"Do you have a minute?" asked Carson, HR Director at Life+Style as he stood in Isabella's doorway, although he knew the conversation would take much longer than a minute. Isabella, the COO, and her husband Joseph, the CEO, were building their online sportswear company with an emphasis on style, sustainable business practices and ethical behavior. Carson had recently uncovered some HR practices that exposed the company to some legal liability that could potentially harm their image and employment brand.

"Sure. Sit down. You look worried," replied Isabella.

"To be honest, I am," replied Carson. He went on to explain that over the last two months HR had hired and trained ten sales representatives to contact independent sports apparel retailers about handling a limited amount of the company's products to supplement their growing online sales. After complimenting the HR staff for quickly recruiting and training the representatives, he joked that the company's image must only attract good looking applicants because the new representatives were all under 30 and extremely good looking. The staff explained that they split up the duties and Cara had done the screening interviews and invited the candidates for on-site interviews. When Carson asked Cara what qualities they looked for, she explained that the job description was her guide, but since "understanding an athlete's perspective" was a qualification, she did a search on each candidate to see what sports he or she participated in. Top athletes received priority if they had a relevant major, and "it didn't hurt if they were good looking" chuckled Cara."

Carson inhaled deeply. "You checked them out online before you invited them for an interview?"

"Yup" Cara replied. "It was quick and easy."

As Carson explained the conversation to Isabella, she stopped him. "I've met them all. It's a pretty ethnically diverse group which will look good for us, right? What's the problem?"

Questions:

1.Explain how online background information should be used to Isabella. (LO 1, 4, 5)

2.What perceptual errors could occur as a result of Cara's screening? (LO 5)

3.What legal liability does Cara's screening expose the company to if the group of hired candidates is ethnically diverse? (LO 6)

4.What background information should be checked for the sales representative position and at what point should HR conduct the background investigation? What does HR have to tell the candidates about the background checks? (LO 2, 6)