Racism in Business: Composition of the Employees

Introduction

A number of our customers have expressed concerns over the composition of our human resources. Some specific groups feel that our staff is not representative of the various people we serve and have shown dissatisfaction with this arrangement. Some of our senior clients feel that we have focused on hiring young and energetic staff who, as they feel, do not adequately understand them. These senior citizens think that the younger employees who often serve them are usually in a hurry, oblivious of their numerous age-inflicted physical limitations.

Disabled people we serve have also expressed discomfort over the minimal number of disabled employees at our facility, and the few disabled employees have contacted their union. The workers’ union leaders visited us and noted that our staff did not adequately represent disabled people and, therefore, could not adequately meet this group’s needs. Disabled people feel like abled people cannot adequately understand them. Currently, five people with disabilities are employed within our facility. This number is not adequate to serve our disabled customers who make 30% of our customer base. They feel that they must express their needs to a person who can directly relate to them.

African Americans have expressed similar concerns as they feel that the composition of our employees is predominantly White despite African American customers making 40% of our clientele. The number of African Americans served at our facility in the past three months has been on the decline and must be attributed to the low number of African American employees. These issues about our staff are urgent and need to be addressed as soon as possible.

Recommendations to Inclusive Staff Challenges

Making changes to our staff to ensure that the workforce presents a comprehensive picture representing every group will take time. I recommended that we start making changes to our structure within the next few weeks. The following action steps are immediately suggested.

1. Whenever a vacancy presents itself, the job descriptions for potential candidates will be encouraging to underrepresented groups within our workforce (Smith, 2019). The job descriptions will require the organization to hire African American or disabled or old workers. If a potential candidate has all the features mentioned above, they will be best suited for the job provided they meet the academic and professional requirements. If a replacement for a vacancy is a disabled person, for example, the next job description will require old or African American people to apply. This will ensure that the hiring of new staff is progressive and ascertain that these minority groups are adequately catered for.
2. The hiring of staff within the organization should be linked to succession planning. This will ensure that any leadership at the organization’s helm hires staff that is representative of all groups and that this initiative is not diluted with new management. This should be done by ensuring that there is a permanent transition team within the organization. The transition team should be empowered to ensure that it can adequately guide management on staff hiring.
3. The human resource (HR) department should be revamped to ensure that it is adequately representative of all groups. This should be done by ensuring that the team comprises staff from all the races, ages, and groups of people the institution serves (Smith, 2019). Having a representative HR department will ensure that the hiring of staff is within appropriate guidelines and, in the long run, ensures that all clients are served satisfactorily.

Inclusive Staff Policy Evaluation

Once the recommendations above have been in operation for two years, the following metrics will be used to determine whether the inclusive staff hiring policy has met operational goals:

1. Assess the composition of the staff within the organization after two years and classify them according to age, race, and disability status. This will enable the comparison of the staff with the original workers at the start of the program. The HR department can then determine whether the progress made in the changes within the staff is acceptable or whether the department needs to carry out more extreme measures to ensure objectives are achieved.
2. Invite the workers’ unions that were key to raising the issue of staff inclusion initially. These unions should be allowed to independently assess the progress made with the hiring of the staff and whether progress has been made to ensure that underrepresented groups have now gained adequate representation (López-Cabrales & Valle-Cabrera, 2019). An independent audit of the institution staff will provide an unbiased perspective that will be crucial in setting future goals.
3. Provide an avenue for disgruntled customers to offer their opinions regarding the staff situation within the organization. These customers should be provided a platform to judge the services they receive now that the workforce has been revamped. This will help the HR department identify cracks within the hiring policy that need solving and ensure that the department continues in this positive trajectory of hiring staff representative of all groups.

References

López-CabralesA., & Valle-Cabrera, R. (2019). Human resource management at the crossroads: challenges and future directions. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Smith, K. (2019). Beyond Compliance: Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented Populations to Achieve Higher Positions in Local Government. Icma Leading Edge Research.