0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 18

EVIL HR LADY DILEMMA OF THE MONTH How to Approach and Improve Diversity Hiring BY Suzanne Lucas ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CHASE My vice president asked me to hire someone Black for a vacant position and include #BlackLivesMatter in the job posting. Can I hire a Black person solely based on race like this? It seems like I can’t. How can I even respond? You’re right, soliciting candidates based on their race is not legal. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, as well as religion, gender and national origin — whether that discrimination is positive (hiring or promoting someone) or negative (not hiring or firing someone). It prohibits hiring, firing, promoting or favoring employees based on race. Your VP wants to show that he supports Black Lives Matter and wants to further demonstrate this by hiring Black employees. While this is an important first step in the movement, taking that approach is technically a violation of federal law. You cannot prefer one race over another in hiring. There’s no law against including #BlackLivesMatter in a job posting, but it may be more positive and productive to the movement to take real action by casting a wider net to find candidates and avoid using biases in the hiring process. First, tell the VP you can’t do what he asks because it’s illegal. Federal law requires you have 15 employees before these laws kick in, but California brings this down to five. Reputable job boards would not want to host a job posting that says it’s recruiting applicants of just one race. And your lawyer would have a heart attack. In case the VP does not understand or take this well, have your employment lawyer on speed dial to explain why this is a bad idea. The job of the human relations department is to protect the company, and this is your job too. 18 comstocksmag.com | September 2020