Playing favorites when promoting from within.

It’s apt to happen, because the hiring manager will likely know some or all of the people seeking the position. That can lead to promotions being handed out on the basis of personal likes and dislikes.

But as HR knows, any time a decision’s based on something other than actual qualifications, the company’s asking for trouble.

Take a look at this recent case, in which a company manipulated its internal job posting system to keep one woman from getting a promotion.

The woman, working as “Acting Electrical Supervisor,” sought a promotion to a permanent supervisory position for the employer’s mostly male staff. She responded to the job listing the company posted on its intranet. However, shortly after she applied, the listing disappeared, before anyone was selected.

A month or two later, the same listing went up again. The same chain of events occurred: The employee applied, the ad was taken down, the ad went back up. All in all, the employer advertised and un-advertised the position five times, before eventually promoting a male employee.

The new supervisor ended up resigning, because he wasn’t qualified for the position. By the time the job was open again, the female employee had quit.

She sued for gender bias, claiming she was the most qualified and that the company removed the listing after she applied because it didn’t want a woman to have the job.

The court agreed. After working as acting supervisor for more than a year, she would seem like the obvious choice for promotion. And since the company had no explanation for its stop-and-go job listing process (the exact same ad went up each time) the judge believed bias was most likely to blame.

Cite: Lewis v. District of Columbia

Accessibility problems can stir up legal trouble, as well as limit the field of applicants available for open positions. To avoid those problems, talk with your IT department to see if your company’s recruiting site follows these guidelines laid out by the Job Accommodation Network:

1. Use text descriptions for images – Hold your mouse cursor over an image on your site, and a block of text should appear. That’s what special screen reader software used by the visually impaired will read to the viewer. Make sure the text is something descriptive and concise.
2. Caption audio and video – If your site includes audio or files, it should offer the option of a written transcript or closed captioning. Audio descriptions of video files should also be provided, if necessary.
3. Minimize reliance on color – View the site in a black and white display to make sure everything is clear to color blind viewers. Also, avoid using just color to convey information. For example, if an applicant skips a section of a form, don’t just highlight that area in red — also include text that says “required field.”
4. Allow easy keyboard navigation – Some viewers may need to navigate the site using only their keyboard. Therefore, it should be easy to scroll through links and fill out forms using the TAB key.
5. Give more options for applying – Forms may be difficult for some people to complete, so allow them to apply through e-mail, fax, mail or over the telephone. Also, include an easy-to-find EEO statement that also provides contact info to get help applying.

ICs generally mean a good deal for employers, including savings on:

• federal and state income tax withholdings,
• unemployment insurance
• workers compensation
• benefits,
• overtime, vacation and sick pay, and
• no union eligibility.

A budget-squeezed employer has to love the idea. Here’s the problem: Federal and state governments are getting squeezed, too, in today’s economy, and they see questionable use of ICs as one of the sources of the squeeze, since the practice generally results in lower tax revenue.

One study by the General Accountability Office, says misuse of ICs lowers income tax revenues by about $4.7 billion annually. And the  University of Missouri–Kansas City Department of Economics estimates that from 2001 through 2005, Illinois lost $124.7 million a year in income taxes as a result of IC misclassification by employers.

You probably can figure out what’s coming.

In August, Congress began reviewing several bills that tighten restrictions on the use of ICs and exact tougher penalties on employers who bend the rules.

Further, states such as Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New Mexico already have enacted new laws targeting IC misclassification. The IRS recently announced plans to audit more than 6,000 randomly selected businesses in the next three years to, among other goals, curtail IC abuse and its effect on tax revenues.

That’s a double-whammy, since state and federal governments share info on violations: Get caught by one and you’ll probably pay both.

Good pay, not surprisingly is the most important element, ranked as necessary by 81% of respondents, according to a recent survey by Randstad. Also high on people’s lists were “interesting, challenging work” (66%) and health insurance (65%).

Also important to many people are free lunch (56%) and a lifetime gym membership (40%).

One item that doesn’t factor into most employees’ vision of a perfect job: corporate social responsibility, which was was only list by 32% of respondents.

