Most Important Thing You’ve Learned 

In my opinion, the most important thing I’ve learned this year is all the way back in week two when we discussed the laws associated with staffing. This was very interesting because there were a lot of laws that I didn’t know about. It’s also very important because if you don’t know all of the laws when you’re in the position to make hiring decisions you could end up in legal issues that could cost you money or your career. Some of these laws we discussed include equal employment opportunity, the 4/5 rule, civil rights acts, and executive order. These are all things you need to take into consideration when making hiring decisions. In this week’s lectures, we also talked about the defenses against discrimination you can take if you did happen to find yourself in legal issues. A couple examples of this are job relatedness which essentially means you need to have the skills and knowledge to get the job done. If somebody in a wheelchair applies for a job that requires lifting and moving heavy things it wouldn’t be discrimination because it is essential to complete the job. This also goes hand and hand with the bonafide occupational qualification. Another important thing I learned from this week that will stick with me is the fact that there isn’t systematic gender bias in the hiring process. We discussed this because most people believe there is still gender bias when making a hire. You broke it down and described how 63 percent is up the chance and error, one third is up to qualifications, which leaves just a little sliver that could be systemic gender bias but it isn’t enough for it to be consistent. There was a lot of stuff we learned this term that I believe is very important but after taking this course these are the things I believe will stick with me the most.