Paper Example on Diversity in the Workplace: Beyond Age, Race, and Gender

Introduction

Diversity in the workplace does not merely relate to ethnicity, race, and gender. It refers to the various personal elements that stand for their national origin, race, ethnicity or gender, or sexual preference. We are at a time where a workforce consists of different generations co-existing in the workplace. Federal agencies are majorly focusing on ensuring that all persons with various disabilities access every aspect of the economy and are protected. The agencies are also ensuring that the LGBTQ communities are also protected and that they have equal opportunities in any workforce or environment. For any business, when recruiting, they should ensure that they consider protected communities and find a means of reaching out to their demographics. Organizations should also ensure that they have a working environment that is well conducive to these communities and that their policies should be inclusive and protective of their rights. Diversity in the working environment is important to the success of the organization, and the promotion of equal chances to every employee should be enforced to ensure equity and equality for all. The essay will thus look into the business environment in relation to laws that protect a diverse workforce.

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Laws Affecting the Agency

The Equality Act of 2010

The Equality Act of 2010 takes into account like 116 legislations that are into a single Act. Some of the legislations that inclusive in this Act include the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 and also the Equality Pay Act 1970. The chapter touches on employees where an employer is not supposed to discriminate against any applicant or employee during the process of employment. For instance, the employer is not supposed to make any reasonable adjustment in the process of hiring an individual with a disability. The Act also directs that an employer ought not to treat any worker worse than the other based on a characteristic that is protected. For instance, allowing pregnant to be redundant based on the pregnancy will be classified as discriminative. The Act protects employees based on disability, age, sex, religion, and sexual orientation. Under the Act, it is also unlawful for one to indirectly discriminate an employee based on their protected characteristics (Ning, Xiao, and Lee, 2017).

Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information)

The act requires the public, private, and voluntary sectors to publish their gender pay information, which presents the difference between women and men to what they are paid if the number of employees if 250 and above. The gaps are supposed to be paid annually by every sector of the economy. This information was meant to increase the transparency of the pay and encourage employers to address inequality in pay within the workplace. Gender inequality within the workplace does not only relate to salary but also in representation within board committees. It is not required by the law, but it is a required approach by employers in the workplace to ensure that equality and diversity in terms of gender are fully addressed and achieved in the organization (Chadwick, 2019).

Personnel Recruitment and Hiring Practices

June 2015 saw the LGBTQ movement reach a milestone in their pursuit for full equality after the supreme court of the United States made it legal for same-sex marriages nationwide. Despite this major progress on the matter, there have since emerged close to 200 laws that have been created that discriminate towards gays, transgender, and lesbians and bi-sexual. Major discrimination continues to become a great issue nationwide, and this can easily be seen around workplaces. The LGBTQ is a licensed community whose equality rights are all protected and enriched in the constitution. In the workplace, for instance, it is important that these communities are well protected and safeguarded to ensure that equality is a concern that is reached and that members of the community are not discriminated against whatsoever.

The major strength that can be noted with the LGBTQ community is that the supreme court of the United States recognizes them as a legal community and that there is a certain law that fully protects them in their various workplaces. The other advantage is that the right equality Act covers their rights to be included and protected in the workplace, and this clearly outlines how they have a safe working environment in their various workstations.

The barriers or weaknesses to the LGBTQ include factors such as lack of knowledge on the part of some employers on how to interact and accept them socially in the workstations. It is a major problem, especially in the healthcare system, where most healthcare providers and employers within the industry do not have enough knowledge on how to treat them right. The other barrier also in the healthcare system relates to negative experiences through prejudice or discrimination from staff members when, for instance, seeking care. Issues such as having bad experienced with the various trained personnel in the hospitals, for instance, are a great barrier to their total actualization as a free community in the workplace.

Ethics and Diversity Training

Leaders in the business environment are much responsible for their organization's corporate culture and the means through which diversity and ethics play in their organizations. In the event that the leadership is presented as complacent, then the team will be able to fully adopt a culture that behaves ethically right with every diverse group in the workplace. Every business needs to formulate ethical values and policies that protect and ensure equality by all the various diverse groups in the organization. These values set the tone by which the organization and staff behave and treat one another. Moral accords are an important set of principles that ensures that businesses and their workforce appreciate and respect every diverse group in the organization and that equality in that nature is fully achieved (Ng and Sears, 2018).

Recommendations

One of the major recommendations for achieving equality in the workforce is through the employees having to create policies that are well written and distributed to the workforce. The policies and laws should acknowledge every diverse workforce and should be geared towards achieving equality in a manner that is manageable and one that limits discrimination within the organization. The other recommendation I would give is for the organization to organize diversity workshops where employees will have to learn the acceptable practices and the ways to which they can achieve total equality and treatment of employees within the organization. Training of these employees in the various work environments will enable them, and their leaders better understand one another and appreciate how to appropriately communicate with each other despite their differences (Roberson, Buonocore, and Yearwood, 2017).

Conclusion

The LGBTQ community has in the recent realized major success and milestone in their push and need for equality in their respective workplaces. It is an issue that observes equity among the diverse workforce and how these communities can successfully work together. Legislation pertaining to the LGBTQ has been a major contribution to the promotion of equity within a diverse workforce. Business environments should always embark on ethical practices that ensure that employees observe and respect the various set values relating to the LGBTQ community and a diverse workforce in general.

References

Chadwick, H. A. (2019). Diversity Management: A Program Evaluation of Recruiting Efforts to Attract Diverse Candidates (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).

Ng, E. S., & Sears, G. J. (2018). Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-14.

Ning, Y., Xiao, Z., & Lee, J. (2017). Shareholders and managers: Who care more about corporate diversity and employee benefits?. Journal of Management & Governance, 21(1), 93-118.

Roberson, L., Buonocore, F., & Yearwood, S. M. (2017). Hiring for diversity: The challenges faced by American and European companies in employee selection. Corporate social responsibility and diversity management (pp. 151-171). Springer, Cham.