When interviewing potential employees for a job it’s important to pay attention to the questions you’re asking as well as to not discriminate against them. Sometimes small business employers struggle
with not getting carried away with questions that are not at all even relevant to the job. Sometimes people say things that may come off as biased and even offensive, and as an employer it’s imperative to not get caught up in that sort of misunderstanding, the main goal of the interview is for the most part, to determine if the person is capable of performing the job as well as confirm what you already suspected by the persons resume and the mentioned qualifications listed therein, not their gender, marital status and personal life. Below are some things to keep in mind when preparing and/or interviewing potential employees.
• Relevance;
All questions you ask are to be specific to the persons skills and the time that person spent building those skills. Suffice to say, questions that are relevant to why they are there. Example; if the job posting is for a manager then your line of questions should be restricted to what experiance and/or knowledge they possess as a manager, how they managed at their previous job, other experience like using various spreadsheets specific to the job there applying to. Even if the employee engages in personal discussion your better off avoiding it.
• Illegal Practices;
You should not ask questions about the persons drug history, social status, if they have ever been to jail, marital status or current status, how many children, political beliefs and or their disabilities.
As the employer you should familiarize yourself with the Employment Standards Act and the Human Rights Code so that you’re aware of the pitfalls in detail.
Lastly, treating men and women equally, this is also very important, be consistent with your interviews, don't flirt with the females and badger the men or vice versa, it can be seen as sexual harassment and not relevant to the job.
