In a Wall Road Journal unique, some feminine candidates to Invoice Gates‘ non-public workplace, Gates Ventures are claiming they have been asking inappropriate questions not suited to the office.
The ladies are claiming that the questions ranged from previous drug use to sexual historical past — supposedly to discern whether or not something within the candidate’s previous would make them susceptible to blackmail, the outlet reported. Some candidates are claiming they have been questioned on whether or not they had ever “danced for {dollars}.” At the least one applicant claims they have been requested about having ever contracted a sexually transmitted illness.
The intensive pre-employment screenings in query have been allegedly performed by a third-party threat administration agency, Concentric Advisors, which works with a collection of industries (together with non-public household places of work) to “mitigate dangers posed by people and teams with probably nefarious motives,” the corporate’s web site states.
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Concentric instructed the WSJ that its pre-employment screening course of is an identical for each women and men and complies with the legal guidelines in every state and nation the place it supplies its providers. The corporate added that it by no means initiated questions on sexual or medical historical past however that candidates may provide up such info when requested about public information.
A spokesperson for Gates Ventures additionally instructed the WSJ that it requires all distributors it really works with for pre-employment screenings to adjust to state and federal legal guidelines.
“We’ve got by no means obtained info from any vendor or interviewee in our 15+ 12 months historical past that inappropriate questions have been requested in the course of the screening course of,” the spokesperson instructed the outlet. “We will verify, that after a complete evaluate of our information, no employment provide has ever been rescinded based mostly on info of this nature.”
Based on the Equal Employment Alternative Fee, employers ought to keep away from asking private questions which can be protected by regulation, reminiscent of inquiries on race, faith, gender identification, medical historical past, and disabilities.