Every year, millions of people are hired for new or different jobs throughout the country. Among these people is a small percentage of foreign nationals who were hired as a result of immigration labor advertising. While there is no law against hiring foreign workers to complete jobs in this country, there are laws about how to go about this hiring process. This governed job recruitment process is known as Program Electronic Review Management (PERM).
As part of fulfilling the steps of the process, a company must create a job posting, permanent labor certification ads, review resumes from applicants, and more. While each of the areas of this process can be quite tricky, especially immigration advertising, there is perhaps no area that is done incorrectly more than the resume reviews.
Imagine going through this complex process that takes months to complete and putting in hours upon hours of painstakingly detailed work, only to have the Department of Labor (DOL) reject your application because you made some mistakes during the resume review process. Nothing would be quite as devastating, which is why you need to make sure that you are doing everything you are supposed to be doing during this vital part of the process. This list of essential components of the resume review stage is here to help guarantee success in the long arduous PERM process.
Be Aware of Any Kellogg Language
When creating a description for what you are looking for from the applicants, it can be tempting to include some more general requirements to get the most candidates possible. This could come back and hurt you during the review process because it could mean that you have to seriously consider some candidates that you normally would not think twice about.
This kind of general description is what is known as the Kellogg language and is worded on job descriptions as “any suitable combination of experience of education, training, or experience is acceptable.” What this could end up doing is creating a situation where someone with plenty of experience but in a slightly different area of the field that you are hiring in, could end up being a perfectly acceptable candidate because of the Kellogg language.
Include As Many Important Employee Qualities As Possible
When it comes to the world of law, there is seldomly an area where implied criteria are legally acceptable. This especially applies to job requirements in the PERM process. If there are certain criteria that you expect a candidate to have to complete the job to an acceptable level, then you need to make sure that they are included in the job description. If you leave them out of the description, then you run the risk of people who do not possess these qualities applying for the job. You would then have to seriously consider them and interview them or else you could very likely have your application rejected by the DOL.
You Can’t Reject Someone for Wanting a Different Position
It might sound crazy to think that you have to consider someone for a position even when they indicate in their cover letter that they would like to do a slightly different position than what you are offering, but that is what the DOL says is required. If you reject someone before interviewing them simply because their documents state that they would rather be considered for a different position, then the DOL is likely to reject your application for not properly considering all qualified candidates. Their reasoning for this is that someone would not apply to a position that they have no interest in, so if they applied to the job then they must be considered as a serious potential candidate.
Explain Why You Rejected Someone
This might sound obvious, but if you are going to reject someone from the job search then you will have to explain your reasoning for it. The DOL will not be satisfied until they have reached the conclusion that it was an obvious choice to disregard a candidate who applied for the position. Even though it might be obvious to you, it might not be so obvious to them.
That is why you need to make sure that you are documenting every single reason that you chose to exclude a candidate, no matter how obvious or seemingly insignificant compared to the other reasons that it might be.
Being Overqualified Is Not a Proper Excuse
As much as many employers hate the idea of hiring someone who is vastly overqualified for a position, it is not actually a legitimate reason to not hire someone according to the DOL. Individuals who have much more qualifications than a position calls for can be seen as someone who is only going to use the job as a short term stepping stone in their career. This might be an undesirable occurrence but it does not constitute a sufficient reason to exclude someone from the opportunity to have the role.
An Unwillingness to Accept the Salary Must Be Officially Documented
This is another area of the resume review process that might seem like it should be obvious but is actually much more complicated due to the DOL’s requirements. In domestic job searches, you can reject a candidate who requests a higher salary than what you have officially posted for the job. When it comes to this arduous process, you must make this unwillingness to accept the stated salary a much more official process.
If a candidate makes it into the final consideration based on all other categories then they must be officially offered the job at the stated salary, even if they initially requested much more. It is only once you have received an official rejection from the candidate that you are able to offer it to another candidate who is potentially more willing to accept the posted salary.
