This Test Did Not Pass Labor Department’s Standards
In a recently announced settlement with the Department of Labor, Whirlpool agreed to pay $850,000 and offer jobs to 48 rejected applicants. The focus was on a test that was used for entry-level assembler positions or promotions at the company’s Tulsa manufacturing facility, which had a racially disparate impact.
The test, known as the
Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) contains multiple-choice questions that assess reading, mathematical, and English skills.
According to the company:
We’ve learned from this unique situation. We have since taken steps to carefully evaluate all hiring practices and recommendations to ensure fairness to all potential employeesSphere: Related Content
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The company was extremely lucky that this seemingly obvious, if common, violation was picked up by DOL-OFCCP on an audit, rather than sniffed out by the class-action attack dogs.
Had the latter occurred, the company probably would have paid much more, likely by at least a factor of ten, not to mention millions in attorneys’ fees (their own and, especially, those of the class action pit bulls).
But, Corporate America, let’s leave hring and promotion to “talent management” geniuses and keep HR and employment lawyers out of the loop.
(That’s a snide reference to an article Michael linked last week in this post: “The Ten Commandments of Talent Management,” which recommended that companies “separate Talent Management from HR,” because “Traditional HR is all about compliance and rules,” an admittedly important role, whereas “Talent Management needs autonomy, room and responsibility in order to help the company compete.”)
Thought question: Would a test of reading, mathematical, and English skills be a useful proxy for desirable worker traits — such as work ethic, initiative, general intelligence and aptitude for training, and self-improvement motivation — even if the skills themselves were not strictly speaking job requirements?
Or are the deselected African American applicants simply victims of lousy public schools? (Separate may not have been equal before Brown v. Bd. of Educ., but non-separate has assuredly also been far from equal.) Would the better candidate be the person who learned basic grade school skills despite being in an educationally inferior environment?
Do the answers differ depending on where the cut off score is, and how scores are factored into the decisionmaking process?
If it were my company, I’d be setting up an appointment to ask these and similar questions of an employee assessment expert immediately if I were using any kind of test. Money well spent.