Reply to Darla Koff
After starting intentional efforts to include more people of color in its workforce, a pharmaceutical company is experiencing a few staff members not showing much support for these efforts. Some of them have questioned the extra work required to include people of minority and other under-represented groups in its workforce. Some of them expressed the belief that this may be a type of reverse discrimination against qualified candidates from the majority population, and that it will result in less qualified people as part of its workforce. How can the organization’s leadership address such reactions and attitudes?
POST BY Darla Koff :
Intentional efforts to include more people of color should include looking into diverse pools of talent, and not just a "head count" for a minority group. According to FindLaw.com (2019), reverse discrimination means, "situations where a member or members of a majority are discriminated against on the basis of a protected factor, such as race or gender. " If workers believe that someone unqualified is being hired to full fill a quota, they may see diversity efforts as discrimination. Managers should look to find qualified applications from diverse backgrounds, demographics and cultures. If the organization's leadership team puts forth valid effort to find, attract, promote and retain a variety of qualified candidates, regardless of sex, race, gender or sexual orientation, they can reduce attitudes of discrimination and reverse discrimination.