Business Necessity

What Is Business Necessity?

The legal theory used to support an employer's hiring practices that disproportionately impact a group of people is known as "business necessity." The reasoning stems from the notion that a business may have justifications for using such stringent hiring policies.

What Are Examples Of A Business Necessity? 

Practices driven by business necessity are very prevalent today. The following are some instances of hiring practices that may be shielded by the exigencies of business:

• Requirements for education. Many job postings specify a minimum level of academic completion. For instance, a lot of people are shut out of careers as doctors and physicians because applicants must obtain an advanced medical school degree.
• Criteria for the experience. Additionally, employers could ask for a specific number of years of experience in a related industry from job candidates. This guarantees that candidates are adequately ready for the jobs that will be given to them. But a lot of prospective applicants' chances are also adversely impacted by this.
• Travel necessities. In some jobs, people must routinely travel considerable distances throughout the year. If so, they might search for someone who is in decent enough health to fulfill those travel commitments. Some candidates' chances of becoming qualified for the position may be impacted by this.

How Can Business Necessity Be Established?

Businesses must provide convincing proof that the excluding criteria are only connected to work performance and do not have a disproportionate impact in order to demonstrate business necessity. 

Since that case, important elements have surfaced that can be used to evaluate the legality of hiring and employment practices. Employers must be able to demonstrate these factors:

• The employment standards only slightly increase the level of inequality.
• The successful completion of the task has a real connection to the employment criterion.
• An independent, "neutral" organization that is unaffiliated with the business sets the employment standard.
• Public safety is directly impacted by the job.
• The selection criteria are not based on candidates' inherent or immutable qualities.
• No other job criteria exist that would be less demeaning to applicants.

How Can Discrimination Be Prevented With Business Necessity?

Influencing employment decisions based on discrimination of age, sex, ethnicity, and disability is prohibited and discriminatory. Due to these unethical, discriminatory methods, employers are forced to make assumptions and generalizations about applicants based on those indisputable traits.

Of course, very few companies will purposefully discriminate on the basis of necessity. HR professionals should be able to respond to the questions given above and demonstrate that their company's recruiting policies are not discriminatory in any form to best prevent any unintentional prejudice. Writing down the company's hiring processes and incorporating policies and procedures that forbid discrimination during the employment process.

Conclusion

A legal theory known as "business necessity" can be used to defend an employer's choice to adopt hiring practices that disproportionately disadvantage one group of people. This theory is predicated on the idea that the employer has a good reason to do so, given the needs of the business. These recruiting criteria are allowed when they can be proven to be "job-related and compatible with business necessity," even though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) normally forbids the use of hiring criterion that has a disproportionate impact. In other words, organizations must be able to show that the standards they employ are essential to their organizations’ smooth operation.