Human Resources Management T.10. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND DIVERSITY

1
Human Resources ManagementT.10. EQUAL
OPPORTUNITIES AND DIVERSITY

• D. Borisova

2
The Business Case

• A wide range of groups within the workplace face
  discrimination and harassment
• Increasing concern about ethics and ethical
  behavior in the workplace
• A key issue is providing equal opportunities
• A focus on managing diversity

3
Government interventions to secure minimal
standards for

• Just pay through national minimal wage
• Working time maximum of 48-hour working week
• The right to employee participation the
  entitlement of workers to participate in the
  running of their company (statutory trade union
  recognition)
• Equal opportunities for all employees

4
Equal Opportunities

• .. a moral or ethical project that focuses on
  the processes giving rise to inequalities and
  seeks to address these (Goss, D. 1994
  Principles of HRM London, Routledge, p.157)
• The situation in which there is no unfair
  discrimination against either of the sexes or
  any ethnic or legally constituted social group in
  relation to access to jobs, terms and conditions
  of employment, promotion, training, remuneration
  or termination of employment (Bennet, 1992)

5
Definitions of Diversity

• The diversity consists of visible and non-visible
  differences which include factors, such as sex,
  age, background, race, disability, personality
  and work style (Kandola and Fullerton, 1998)
• Diversity Management is the systematic and
  planned commitment on the part of organisations
  to recruit and retain employees from diverse
  demographic backgrounds (Redman, T.
  Wilkinson, A. 2006 Contemporary Human Resource
  Management London FT/Prentice Hall p. 306)

6
Need for Diversity Management

1. Sex increasing numbers of women entering the
   labour market
2. Ethnic minorities they will be forming an
   increasing part of the workforce
3. Age the ageing of the working population

7
(No Transcript)
8
Fattism..

• Overweight job hunters 'lose out'
• Overweight workers find it harder to get jobs
  than their slim counterparts, an online survey
  suggests.
• The magazine survey of 2,000 personnel officers
  found most preferred to offer jobs to workers of
  a "normal weight".
• BBC News website, 25.10.2005

9
Lookism
10
Ageism
11
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIESUK LEGAL FRAMEWORK

• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
• Sex discrimination Act (EOC) 1975
• Race Relations Act (CRE) 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act (DRC) 1995
• Human Rights Act 1998

12
Key Legal Terms

• Discrimination
• Unlawful discrimination direct
• Unlawful discrimination indirect
• Victimisation
• Harassment
• GOQs (genuine occupational qualifications)
• Positive Action Training programmes
• Positive Discrimination

13
Unlawful discrimination

• Direct when a person is treated less favourably
  than another on any ground covered by the
  legislation.
• Indirect when an apparently neutral criterion is
  applied which disproportionately affects one of
  the protected groups and is not objectively
  justifiable

14
Legal terminology cont.

• Victimisation when a person is treated less
  favourably as the result of asserting their
  statutory right under the legislation
• Harassment behaviour which has the effect of
  creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive or
  disturbing environment on grounds related to the
  legislation

15
Legal terminology cont.

• GOQs lawful discrimination usually on grounds
  of
• authenticity
• decency
• effective provision of services to a minority
  group
• Positive Action
• Specifically designated training
• Where the minority group can be shown to be
  under-represented

16
Disability Discrimination Act

• Definition A physical or mental impairment,
  which has a substantial and long-term adverse
  effect on a persons ability to carry out normal
  day-to-day activities
• Employers should make reasonable adjustments to
  the workplace
• Police, Armed Forces, Prison Service and Fire
  Service partially excluded from the provisions

17
Benefits of Equality

• Best use of all employees skills and potential
• Flexible workforce to aid restructuring
• Workforce representative of the local community
• Improved corporate image with potential employees
  and customers
• Attracting ethical investors
• Managers can integrate equality into corporate
  objectives
• New business ideas from a diverse workforce

18
Differences between EO and DM

• EO
• Externally initiated
• Legally driven
• Focuses on numbers and problems
• Reactive
• Focuses on particular set of differences race,
  gender and disability
• THE MORAL CASE

• Diversity
• Internally initiated
• Business-needs driven
• Focuses on qualitative and opportunity outcomes
• Proactive
• Focuses on all differences
• THE BUSINESS CASE

19
Key characteristics of diversity-oriented
organization (Kandola and Fullerton, 1998)

• Mission and values
• Objective and fair processes
• Skilled workforce aware and fair
• Active flexibility
• Individual focus
• Culture that empowers
• The focus is on cultural change and learning in
  entire organization, rather than promoting
  fairness and avoiding discrimination.

