Preview

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Testing

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
251 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ethical and Legal Considerations in Testing
Legal and Ethical Considerations in Employment Testing
When an employer thinks about implementing employee-testing policies, ethical and legal issues should be considered. The employer should seek legal advice to ensure that the suggested policy or policies will not violate any employment laws; each state has their own regulations depending on the need and demographics of that state. The present day workforce includes a diverse working environment that brings together employees from different backgrounds. In order to avoid targeting specific employees in a way that could be viewed as discrimination, written employee testing policies should be drafted and reviewed. Unfair discrimination occurs when employment decisions are based on race, sex, religion, ethnicity, age, or disability rather than on job-relevant knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics. Employers must only use tests that are unbiased and fair to all groups. Federal law stipulates that professionally-developed workplace tests can be used to make employment decisions, but only those that do not discriminate against any protected group can be used. Protected group categories include race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability.
Employers’ ethical considerations in conducting pre-employment test to job applicants consist of guarding against invasion of privacy, guaranteeing confidentiality, obtaining informed consent, respecting the individual's right to know evaluation results, imposing time limitations of data, and minimizing false positive and false negative decisions.
Implementing a written employee testing policy that outlines - why, when, and how the policy or policies will be executed is critical to every employer’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some employers use multiple tests and other selection procedures to hire applicants and to promote employees. Interviewing, job knowledge tests, integrity tests, cognitive tests, personality tests, medical examinations, credit checks, and criminal background checks are some examples of tests administered for selection decisions. The use of these tests can be extremely effective when determining who is the most qualified for the particular position, however it is deemed discriminatory if they are used to discriminate based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability or age.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Mg420 Research Assignment

    • 5065 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Goodman S.P., Silverman, B.S. (2007, April 10) United States: Employer Personnel Policies May Constitute An Unfair Labor Practice. Retrieved on April 23, 2012, from http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/article.asp?articleid=47542…

    • 5065 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mgmt402 Unit 5 Db

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Discrimination is a rising concern among employees in each organization environment. The theories both support the need for antidiscrimination laws and policies. The theories support the laws and policies by protecting employees and also help to support regulations and rules of administration of the business. Without the laws and policies in place with the support of the theories, then discrimination would be an issue for many applicants in the workforce.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Employers must understand that the persons who evaluate and decide the outcome of employment discrimination cases (the EEOC investigator, federal or state judge, and/or jury) have keen senses of fairness and expect that employees will be treated in a fair manner. As a result, employers are exposed to substantial liability for any acts, including perceived acts, of discrimination in the workplace. Employers should take any charge of discrimination seriously and the employer must keep in mind that, at a minimum, it needs to have a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for taking the action in question. In addition, an employer's response will be evaluated by persons who have a different perspective than the employer. What…

    • 964 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the employer must not be discriminatory or in violation of specific federal or state laws. For…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Where there are five or more employees, an employer has an absolute duty to provide a written health and safety policy and to ensure that all employees have seen it.…

    • 2046 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unit Ic01

    • 2248 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The Health and Safety Legislation require that employers have a duty of care to protect employee for example:…

    • 2248 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the ever changing workplace of today companies are constantly monitoring to ensure the proper implementation of policies and procedures related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Affirmative Action, and equal employment opportunities. Throughout modern history incidents of discrimination and matters of civil liberties often initiate changes in laws, statute, or public policies.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the American Psychological Association (2010), in order to follow the code of ethics psychologists must take into account not only the purpose of the test, but other test factors, abilities, cultural differences, etc. that…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Protection from discrimination based on race, religion, sex, disability, etc. unrelated to job performance is embodied in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Fourteenth Amendment (Dye, T., & Macmanus, S. 1969).…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    At one time or another people may experience unfair treatment in the workplace due to differences that include but are not limited to age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race or spiritual practices. Fortunately, there are federal and state legislation and risk management strategies in place that not only offers support for fair workplace practices but also reinforces responsibilities of human resource managers.…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Drug testing is become increasingly popular tool used by business ' today to weed out the potential employment candidate that may have drug problems. This testing does not determine whether a potential candidate has any issues with alcohol abuse, but will help a company determine whether or not the potential employee might be using other substances, such as prescription pills or illegal drugs. This may be a bonus to the company to find out this information upfront, but what about ethics of this practice? Unless the employee is abusing drugs in the workplace it really is none of the business of the company to dictate what an employee does at home or off work hours. That is the argument.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Equality Act 2010

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Age: In terms of employment, age is the only protected characteristic that allows an employer to justify direct or indirect discrimination.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Drug testing employees has gained much support, as well as much resistance, in recent years. Those in favor of testing claim that employee drug testing reduces employee absences, theft, and accidents in the workplace and as such improves worker productivity and safety. In her essay, “A Case against Workplace Drug Testing,” Debra R. Comer makes an argument against workplace drug testing by identifying six individual “problems with drug testing” (Comer 259). Through an examination of statistical research into the effectiveness of drug testing in the workplace she “identifies the misconceptions about drug use and testing, underscores the technological limitations of testing, and reviews research on individuals’ negative response to workplace testing” (Comer 259). Of the six problems Comer identifies to support her argument against workplace drug testing I believe three are the best arguments to support that workplace drug testing is a violation of employee privacy and is ultimately bad for business.…

    • 2136 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Animal Testing Ethics

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages

    It is not morally acceptable for scientists to use live animals in research for medicine that can be used to cure humans. Today we continue to use animals in experiments to learn more about health problems that affect both humans and animals and to ensure the safety of new medical treatments. Now that we know the purpose of animal testing, is it really worth killing millions of innocent animals? This practice is morally wrong and inconsiderate of us for letting this happen. People should stop using animals as experiment subjects and utilize the advance technology that we have now. This is happening because we are letting it happen! We have to start by educating others on this issue because the lack of knowledge on animal testing is why people…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics