Application Exercises Case Incident

The Tough Screener

Everyone who knows Mack Rosen knows he is tough when it comes to screening applicants for jobs in his firm. His company, located in the northeast, provides financial planning advice to wealthy clients, sells insurance, and sets up pension plans for individuals and businesses. His firms clients range from professionals such as doctors and lawyers to business owners, who are sophisticated in financial matters and very busy people. They expect accurate advice provided in a clear and expeditious manner.

Rosen is always described as somewhat autocratic. The need to be very selective in whom he hires has led him to be extraordinarily careful about how he screens applicants. Some of his methods are probably beyond reproach. For example, he requires every applicant to provide a list of names and phone numbers of at least five people he or she worked with at each previous employer to use as references.

On the other hand, given legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the ADA, some of his other tough screening methods could be problematic. For example, Rosen requires that all applicants take a purported honesty test, which he found in the catalog of an office supply store. He also believes its extremely important to check every viable applicants credit history and workers compensation history. Unknown to his applicants, he runs a credit check on each of them, and retains the services of a firm that checks workers compensation and driving violation histories.

Questions

What specific legal problems do you think Rosen might run into because of his firms screening methods? How would you suggest he eliminate these problems?

Given what you know about Rosens business, write a two-page proposal describing an employee testing and selection program that you would recommend. Say a few words about the sorts of tests, if any, you would recommend and the application form questions you would ask, as well as other methods, including drug screening and reference checking.