If your company has job postings that refer to needing to “be able to lift fifty pounds,” keep reading.

Michigan-based Gordon Foods has been cited for a second time for having illegal “must be able to lift” requirements that over-stated what kind of physical strength was needed for doing the job. And which, the EEOC and OFCCP said were thus actually proxies for simply not wanting to hire women. Here is a good summary of the ruling.

What is my take-away? That Gordon Foods probably doesn’t not want to hire women. But Gordon Foods is bad about making sure that its local hiring/recruiting managers are using the latest and greatest forms and job descriptions.

Compliance is all about effectively communicating, making sure that all of the nooks and crannies of your company know what they need to know. And providing them the tools so that they can remind themselves of what they need to know without having to magically remember it all.