Literacy test backfires on Georgia-Pacific

A recent ruling against Georgia-Pacific by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs begs the question:  what has happened to common sense?

Here’s the story in a nutshell:

Georgia-Pacific Corp wanted the workers it hired to be able to read and understand safety instructions and manuals. They also wanted to assess potential of new hires for promotion at a later time. Every new hire at the mill in Georgia was required to pass a literacy test in which they were asked to read bus schedules, product labels, and other “real-life stimuli” to test their reading. Sounds like a great plan especially since literacy is epidemic, maybe even pandemic, in the U.S.

But Georgia-Pacific Corp ran into a problem.  A disproportionate number of African-Americans failed the test. So instead of raising the skill levels of its employees, Georgia-Pacific got slapped with a fine of $749,076 payable to guess-who?  You guessed it – the 399 black applicants who applied to the company but were rejected for hire.

To be fair, the violation wasn’t totally fixed on the literacy test for pre-hire.  The challenge actually resulted because high degrees of literacy weren’t required for the mill jobs. They were however required for supervisory and management level positions.  Therefore, candidates weren’t disqualified because they couldn’t do the entry-level job but because they didn’t have the potential to advance.

The moral of the story is a reiteration of what many of you have read over and over.  Employment testing is safe to use as long as you are testing for the skills and job fit required for the job. But testing for skills, attitudes, behaviors and personality that are not required to perform effectively and discriminate against minorities may come back to bite employers. 

Before selecting any pre-employment test, do your due diligence. Understand what the test was designed to test and make sure the information you get is absolutely necessary. If you are already using any assessments in your organization, do an audit to check you are testing for only what you need to know.   

And please feel free to call or email us if you have any questions about tests you are considering or currently using.  We’ll be happy to do a review and audit for the appropriateness of your screening and selection tools.

For more about Georgia-Pacific, read Feds Give Failing Grade to Literacy Test