About Fairness
The holiday honoring the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brings a range of emotions and opinions. For those working in human resources, it is worth noting that Dr. King was in Memphis supporting sanitation workers who were striking for fairer treatment, better working conditions and higher wages when he was assassinated.
Fairness in selection is a loaded term because evaluating people for jobs is a zero-sum game. It is hard to be seen as fair to all candidates when only one is going to get the position. Surprisingly, fairness is a vague term in the realm of selection. It can be defined as equal treatment of individuals, equal outcomes for groups, or remedies for past discrimination. The fact that these definitions can be contradictory makes the concept problematic.
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 makes the legalities of selection pretty clear. Many employers seem to be following the law (note the dearth of class action employment discrimination lawsuits since its passage).
All politics aside, hiring the most qualified person, regardless of race, gender or age, makes good business sense and would strike most people as fair. However, as long as some (certainly not all) of our best assessment tools, such as mental ability tests, tend to have adverse impact, there will be some tension between validity and fairness.
If you are interested in learning more about fairness and selection, please contact Warren Bobrow.
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