In a Wall Road Journal unique, some feminine candidates to Invoice Gates‘ non-public workplace, Gates Ventures are claiming they had been asking inappropriate questions not suited to the office.
The ladies are claiming that the questions ranged from previous drug use to sexual historical past — supposedly to discern whether or not something within the candidate’s previous would make them weak to blackmail, the outlet reported. Some candidates are claiming they had been questioned on whether or not they had ever “danced for {dollars}.” No less than one applicant claims they had been requested about having ever contracted a sexually transmitted illness.
The in depth pre-employment screenings in query had been allegedly carried out by a third-party threat administration agency, Concentric Advisors, which works with a sequence of industries (together with non-public household workplaces) to “mitigate dangers posed by people and teams with probably nefarious motives,” the corporate’s web site states.
Associated: Invoice Gates Turned $2 Billion Richer As we speak
Concentric instructed the WSJ that its pre-employment screening course of is equivalent for each women and men and complies with the legal guidelines in every state and nation the place it offers its companies. The corporate added that it by no means initiated questions on sexual or medical historical past however that candidates might supply up such data when requested about public data.
A spokesperson for Gates Ventures additionally instructed the WSJ that it requires all distributors it really works with for pre-employment screenings to adjust to state and federal legal guidelines.
“We have now by no means acquired data from any vendor or interviewee in our 15+ yr historical past that inappropriate questions had been requested in the course of the screening course of,” the spokesperson instructed the outlet. “We are able to verify, that after a complete evaluation of our data, no employment supply has ever been rescinded based mostly on data of this nature.”
Based on the Equal Employment Alternative Fee, employers ought to keep away from asking private questions which are protected by legislation, reminiscent of inquiries on race, faith, gender id, medical historical past, and disabilities.
