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This article will be focusing on 'Designing more effective practices for reducing workplace inequality' by Field Review. We will summarise the four categories of interventions to reduce workplace inequality: affirmative action practices, targeted human resource management, diversity training, and accountability and transparency practices.
Affirmative Action Practices
Workforces should have specific steps to address inequalities in the workplace. This may be through:
Assigning responsibility for program implementation
Develop goals and timetables
Establish policies and practices to ensure equal opportunities
Targeted Human Resource Management
Identity-blind practices
Focuses on delivering standard tests to prospective employees and using performance review surveys that are based on objective measures- to emphasise performance over demographics. This prevents any unconscious personal biases when evaluating candidates- preventing any form of discrimination.
Identity-conscious practices
Here, we focus on incorporating objective performance measures and demographic characteristics into the decision-making process. This assumes that targeted efforts are needed to prevent past and current injustices as the standard HR structure can create potential biases.
Diversity Training
Diversity training programs can have varying purposes: change cognition, attitudes or behaviour. Programs which incorporate active forms of instruction and training done in person showed to produce larger learning effects overall.
Additionally, if the training was mandatory or was delivered by internal managers, this had greater effectiveness and outcome. When a firm framed training as being significant to the organisation and demonstrating leadership commitment to diversity, this created greater motivation within the employees and willingness to learn to adapt to the company's policies.
Accountability & Transparency Practices
Firms must impose accountability structures which assigned responsibility for addressing discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, they must consider how holding managers responsible for achieving diversity goals could motivate them to take action, however, this may produce unwanted consequences. For instance, it may influence managers to be more biased as they are focused on the goal, rather than the process of achieving it.
A few ways to implement greater transparency:
Appoint full-time diversity managers/diversity committee
Targeted HR structures: networking and mentoring programs
Be transparent about how hiring and promotion decisions are made
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are various ways to implement greater training in order to reduce workplace discrimination. Although self-contained efforts initiated by one organisation can lead to a change, if policymakers, regulators and researchers work together they can bring about significant changes to overall, prevent any inequality.
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