Everyday good hard working employees are making a decision to either leave the company they are working for, filing a law suit, or many times both because they are facing discrimination of some kind. Regardless of leadership's personal beliefs they have a legal mandate and a duty to protect their staff from any disparate treatment due to someone's national origin, age, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, being pregnant, or religion. In the event we are unable to protect them from discrimination we may end up costing our business a large sum of money.
Discrimination is not always a supervisor treating someone in one of the protected classes listed above in an insensitive, brutal, or unprofessional way. The truth is that the victim is generally the only one that notices while everyone else stands by oblivious to what is happening. One way it could happen is that your supervisor may allow someone to tell a joke about someone being "Blonde" during your daily staff meeting. Then there may be those times that the supervisor permits a birthday cake to be given to an older person that is recommending retirement. Although it may appear to be harmless and everyone laughs, these actions may be the start of an eventual problem.
Education is the best method of discouraging anyone from engaging in any form of disparate treatment against anyone based on a protected class they fall in to. Starting with the very first day of employment a new employee should receive information and training on the subject. First and foremost they should be instructed that this type of behavior will not be tolerated and what the consequences are if it does occurs. In addition, some type of annual training should be conducted and documented as well.
A great way to make sure everyone is aware of your company's position on your discrimination policy and how they are to treat anyone within a protected class is to produce and provide an employee handbook. Your employee handbook should cover not only your policy on discrimination but every employment policy you have. Once you have produced an employee policy handbook the next step would be to make sure everyone gets a copy and signs for it.
Typically what generates a claim against a company is when an employee feels they were treated unfairly because of their protected class. So as an example, if your company has been only hiring individuals under forty and a training opportunity that is offered is given to the younger individual even though both are equal, it could spell trouble. This is why it is so important to document all your critical decisions so that you can show why you made them if legal action is taken.
Most business owners are trying their very best to do the right thing because at the end of the day it is about being successful and nothing else. However, as supervisors or business owners it boils down to whether you are aware, or should have been aware of something that has been going on that can cause you problems. Therefore, it should be one of your top priorities to make sure you are seeing what is taking place in your workplace. It is not to your advantage to sit at your desk all day thinking things are alright. When or if there is something going on that may not appear to be just right investigate it thoroughly. Your business is at stake if you don't.
Discrimination is not always a supervisor treating someone in one of the protected classes listed above in an insensitive, brutal, or unprofessional way. The truth is that the victim is generally the only one that notices while everyone else stands by oblivious to what is happening. One way it could happen is that your supervisor may allow someone to tell a joke about someone being "Blonde" during your daily staff meeting. Then there may be those times that the supervisor permits a birthday cake to be given to an older person that is recommending retirement. Although it may appear to be harmless and everyone laughs, these actions may be the start of an eventual problem.
Education is the best method of discouraging anyone from engaging in any form of disparate treatment against anyone based on a protected class they fall in to. Starting with the very first day of employment a new employee should receive information and training on the subject. First and foremost they should be instructed that this type of behavior will not be tolerated and what the consequences are if it does occurs. In addition, some type of annual training should be conducted and documented as well.
A great way to make sure everyone is aware of your company's position on your discrimination policy and how they are to treat anyone within a protected class is to produce and provide an employee handbook. Your employee handbook should cover not only your policy on discrimination but every employment policy you have. Once you have produced an employee policy handbook the next step would be to make sure everyone gets a copy and signs for it.
Typically what generates a claim against a company is when an employee feels they were treated unfairly because of their protected class. So as an example, if your company has been only hiring individuals under forty and a training opportunity that is offered is given to the younger individual even though both are equal, it could spell trouble. This is why it is so important to document all your critical decisions so that you can show why you made them if legal action is taken.
Most business owners are trying their very best to do the right thing because at the end of the day it is about being successful and nothing else. However, as supervisors or business owners it boils down to whether you are aware, or should have been aware of something that has been going on that can cause you problems. Therefore, it should be one of your top priorities to make sure you are seeing what is taking place in your workplace. It is not to your advantage to sit at your desk all day thinking things are alright. When or if there is something going on that may not appear to be just right investigate it thoroughly. Your business is at stake if you don't.
About the Author:
Greg offers several more articles on discrimination law on his website. So, no matter what type of discrimination you need information on you will find it there.
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