The HR Answer Book
By Shawn Smith, JD, and Rebecca Mazin
Which of the following questions could get an employer in hot water if he or she were to ask it during a job interview?
A. “What kind of name is that?”
B. “Are there any holidays on which you cannot work?”
C. “Do you belong to any groups, clubs, or societies?”
D. All of the above
(For the answer, scroll down to the end of this review.)
The HR Answer Book was published in 2004, when the economy was far stronger than it is today. In a few places, the book’s age is showing, as when the authors write that “western society is moving up in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The security items of food and shelter are generally taken for granted….The pivotal elements in the ‘offer package’ of today focus on tailoring the job to the individual needs of the employees in the workforce.”
For the most part, however, The HR Answer Book remains relevant. The authors wisely steer clear of “abstract HR theories or fleeting ‘management trends du jour’ in favor of the concrete realities of recruiting, training, managing–and sometimes terminating–today’s employees.
The book’s intended audience includes HR managers in small to midsize organizations, as well as executives and managers in organizations that lack a dedicated HR department.
The HR Answer Book covers a wide range of HR issues. Just take a quick glance at the table of contents:
- Employee Selection
- HR Policies
- Performance Management
- Training and Development
- Employee Relations and Retention
- Compensation
- Benefits
- Regulatory Issues
- When Bad Things Happen to Good Employers
- Termination and Discharge
HR can get pretty complicated, especially when you consider the need to comply with numerous regulations.
For example, it’s illegal to question a prospective employee about his or her finances during a job interview. But it’s okay to run a credit check.
Likewise, asking a candidate if he or she has ever been arrested is verboten. Because most arrests don’t lead to convictions, asking about arrests “can be interpreted as biased against particular minority groups.”
In contrast, it’s okay to ask about convictions, as long as you have a compelling business reason for doing so. Actually, failing to investigate an employee’s criminal record could lead to liabilities if the employee ever harms a coworker, a customer, or a member of the general public.
Yes, this stuff is pretty complicated, which means that The HR Answer Book will come in handy if you have to deal with HR issues, but your company doesn’t have an exhaustive HR policy manual.
By the way, the correct answer to the question at the beginning of this review is D, all of the above. If you didn’t guess correctly, you should definitely check out The HR Answer Book before you conduct another interview.
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