Interview Questions that you are Not Allowed to Ask - Gender | Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment offering top sales jobs

Questions sales employers are not allowed to ask - Gender

Gender

A candidates gender is almost often always clear from the word go - especially once you have reached the interview stage. But you must be very careful that you don't make assumptions about a person's abilities based on this information.

Illegal: "We've always previously had a man/woman do this job. Do you think you will be able to perform as well as they did?"

Leave gender out of the question entirely as it can come across very, very, very rude. Instead you should inquire about the applicants ability to handle the job but do not ask how being a man or woman could affect it. Alternatively ask "What do you have to offer our company?"

Illegal: "How do you feel about supervising men/women?"

Although this question may have effect on the job role available, it is not acceptable. Most individuals do not have issues working with the same or opposite sex and you may seem extremely judgmental for even bringing it up. Instead ask the interviewee "Tell me about your previous experience managing teams?"

Illegal: "What do you think of interoffice dating?"

Interoffice dating can be distracting where it can divide and break up teams and further cause a number of other problems in the workplace. Asking questions such as this can also make assumptions about the candidate's marital status and could even been interpreted as you trying to make a move on the candidate (even though I am sure this is not what you have in mind!)."Have you ever been disciplined for your behaviour at work?" would be a more appropriate question.

Illegal: "Have you been through (or are you going through) a gender transformation process?

An unbelievably rude question and unlikely that you'd ever ask this during an interview. However a HR professional from a major manufacturing company once asked this of one of my candidates and was surprised when they received soon after a letter from the candidate's solicitors suing them! Suffice to say, it is illegal to ask.

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