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