Breaking Free of Disparate Treatment in Workplaces
Blog: NASSCOM Official Blog
Organizations worldwide are known to prohibit certain activities inside their premises, and one such no-no is Disparate Treatment. Intentional discrimination against a protected employee group (based on gender, race, national origin, color, sexual orientation, age, religion, pregnancy, military status, disability, equal pay, or genetic information) is referred to as disparate treatment.
What It Brings
Having complete knowledge of all the discriminatory practices and what one should do to eliminate them from the workplace is every HR’s responsibility. Inability to do so costs an organization its reputation as well as funds. It also has deep-rooted impacts on the overall organizational culture and employee motivation. And with time, it becomes a potential threat when the employees start perceiving it as “the prevailing organizational culture”. It will amplify complaints and accusations, followed by an increased need for top-notch inquiries, and finally, result in a high turnover. Once your organization falls into this pit, you are bound to lose out on your desired productivity levels. Movements like #MeToo or #BlackLivesMatter have also made themselves visible in workplaces due to disparate treatment only, and as we all know, none of these did well for the organizations.
Breaking Free Of Disparate Treatment
Since theory identifies disparate treatment as intentional behavior, it should not be tough to discard. We need able leaders and efficient HRs today to take up certain practices and break free from disparate treatment and the subsequent unfairness. The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) has pointed out three prime actions in this regard –
1. To treat every employee with fairness and equality, you need to have comprehensive and unambiguous policies in place. These policies should be valid at every stage of the employment cycle and updated at regular intervals.
2. To sync your policies with government rules and regulations, you need to possess strong legal support. Having a legal advisor will help you deal with tricky argumentative situations.
3. To foster a fair and all-inclusive organizational environment, you need to encourage the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) culture. No other effort will help eliminate disparate treatment like this one. A 2021 workplace needs the DEI culture
Laws have been prohibiting workplace discrimination for several decades now. But standing in the 21st century, even today, we had failed to create zero discrimination workplaces. It is about time for the super HRs to hold the reigns and take the responsibility of bringing ‘the real change’ in the workplace culture.
A genuine pledge today will make way for a diverse, equitable, and all-inclusive workplace tomorrow!
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