Laws affecting the agency
There are several laws and court decisions that provide guidelines on the work force that an agency is supposed to recruit. In this section, a number of laws and court decisions governing the exercise will be discussed. The first law is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act under title VII expressly outlaws all forms of discrimination in employment opportunities and recruitment. Such discrimination could be on the basis of sex, age, nationality or even religion. As such, it is illegal for any agency to discriminate on the basis of these factors. The same title establishes the United States Equal Employment Opportunity commission whose main task is to ensure that no form of discrimination occurs at place of employment. The commission is empowered by the law to take stern action against such agencies that practise discrimination at places of work.
The second law is the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 which protects those persons between the age of 40 years and 65 years from any form of discrimination at places of employment. It is, therefore, illegal to discriminate against such category of people because the law protects them. The other law is the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 which amended the 1964 civil rights act to outlaw any form of discrimination at the workplace. All persons, therefore, have equal rights of employment depending on their qualifications but should not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, nationality, age, or race.
In Griggs v Duke Power Co. Ltd, the court decided that certain requirements regarding education levels and intelligence tests had the effect of discriminating against Africans who were not as learned as their American counterparts. The requirements should be done away with. In Johnson v Transportation Agency (1987), the court held that the company had appropriately considered the sex of the employee in order to determine whether she would be promoted or not. This was in line with the company’s ethical and integrity requirements of hiring a diverse and competent workforce. It is therefore trite law that in its endeavour to recruit persons of diverse origin and of competent capacity, an agency is prohibited by law to discriminate against such persons on basis of sex, race, nationality or religion
Personnel recruitment and hiring practices
The methods and criteria that an agency use while recruitment and hiring determine the diversity of the workforce that the agency will have. The agency should not just be satisfied with having a workforce. The workforce that it has should be seen to have diversity. Diversity in experience enables the agency to register high performance than when the agency just relies on people handpicked from one tribe, race, religion or gender. It is high time that agencies considered the following components of recruitment of a diverse workforce for the benefit of the agency.
The first thing to consider during recruitment and hiring is how to word and make the postings inviting people for recruitment. Such posts should be free from any form of bias, discrimination or barrier of certain categories of people (Solomon). They should be free and open for all categories of persons to apply for them. It ensures that a reasonable number of people attend the recruitment process and, therefore, be available for selection based on their qualifications and experience.
The other thing to consider during the recruitment exercise is to ensure the absence of unconscious bias. No person should be discriminated against if they fit for the job qualifications and experience. It does not matter whether the person is disabled, of a different race, of a different gender or a different religion. Everyone should be given an equal chance to show their competence and diversity.
Agencies should show a culture shift from the ordinary way of recruiting people based on gender, race and nationality and instead embrace diversity (Strategic Planning Task Force on Diversity, 1991). All persons should be given equal chances to prove their competence and, therefore, work towards achieving the agency’s goal of diversity. When people of diverse origin meet at the workplace, chances are that they will work hard for the benefit of the organization.
The agency should also show a degree of outreach. It should not just recruit people from a certain geographical origin or setting. The job adverts should reach out to all and sundry so that people of diverse origin turn up for the recruitment exercise (Makower, 1995). When the adverts for the job are only centred at a given geographical setting, he result is that only people of that area will turn up for an interview and, therefore, beat the idea of diversity. It is vital for the agency to reach all and sundry.
The agency should also focus on other things such experience, expertise and ability to do the job and not just grades when recruiting people. There are some people who can do the job well yet the grades limit them that they scored in examinations. They should, therefore, be given chances to serve the organization.
Ethics and diversity training
Agencies must ensure that they conduct training programmes for their new and existing employees so as to ensure that they live up to the ethical expectations of the workforce (Solomon, 1990). Renate Mai-Dalton and Mark M. Suazo in their article “providing cultural diversity training” note that the people who conduct training programmes for employees are always members of the American Psychological Association or the Academy of management who are all the times bound by the codes of ethics of the two organizations. As such, the training that they offer to the employees is to the expected standards. These trainers do so with the knowledge that various people have different cultural orientation, are of a different race, of different nationality, and they could also be of the opposite sex (Elmuti, 1993). As such, they should uphold high levels of ethics when training them. Training employees in this regard will enable them to be of high moral standards and, therefore, uphold the work ethics.
Recommendations for recruiting and training a diversified workforce
An agency must always reach out to all people so that they pick the best of them for the job. Reaching out will also ensure that all people are given equal chances for the job and are only eliminated by their qualifications and work experience (Ewert, D. M., Rice, J.K., & Lauderdale, E., 1995). Furthermore, agencies must eliminate all unconscious bias in the workplace when recruiting and training employees. Bias could be in the form of discrimination on the basis of the things discussed earlier in this paper. Lastly, job applicants should be given adequate notice to post their application letters and also to prepare for an interview. There should never be any haste in the pursuit of qualified and diverse workforce.
References
Diversity, Strategic Planning Task Force on. " Pathway to diversity: Strategic plan for the Cooperative Extension System's emphasis on diversity." Washington, D.C.: Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, USDA. (1991).
Elmuti, D. "Managing diversity in the workplace: An immense challenge for both managers and workers ." Industrial Management (1993): 35 (4), 19-22.
Ewert, D. M., Rice, J.K., & Lauderdale, E. " Training for diversity: How organizations become more inclusive. ." Adult Learning (1995): 6 (5), 27-28.
Makower, J. "Managing diversity in the workplace ." Business and Society Review (1995): (92), 48-54.
Solomon, J. " September 12). As cultural diversity of workers grows, experts urge appreciation of differences ." The Wall Street Journal (1990): B1.
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