20
Diversity Management

• Businesses as wealth creators
• SHV (Shareholder Value Theory)
• The business case
• Focus on individual contributions
• Voluntarism

21
Ways in which diversity drives business growth

• Improves marketplace understanding
• Enhances creativity and innovation
• Produces higher quality of team problem-solving
• Enhances leadership effectiveness
• Builds effective global relationships
• Provides better utilization of talent

22
Diversity beyond the law?

• Disillusion with the effectiveness of EO by law
• The language of victimhood
• The problem of compulsion
• The business case
• The costs of inequality
• Focus on the individual
• What people CAN do, not what they cant do

23
Equal Opportunities or Diversity Inclusion?
24
Diversity Efficiency Indicators
25
Diversity and stakeholders
26
Diversity Initiatives

• Multicultural workshops designed to improve
  understanding and communication between cultural
  groups
• Multicultural core groups which meet regularly to
  confront stereotypes and personal biases
• Support groups, mentoring and relationships and
  networks for women and cultural minorities
• Advisory councils reporting to top management
• Rewarding managers on the basis of their record
  on developing members of targeted groups
• Fast-track development programmes and special
  training opportunities for targeted groups

27
Advantages of Diversity Management

• A solid reputation as one of the best places to
  work
• Empowered managers and leaders who empower others
• Greater innovation and full usage of employees
  skills
• Higher employee productivity
• Effective global competition

28
Strategic DM implementation model (Kandola and
Fullerton, 1998)

• Focuses on 8 processes
• Clarity of organizational vision
• Extent of top management vision
• Auditing and assessing of needs
• Setting of clear objectives
• Degree of accountability
• Degree of communication within the organization
• Extent of co-ordination
• Degree to which the strategy and actions are
  evaluated

29
The Costs of Inequality

• Inefficiency in use of human resources (high
  staff turnover, low productivity, restricted pool
  of talent)
• Inflexible workforce limiting organizational
  change
• Poor corporate image with prospective employees
  and customers
• Management time spent on grievances
• Losing an industrial tribunal case

30
HRM Tools for Changing Attitudes and Behaviours

• Recruitment and selection processes
• Working practices and patterns
• Health and safety risk assessment
• Training and development
• Performance management and reward
• Discipline, dismissal and grievance
• Sickness absence policy (DDA)
• Overall EO monitoring for compliance
• Employment tribunal hearing for breaches

31
Tribunals 2005-6 (ETS 2006)
Type of Case Cases registered Successful at ET
Unfair dismissal 35,415 3,425
Protection of Wages/ Redundancy 35,916 9,721
Breach of Contract 21,444 3,559
Sex discrimination 24,217 4,068
Race discrimination 3,430 119
Equal Pay 11,323 3,722
Disability Discrimination 4,072 173
Religious Belief Discrimination 340 9
Sexual Orientation Discrimination 321 14
NMW 378 47
Working Time 9388 1,374
Other jurisdiction areas 14313 2,847
Total 160,557 (including multiple claims) 160,557 (including multiple claims)
Settled 58,493 36 58,493 36
Withdrawn 55,078 34 55,078 34
ET cases 21,256 30 (avg. award Ј8,679) 21,256 30 (avg. award Ј8,679)
32
Organisational EO Agendas (Goss, D. 1994
Principles of HRM London, Routledge p157)
COMMITMENT
SHALLOW DEEP
BROAD Token agenda Aspects beyond those covered by law, but superficial Long agenda Beyond legal minima and wider range of aspects
NARROW Short agenda minimal compliance with the law Focused agenda long term change but limited to legal requirements
F O C U S
33
Six Challenges that Must be Managed (Joplin and
Daus, 1997)

• Changed power dynamics
• Diversity of opinions
• Perceived lack of empathy
• Tokenism, real and perceived
• Participation
• Overcoming inertia

34
Existence of HR programs for work with special
groups of employees ( of organizations in
Bulgaria, 2003, Cranet)
35
Merry Christmas!