired, promoted or given a raise. If the qualifications include protected class characteristics such as sex, age, race, religion or physical characteristics, then you could get yourself into trouble. When you make an employment decision you need to base your choices on qualifications that are directly related to performing the job duties attached to the position.

Step #3 - Take a Look at Your Staff

Another way to determine if your employment practices are discriminatory just take a look at your staff. Do you have a diverse staff population or do most of your employees look alike? While some markets may not have enough employee candidates to get a diverse employee population, if your company employee population profile is not in step with the diversity ratios of your local employee candidate market you could be vulnerable to a discrimination lawsuit or audit.

Step #4 - How Do You Treat Your Employees?

Another test that you can use to determine if you employ discriminatory employment practices is to evaluate how you treat your employees. Start with how you address various members on your staff. If you call the male employs Mr. Last Name and the female employees honey or hon, then you're in trouble. If you want to avoid discrimination problems you need to be consistent with the amount of respect that you show to your employees. The safest bet is to either call all employees by their first names or to call all employees by their last names.