| It has always been important to hire competent and reliable employees. But now more than ever, as Canadian companies continue to change direction and move from the manufacturing sector into the service industry, it is crucial to find employees who have more than the "hard" skills required to perform basic job functions. Increasingly, a greater percentage of employees are expected to possess client development and/or customer service skills, as well as project the right corporate image. It is not surprising, then, that employers put a concerted effort into finding the best-qualified candidates with the personal qualities required to make a significant contribution to the organization.
To that end, and in order to make the most informed hiring decisions possible, most employers try to gather as much personal information as they can from job candidates. What employers need to remember, however, is that both human rights and emerging privacy legislation place practical constraints on what information employers may collect during the hiring process.
Underlying human rights legislation is the concept that employment decisions should be based on a candidate's ability to do the job rather than on personal factors unrelated to job requirements, qualifications and performance. Human rights statutes across Canada guarantee the right to be free from discrimination in employment on the basis of a number of protected grounds such as race, colour, place of origin, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital and family status, and disability. It is not illegal for employers to ask candidates questions that pertain to one of the protected grounds. Nevertheless, caution is strongly advised.
An employer that elicits information about a candidate's religious affiliation or medical condition opens the door to a potential human rights complaint. The danger is that a candidate who has been passed over for legitimate reasons might seize the opportunity to allege that he or she has been the victim of discrimination.  Page Two
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