Civil Rights Standards for 21st Century Employment Selection Procedures
Introduction
More than ever, employers are implementing new selection methods for virtually every stage of the employment process, from candidate sourcing and recruitment to employee evaluation and termination. Workers that face these tools are at an extreme information disadvantage, with little insight into how they are assessed or whether they face a risk of an unfair or discriminatory decision. In 2020, a broad coalition of civil rights and technology policy organizations published the Civil Rights Principles for Hiring Assessment Technologies (the “Principles”) in an effort “to guide the development, use, auditing, and oversight of hiring assessment technologies, with the goals of preventing discrimination and advancing equity in hiring.” In the two years that have followed, an increasing number of cities and states have considered legislation or regulations on hiring technologies that fail to implement – or even actively undermine – the Principles.
The Civil Rights Standards for 21st Century Employment Selection Procedures (the “Standards”) were drafted to operationalize and expand on the Principles. The Standards provide a concrete alternative to recent proposals that would set very weak notice, audit, and fairness standards for automated tools. They also map out a more rigorous and rights-focused approach as compared to the outdated rules that currently govern how employers assess whether their selection procedures are discriminatory and whether they actually measure the worker characteristics they claim to measure. The Standards have been drafted so that policymakers, industry groups, and employers alike can reference them when determining what information candidates should receive, how selection procedures should be audited, and how to ensure accountability when selection procedures threaten workers’ civil rights.
The Standards are the culmination of a year-long collaboration among a number of civil society groups. The coalition behind the Standards includes organizations that focus on racial justice, disability rights, digital rights, workers’ rights, and a number of other civil rights and technology policy issues.
Endorsements (updated March 2024)
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT)
American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Autistic People of Color Fund
Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN)
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Color Of Change
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
National Disability Institute
National Employment Law Project (NELP)
National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)
New Disabled South
TechEquity Collaborative
Upturn
