The current high-profile legal troubles of certain high street names underline the enormous risk carried by large companies today with less than rigorous HR processes and measures in place. As a result of its hiring practices, one US company for instance, now faces costs which could run into hundreds of millions of dollars. All of which could potentially have been avoided through better internal HR processes and tracking, according to Larry Cucchi, Director of International Operations at Peopleclick, the global leader in workforce management technology and services.
Cucchi sees this as something which boards and senior management need to get to grips with fast, if they are to reassure shareholders that employment risk is under control: ìIn the US in 2002, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resolved over 95,000 cases and awarded a record total of $310.5 million (footnote 1) to claimants. Today in the UK, we donít operate under the same strict legislation but we may do in the future. Itís paramount that companies look much harder at how they manage recruitment, to guard against corporate risks which may damage them not just financially, but also in terms of reputation.î
Indeed, the tide is already turning for European businesses. The 2003 European Union anti-discrimination framework directive (2000/78/EC) prohibits discrimination on the grounds of disability, sexual orientation, age, religion and belief. Businesses should have ensured that all sexual orientation and religious discrimination provisions were implemented by December 2003, whilst the age discrimination provisions come into full force in December 2006. Those companies not tracking and measuring their compliance in this area could be setting themselves up for a fall in the future.
Cucchi concludes: ìUnderstandably, HR teams are feeling under increased pressure to get to grips with all of this, over and above the other tasks they have to cover. In the US, weíve seen the majority of Fortune 500 corporations turning to technology to track information about their huge workforces. This largely consists of collecting, processing, analysing and reporting, enabling management to drill down to specific areas of concern where there may be evidence of discrimination, for example. As the move towards greater corporate social responsibility continues, companies can no longer pay lip service to good employment practice - they have to prove it too.î
Footnote 1. Source - ëThe Impact of Affirmative Action on Total Workforce Acquisitioní, available at
Can businesses afford Million
Recruitment risks, asks Peopleclick?
