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Guide to Creating Defensible Staffing Strategies

NCJ Number
117392
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 56 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1989) Pages: 34-35
Author(s)
R W Shearer
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Managers in both the public and private sectors must be able not only to judge competence in making personnel appointments and promotions but also be able to defend their decisions using documentation that is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of equal employment law.
Abstract
These requirements include such concepts as adverse impact, fairness, disparate treatment, court-imposed hiring quotas, and traditional validation strategies. Managers must understand these concepts and be aware of organizational vulnerability to discrimination lawsuits. They must also systematically develop and apply job-related examining programs. The system should include the following three elements: some form of job analysis to discover the main qualifications, a focus on informal evaluation procedures like selection interviews and the training and experience plan, and documentation of the logical relationship between the duties and the qualifications required. Documentation is also important to support the examining strategy for a given position and the decisions based on it. Thus, the personnel manager should maintain and analyze a documentation file for each job or group of jobs. These systems will reduce the chance of a staffing error, but should be supported by probationary and performance management systems.