Exactly. This is exactly why HR will want to know this is happening. So they can shut it down. A half decent HR department will recognize that this carries major risk of lawsuits, and want it killed. You bringing information to about another part of the company trying to do something illegal doesn't make you a "problem" employee.
There are a lot of cases where I'd recommend against talking to HR, but getting a spreadsheet from your boss and asking "hey this seems weird, is it legal?" is one of the things they are good for. Your boss is far more likely to hold a grudge than HR.
Obviously, don't go in screaming it's illegal and they must do something on the off chance it was your Chief People Officer's shitty idea.
And again, nothing wrong with going to an employment lawyer first. But when I've seen blatantly illegal stuff like this it's usually that HR isn't involved in the hiring process and they want to know when it happens so they can educate the relevant parties.
Sometimes. Some HR departments in Silicon Valley have taken DEI to heart to the point where they’d be champions of this hiring behavior.
Doesn't really seem like an "off chance" to me that this would come from either the Chief People Officer, or someone else sufficiently high up in the food chain that they can tell HR to fall back in line.
If you’re reading this and are in a similar situation, please don’t accept this advice without further reflection. On this particular topic, it could very well be wrong. If you’ve decided to report it then I’d suggest using your company’s outside anonymous reporting facility if such a thing exists.
99% chance they say no, they'll handle it. 1% chance they say yes, it's fine. If you hit that 1%, don't argue it, lawyer up or decide this isn't your hill.
If you really live in an office so punitive that you think HR (not your boss) is going to come down on you for a casual question and accepting their answer, your already so screwed that no amount of playing things close to your chest is going to help you. You need to already be on your way out because your office is so wild you can't predict when the boot is coming. If you are in this office, you probably already know it, because everything is already broken, and aren't posting "Ask HNs" about it.
Also worth noting is that HR managers are overwhelmingly female[1], and in my experience they tend to be some of the more die-hard believers in DEI. If you're concerned that a policy may be discriminating against a male, you're taking a huge gamble by talking to them. It's quite likely that it was their idea in the first place.
[1]: https://www.hrdive.com/news/the-hr-professions-big-diversity...
Not unless the author reveal the name of the company, which they didn't (as far as I can see at the time of writing).