The job application is usually the first document a company ever puts in front of a future plaintiff. Applications that ask about age, health, family status, or blanket-bar criminal history create discrimination evidence before the first interview happens — and most small-business application forms were copied from somewhere that never checked.
This template collects what an employer legitimately needs — availability, work eligibility, experience, education, references — and frames the risky areas correctly: an equal-opportunity statement, a reasonable-accommodation invitation, an essential-functions question tied to the job, and conviction-history language with an individualized review commitment rather than an automatic disqualifier.
Who should use this template
- Employers still using an application form of unknown origin
- HR coordinators replacing paper applications with a compliant standard
- Growing businesses standardizing hiring intake across locations
- Nonprofits and municipalities updating dated application packets
What it helps prevent
- Pre-employment inquiries that violate EEOC guidance
- Automatic criminal-history disqualifiers that invite disparate-impact claims
- Applications with no accommodation pathway for disabled applicants
- Missing at-will and certification language applicants should acknowledge
- Inconsistent intake data that makes candidates impossible to compare
What’s inside
- Equal opportunity employer statement and ADA accommodation notice
- Applicant information and employment-desired sections
- Essential-functions inquiry tied to the specific job
- Conviction-history question with individualized assessment language
- Employment history, education, and references sections
- Certification, at-will acknowledgment, and signature block
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.