Under state and federal laws, it is unlawful for employers to discriminate against job applicants or employees, or to allow discriminative and harassment behavior to occur in their organizations. Employment discrimination laws seek to protect both job applicants and employees from discrimination based on gender, national origin, physical disability, age, and religion. Discriminatory practices include job assignment, hiring, termination, promotion, retaliation, compensation and different types of harassment. In an organization, discrimination has adverse effects both on the employee and the employer. These adverse effects can be translated into both costs and benefits.
- Analyze the benefits and costs of voluntarily prohibiting three to five (3-5) federal forms of discrimination prohibited under the federal anti-discrimination laws.
Prohibiting age discrimination in the work place has both benefits and costs. The cost of hiring a new employee is higher than retaining an old one not to mention the costs and time used in training a new employee. According to a SHRM report, the cost of a new hire can go as high as $5,582 in some industry, the salary exclusive (Chapman, 2016). Older employees do not have family obligations unlike younger employees. In addition, older employees bring years of experience and are better suited than new hires to work under pressure. However, retaining old employees could cost the company especially in companies where technology is used for most of the operations. Older employees are not tech savvy and this could affect productivity. Older workers also lack competitiveness because they are often satisfied with their work. Absence in of a competitive spirit leads to lower productivity.
Race discrimination is one of the most popular forms of discrimination in the work place. An organization that does not discriminate employees based on ethnic background enjoys the benefits associated with a diverse work place. These benefits include: increased marketing opportunities, business image and creativity (Green et al., 2015). Racial discrimination also prevents an organization from incurring legal costs associated with racial discrimination lawsuits. However, there are challenges associated with managing a racially diverse work place including reduced productivity and losses in personnel due discrimination and prejudice (Green et al., 2015). Those in the organization against racial inclusiveness might discriminate and harass employees from a different racial back ground leading to complaints and lawsuits against the organization.
Many people associate disabled people with low productivity and increased ergonomic costs. However, this is not always the case. Hiring disabled persons reduces the tax burden of an organization. Since 2011, business who hire disabled persons can receive tax credit on expenses incurred in purchasing and building adaptive equipment for disabled persons (Reddy, n.d.). Hiring disabled workers also makes an organization eligible for work opportunity credit. Other benefits include an improved business image and prevention of discriminatory lawsuits (Reddy, n.d.). However, disabled persons work at a comparatively lower speed than a normal person. People in the office might not like having a disabled person on board and this might lead to complaints and lawsuits. Disabled persons require special equipment and putting this equipment in place might be more expensive than the benefit of having them as an employee.
- Discuss the benefits and costs of voluntarily prohibiting a form of discrimination not covered by any of the federal anti-discrimination laws.
Classism is a form of discrimination that is not protected under federal law. Class can be defined as one’s status in relation to wealth, power and position. During recruitment, classism can be applied to hire privileged but less experienced employees. Hiring or promoting employees based on class can lead to organization failure since the best person does not get the job. Employees hired based on class also lack the motivation to work hard and this might affect the competitiveness of an organization. Rank that is earned through exemplary performance represents excellence. When rank signifies excellence, it does not have adverse effects. However, those in rank sometimes use their power to mistreat their subordinates. Rank based mistreatment can lead to reduced motivation among workers who feel unappreciated (Ingram, 2006). Most importantly, classism in the work place always leads to increased turnover rates, creating expenses related to hiring and training new employees. However, when used properly, rank is an important tool of management.
- State the benefits and costs of voluntarily adopting hiring and promotion practices designed to diversify the workforce.
Work place diversity contributes positively to profits, sales and customers. Racial diversity has a positive impact on market share. Additionally, diverse organizations enjoy increased creativity from the diverse perspectives and opinions (Green et al., 2015). A company can widen its talent pool if it recruits based on merit, rather than limiting its recruiting efforts on gender, race, age, religion or other factors that are not principal to the role. However, employing a diverse workforce has related disadvantages. A company that employs and recruits a diverse work force must create a new culture that promotes respect and dignity. Creating a new culture is expensive in terms of time and financial resources. A diverse work force may create a communication barrier within the organization. After hiring employees from various back grounds, old employees whose prejudices prevent them from working with people from different backgrounds might leave the organization (Green et al., 2015). This creates unexpected hiring costs for the organization. In addition, hiring a diverse workforce increase complaints and investigating can take up important management time.
- Ethical considerations of not voluntarily prohibiting the forms of discrimination
Age, disability and racial discrimination in the workplace are unfair practices and therefore they are unethical behavior. Discrimination violates the equal treatment human right. For example, passing a qualified employee for a promotion opportunity because of their race, disability or age, violated their basic human right of equal treatment. The utilitarian theory of ethics argues that an action is ethical if it maximizes benefit. Employment discrimination undermines performance by preventing talented people from contributing to the organization. Utilitarian theory thus implies that employment discrimination is unethical because it does not maximize on benefits (Dietz & Kleininnlogel, 2015). Similar to the utilitarian principle, the principle of distributive justice basis ethicality on the basis of outcomes but focuses on the distribution of benefits (Dietz & Kleininnlogel, 2015). Employment discrimination leads to unequitable distribution of resources.
Recommendation
The disadvantages associated with discrimination in the work place are easy to overcome with proper management. To maximize on the benefit of prohibiting discrimination in the work place, the organization should create a culture of equal opportunity. The first step towards creating a non-discriminatory work place is creating a policy which prohibit discrimination within the organization. After creating the policy, train the organization leaders on how to identify and deal with discrimination case in the organization. Finally, train employees about work place discrimination to ensure compliance. The benefits of non-discrimination outnumber the cost of compliance thus the organization should never lose the opportunity to employ, promote or appraise a talented employee.
References
Chapman, T. (2016). Benefits of retaining older workers. Retrieved from http://www.benefitspro.com/2016/03/11/5-benefits-to-retaining-older-workers?t=employee-participation&slreturn=1501931499&page=5
Dietz, J. & Kleinlogel, E.P. (2015). Employment discrimination as unethical behavior. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/30541565/Employment_Discrimination_as_Unethical_Behavior
Green, K., Lopez, M., Wysocki, A., Kepner, K., Farnsworth, D., & Clark, J.L. (2015). Diversity in the work place: Benefits, challenges, and the required managerial tools. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HR/HR02200.pdf
Ingram, P.D. (2006). The ups and downs of the work place. Journal of Extension, 44(3). Retrieved from https://www.joe.org/joe/2006june/comm1.php
Reddy, C. (n.d.). Hiring disabled workers. Retrieved from https://content.wisestep.com/top-advantages-disadvantages-hiring-disabled-workers/