3.8 The Concept of Job Relatedness
Recruiting employees can be considered a passive process that does not directly involve making decisions about people. A job is posted, and applicants apply. It seems simple, but your ‘ad’ must accurately reflect the job requirements and the candidate. Specifying the desired knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) implicitly can exclude potential applicants. If some criteria may affect some of the protected categories, these criteria must be demonstrated to be job-related.
The concept of job relatedness refers to the requirement that employment decisions be based on the requirements of a position. The criteria for recruiting, selecting and hiring applicants must be directly tied to the jobs performed. Jobs contain many elements, some essential to doing the job and others ideal or preferable but not essential. A job analysis (Chapter 2) will distinguish between essential and non-essential duties. The critical job requirements must be determined objectively, and HR managers should be able to show why a particular task is important or non-essential to a job. Determining the necessary characteristics of a job is fundamental in determining whether some employment decisions are discriminatory.
DEI
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is relatively recent, becoming more widely recognized and used over the past decade. Human Resources, an ever-evolving sector, has embraced DEI policies. HR professionals in Canada understand that recruiting a diverse workforce is fundamental to the success of any modern organization.
- Diversity refers to hiring people from all backgrounds and demographics. This includes race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability status, cultural background, religion, and lifestyle.
- Equity means ensuring everyone has access to equal opportunities during the hiring process.
- Inclusion refers to building a workplace culture where employees feel welcomed, valued, and empowered.
Canadian companies strive for a diverse workforce, and HR managers work hard to recruit, hire, develop, and retain employees from different backgrounds.
In a job posting, organizations often include a diversity statement. Here are some examples:
(Company name) is fully committed to diversity and inclusion in our workplace. To support this, we welcome diversity throughout our organization. For more information, please visit our diversity page.
(Company name) does not unlawfully discriminate based on race, colour, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, or age in employment and provides, upon request, reasonable accommodation, including auxiliary aids and services necessary to afford individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to employment.
“5.2 The Law and Recruitment” from Introduction to Human Resource Management – First Canadian Edition by Zelda Craig and College of New Caledonia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used examples of diversity statements.
“5.3 The Law and Recruitment and Selection” from Human Resources Management – 3rd Edition by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used first paragraph.
“Discrimination in Organizations” from Human Resources Management – Canadian Edition by Stéphane Brutus and Nora Baronian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used first two sentences of section The concept of job relatedness.