A three-year extension for E-Verify was included in the $42.8 billion appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) signed recently by president Obama.

E-Verify was set to expire but will now run until at least September 2012. Some lawmakers had been pushing for a five- or ten-year extension. The system’s staunchest supporters in Congress are also trying to pass a law making E-Verify mandatory for all employers.

We’ll keep you posted.

In fact, 51% of employees said they’d accept a lower wage if their work contributes to something “more important or meaningful,” found a recent survey by Kelly Services.

So how can managers at your company make employees stick around, even if Payroll’s not cutting bigger checks?

Give employees more control

People enjoy their jobs more when they feel valued and in command of their own work.

To ensure employees feel this way, make sure their managers allow them to weigh in on important decisions — and give them complete autonomy over certain tasks, as well as the opportunity to take on more challenging assignments.

Keep them in the loop

Giving employees updates on the big picture makes them feel valued and important.

A few ways that work:

• Explain management’s decision-making strategies to employees
• Invite staffers to important meetings, and
• Provide workers with documentation and other proof of the company’s success.

Give them chances to grow

No one wants to believe he or she will be doing the same tasks five years down the road.

If your employees don’t see any opportunities on the horizon, chances are they’ll be updating their resumes before long.

To avoid high turnover, offer:

• education and training opportunities
• career-path advancement
• team participation, and
• cross training.

In addition to extending the controversial program for three years, Congress reaffirmed its support by approving $137 million for the system — which allows employers to check on the citizenship status and work eligibility of applicants. Congress retained the stipulation that the program be voluntary for private employers who don’t have federal contracts.

The bill now heads to President Obama, who’s expected to sign it into law.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined forces with the National Association of Manufacturers, among others, to lobby Congress to vote the program out of existence. The C of C and NAM contend the system is rife with errors that result in denials of eligibility for workers who here legally.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security presented figures on Capitol Hill indicating the system has a 94% accuracy rate, and that was good enough to override C of C and NAM concerns. Further, some state Chamber of Commerce offices, such as in South Carolina,  have endorsed the system and led the way for passage of state laws that make the system mandatory.

Soon, they warn, there’s going to be an explosion in the number of IT-related jobs available, making it tough for companies to hire and keep employees with tech skills.

The reason: a demand from the federal government for more computerization in the health industry. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earmarked $19 billion in incentives for hospitals and doctors’ offices to use electronic records, and laid out financial penalties for those that don’t make the switch by 2015.

The feds are also expected to increase spending in other IT areas, such as energy and green building projects.

The upshot: a lot of IT job openings appearing suddenly. Estimates for new health IT positions range from 41,000 to 200,000, according to Dr. William Hersh of Oregon Health & Science University.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates demand for network systems and data communications analytics to go up 53% by 2016. Demand for other IT skills, such as database administration, will rise at least 20%, BLS says.

HR managers care less than they used to, according to a recent Society for Human Resources Management survey. Nearly all (90%) of HR managers say online degrees are viewed more favorably that they were five years ago. And individual courses taken online are as credible as traditional courses, according to 68% of HR managers.

But still, more often than not, companies would rather see applicants who’ve attended traditional schools: 63% said, all other things being equal, their organization would hire someone who went to a traditional college over one with an online degree.

What’s your company’s take on applicants with online degrees? Does it make a difference? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.

Until companies see what the financial ramifications of healthcare reform are, they plan to hold off hiring more employees, according to a recent New York Times article.

Then — once companies do finally decide to expand — adding new staff won’t be their first step. Instead, companies will ramp up hours for those already on staff, say business experts.

So many companies have already cut hours for existing workers that when it comes time to ramp up production again, they can afford to increase current employees’ workload before cranking up recruiting efforts.

Only after that will businesses look to add staff, experts predict.

So despite signs the economy is growing, the job market’s worse than it’s ever been in the current recession.

Just how bad have things gotten? Job hunters now outnumber openings six to one, according to the Department of Labor (DOL). That’s the worst ratio since the DOL began tracking open positions in 2000.