Week 6 will examine staffing issues impacted by employment law. Additionally, we will assess conditions and restrictions related to termination facing firms operating globally. Another topic for this week will be to propose strategies for better alignment of HR practices to the key business initiatives of a firm.
Staffing, which is the process by which an organization recruits and selects potential employees, is a key element for strategic HRM. Therefore, when making staffing decisions organizations need to understand and comply with all federal and state applicable employment laws. There are a variety of federal laws that will affect staffing decisions as well as guide fair compensation decisions (Youssef-Morgan, XXXXXXXXXXSome of the applicable federal laws to recruitment and selection are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), The Equal Pay Act of 1963, and others. Qualified candidates have access to employment free from discrimination because of one or more of the protected classes including race, color, sex, age, disability, or country of origin. Employment laws also make the use of both "disparate treatment" and "disparate impact" discrimination illegal. The EEOC or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is a federal agency that aims to ensure organizations are hiring with practices that do not discriminate against a protected class.
Employment discrimination can affect potential candidates and employees through the practices of disparate treatment and disparate impact. “Disparate impact is often refe
ed to as unintentional discrimination, whereas disparate treatment is intentional.” (SHRM, XXXXXXXXXXDisparate impact occurs when the organization’s policies, practices, or procedures appear to be neutral but result in a disproportionate impact to the candidate or employee. The organization’s policies do not intentionally cause discrimination but in fact when implemented the result may be discrimination. On the other hand, disparate treatment is intentional employment discrimination. An example of disparate treatment would be the intentional termination of an employee based on one of the protected classes.
However, the bona fide occupational qualification or also known as the BFOQ allows an employer to consider a quality or a characteristic, when measured in other contexts may constitute discrimination, when making selection decisions. This is also true for the retention of employees. A few examples of BFOQ are retirement ages of certain occupations such as pilots. Another example is a Catholic school may legally require its teachers to be Catholic and therefore, may lawfully not hire a teacher who is not Catholic. Another example would be a federal contractor required to have a male/female ratio for operational purposes and cu
ently has more males than females, it may be lawful to seek female candidates to meet the needs of the contract. The BFOQ usually only apply to situations when the BFOQ is considered reasonably necessary for normal operations of the organization. Organizations need to understand the implications and process of requesting a BFOQ when hiring.
Organizations need to understand and keep up to date to the employment and labor laws. If the organization does not recognize and understand the applicable laws, it is a recipe for disaster. Policies and procedures need to be set in place to avoid discriminatory practices during the entire selection and retention of employees. Employees also need to be made aware and trained on policies and procedures to reduce liability.
Please watch Adverse Impact (Links to an external site.), which will provide an overview discrimination in the workplace and adverse impact of same.
References
McPherson, R XXXXXXXXXXAdverse Impact. Retrieved from https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnWEg2eNQd8
Youssef-Morgan, C XXXXXXXXXXHuman resource management (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.