# Online-only job application ok for blue collar work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 17, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155 "2017-06-17T02:25:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/21 "2017-06-18T01:16:17Z")
I helped Spec out a online job applicant system for my employer. It is expensive. We went to it because of Federal reporting. We are required to track every applicant. We report age, race, sex, the job they applied for and status. Status is “they got the job” or not. If they didn’t get the job there’s several things we have to report to explain why. The online form stores all the data from the job applications into a database. I wrote several EEOC reports in Crystal Reports (against the database) that we submit. It’s a big time saver for the lady that processes and screens applications. She did it manually for 15 years. That was before the mandated reporting requirements. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/22 "2017-06-18T01:37:03Z")
HR does have a PC in the reception area for applications. A few people come in instead of doing it from home. The receptionist is there to assist as needed. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/23 "2017-06-18T14:48:01Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > No obligation to be “fair”? > > So if they just hung up a flyer on the bulletin board at the Irish-American Fraternity hall and got enough applicants, that’s all they are required to do? > > Does your employer have no equal opportunity/affirmative action/diversity hiring programs? If so, why do they have them when there are probably lots of white males dreaming of becoming airline pilots? > > Whether or not you think it is fair or necessary, large employers in the United States do have many obligations to be “fair” when it comes to hiring and have to exercise extreme caution. I agree. I left out a bunch of details for brevity. Which omission you misunderstood. My bad. See below. Further, do not confuse me explaining what the situation is with me lobbying for what I think the situation ought to be. None of what I write is about me advocating for what position society ought to take. Unless I say so explicitly. I know that’s a hard concept for some people to believe in this hyper-partisan age. But it’s how I do it. > [@Tzigone](#): > > This is pretty much what I getting at. Businesses can’t discriminate against protected classes, true. But if someone is unwilling or unable to use a computer, that’s not a protected class. If the businesses cut out a protected class or underrepresented them or whatnot, that’d be an issue. But if they hire the exact same percentage they would otherwise hire (and met requirements), only 100% of those hired are pulled from online applications, that’s fine. This is what I meant. In the Olden Dayes, pre-EEOC and pre-ADA, businesses were not _legally_ required to be fair in any sense. Morality, ethics, and economic justice are different matters I’ll ignore for now. So your example of posting an job notice only at the Irish American Fraternity and therefore hiring 100% Irish-American males would have been 100% \*legally \*OK. With the advent of EEOC, businesses were _legally_ required to extend “fairness” to a certain specific list of protected classes: race, creed, color, national origin. And to some degree sex/gender. But no farther. They were not, and are not, \*legally \*required to extend “fairness” to other identifiable groups. Under EEOC, not even handicapped people. The advent of ADA extended the \*legal \*requirement for “fairness” to the handicapped. But no further. There is still no _legal_ requirement today for fairness on any bases other than those explicitly enumerated in the EEOC & ADA laws, plus their more specialized offshoot laws, regs, & rulings. That was the point I was trying to make. Bottom line: by law, non-small businesses are required to be scrupulously, demonstrably, reportably fair in certain highly limited categories and utterly free to be utterly deliberately with malice aforethought unfair in any other category not specifically protected. Many small businesses don’t have even these limited restrictions on their ability to be unfair. That’s what _is_. What IMO it \*ought \*to be is more fair in more areas. But that’s me. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/24 "2017-06-18T23:19:58Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > So set up a computer at the office that is just used for people to fill out applications. > … My current employer, which is mostly entry level, does this. They did it before I started last year. About 2/3 the plant floor are not of European ancestry and of those about half don’t speak English well enough to carry on a conversation with. Our evacuation announcements and postings are in three languages. They hire some through employment agencies and I’m not sure how the rest get in the door. But ALL have to fill out the online only job application. As a global company headquartered north of the US, they are used to multiple languages. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/25 "2017-06-18T23:44:47Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > I am guessing that your employer figures they will get enough qualified applicants to fill their positions, with online applications. **They don’t need to see every candidate possible, only enough to find the employees they need.** If they can reduce costs and still find enough new hires with online applications, then that’s good enough. Which works fine for the office where they made the policy, and the attitude is assemblers and packers should be easy to find, but it’s harder than they think to find people who show up 6 days a week with a good attitude. We’re turning away some good people now. > [@drewder](#): > > So set up a computer at the office that is just used for people to fill out applications. > Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk They did that, and our receptionist says it takes her twice as long to get the people through that process, holding their hands, as it did to key in the info off the paper app. So much for efficiency. ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/26 "2017-06-19T06:50:26Z")
Even the fast food places have online-only applications now. Same with Walmart and places like that. My husband and I are over 50 and we’re online all the time. Even 78 year old Dad has a computer and has applied for jobs with it. You can get a smartphone for $20, or even free from Safelink. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155/27 "2017-06-19T10:30:34Z")
> [@tenacious\_j](#): > > Which works fine for the office where they made the policy, and the attitude is assemblers and packers should be easy to find, but it’s harder than they think to find people who show up 6 days a week with a good attitude. We’re turning away some good people now. That’s a classsic example of bad management, where the top brass are out of touch with their own organization. It happens everywhere, unfortunately. It’s like the very common demand by ignorant bureaucrats that all employees in a certain department have a formal degree. You can lose some good people that way. But the suits at the top don’t care. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-only-job-application-ok-for-blue-collar-work/789155.md?page=1)