Illegal questions in a job interview

Several cases have recently come to light in which, in the selection process for a specific position in a company, the candidates were asked to carry out a test of pregnancy. This test does not have any type of connection with the position in question nor is it lawful or legal and in fact the company in question has been denounced and fined. But it's not the only case.

In many personnel selection processes, aspects that do not concern the company or affect performance in the position offered are questioned. Some of them are even illegal. This is precisely what we are going to focus this article on: the realization of illegal questions in a job interview.

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The personnel selection process

We live in a world where the job market is competitive and there are a large number of people interested in practically any possible job that can be created. Thus, when a company needs to fill a vacancy or expand and makes this demand visible, it usually receives hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of responses. And in that situation, you must

choose between the candidates filtering the opponents in a more or less systematic way, something that has been done for thousands of years (it was already done in the Chinese Empire).

The selection of personnel is the process by which the company, after establishing the criteria regarding the type of worker that search and the knowledge you need to fill the position in question, proceeds to look for the candidate that best suits the Market Stall. For this, different techniques are used such as psychometric tests that measure the ability of the subject in certain areas. Another of the main pillars in the selection of personnel is the interview.

In a job interview, a subject belonging to the corporation or company in question or directly interested in hiring a worker establishes an interaction in which she can observe the characteristics and / or aptitudes of the candidate and assessing whether or not you may be suitable for the position being offered through a series of questions or even activities.

The functions of the job interview go through having a first contact with the applicant for the position and collecting information about their suitability as a candidate, with regard to knowledge, skills, aptitudes and attitudes that may be useful in the position offered at question. But they should be limited to that: they should not enter the subject's personal life unless it is essential for the exercise of the position.

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What questions are illegal in a job interview?

On occasion, the questions posed by the interviewer may go beyond these limits and make reference to aspects that do not have to do with the functions of the job or the skills of the individual. These questions are illegal because they violate the right to privacy, in addition to being able to suppose discrimination and exclusion for reasons unrelated to one's professional competence.

Among the aspects that should not be questioned are marital status, sexual orientation, expectations of having or not having children physical characteristics (unless it is a necessary requirement for the position in question), the presence of physical or mental illnesses, the race of belonging or nationality, the religious or political beliefs (including information regarding where you are active, if you do) or details of personal life irrelevant to the exercise of the profession (the fact of asking for examples of situations in which you have had to make use of a required skill for example is not included).

In this way, frequently asked questions such as what about you, do you want to have children in the near future? or are you married? they are illegal. If you want to evaluate other aspects from these questions, other strategies should be used. Even something as seemingly innocuous as age is not relevant (this is not the case with professional experience).

And is that these questions can generate a bias that leads to discrimination for ideological reasons, gender and sexual orientation or race or religion, which is against what is established by law. For this reason, although we can decide to answer them, we also have the option of refusing without being detrimental to us. It is also possible to file a claim with the labor inspectorate, which can result in a sanction or fine for the company or company in question.

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Why do they do them?

Due to the high prevalence of these types of questions, it is legitimate to ask why they were asked.

In some cases can be done simply to observe the candidate's reaction to the question in question. It should be noted that this is a selection process and, taking into account the importance of attitude when carrying out a specific project, observe how a subject behaves in a strange situation or an uncomfortable or unexpected question can serve to elicit the way of thinking and acting in the face of pressure or surprise.

In these cases the content of the answer is not relevant, but what would be valued would be the way in which the candidate answers it or even the way in which he does not answer it. That does not mean that it is still an illegal question.

However, in the vast majority of cases, what is intended with this type of question is simply to obtain direct information regarding the person's life for it try to predict your productivity. For example, if a woman is pregnant or planning to have children in the near future, the company may think that it is better for her hire someone who does not have such plans, avoiding aspects such as granting maternity leave or looking for possible substitutes.