New Employee Information

King

Can employers ask new employees to disclose race as part of the personal information record? Also, marital status? If so, should form state that providing the information is voluntary?

cedupree

In a job interview, one is not to ask any questions that would reveal whether the prospective employee is married, has children or is pregnant. When they are hired, the insurance forms will have the question about marital status. Which as an HR person, you should keep those records confidential anyways. I have no advice about race. We do have two people of a different race where I work, but our company is small.

Gar

Sure you can as long as there is a legitimate business reason to do so. For instance, you need race and gender information if you are writing an Affirmative Action Program in compliance with presidential executive order 11264. And, as cedupree mentioned, for insurance purposes. But, be careful.

Theresa Gegen TX

That type of information (race, personal family history, etc.) should be kept seperately from the personnel file that contains information about discipline and qualifications. This is because employment decisions should not be made on the basis of race or personal family history.

Many companies that collect this type of data for EEO purposes have the applicant fill out a seperate form (seperate from the application), and that form is NEVER given to the people making the hiring decision.

Good Luck!!

Theresa Gegen
Texas Employment Law Editor