HR: Circuit Court Decision on Interviewing -- HUGE???

According to a posting from SHRM (6/14/10), the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has rendered a decision that could have tremendous implications on the hiring processes for any company.  The case is particularly important because of exactly what the ruling said -- even more so because it concerned the interview process in an environment that is typically more structured than many.

The rule involved the selection process for firefighters in Rochester, MN.  Interviews by a panel and the fire chief contributed 40% to a selection process that also included both a written and a fitness test.  The process included a provision that allowed from two eligible candidates to be added to the final list of three, based on "protected class."

Two "protected class" candidates filed discrimination charges challenging the commission's hiring process -- the district court granted the city's motion for summary judgment.  The 8th Circuit reversed the decision, concluding "that the subjectivity of the panel interview and the interview by the fire chief created a material factual issue." 

The 8th Circuit held that a jury was "best suited to evaluate the legitimacy of the city's proffered nondiscriminatory reaons for rejecting the candidate."

Comment:  While this is currently a case that would have most significance for organizations in the 8th Circuit, it is an issue with potentially major implications for organizations.  The interviewing process has been a surprisingly "safe" area around discrimination cases -- even though all HR Professionals know that it is actually an area with lots of potential danger.   The professional advice from SHRM is that "employers...must give careful consideration to potential subjectivity in a hiring process." 

DUH!!!  For more than 10 years I've been working with organizations to implement structured, performance-based interviewing into financial, service, retail, entertainment, and... organizations.  A carefully structured, performance-based interview has been reviewed as the "most legally defensible" interviewing process by top legal experts in HR.  For way too long, I've been saying, "If not now, when???"