Applicants need to find the right place of work to ensure their well-being, and organizations require competent people to succeed. Therefore, the search and retention of talented employees are crucial tasks performed by the Human Resources (HR) department. However, finding a job and hiring employees requires significant effort and face various obstacles, such as discrimination. Despite the critical importance of competent specialists for any company, discrimination is still an influential factor in recruitment, selection, and orientation.
Biases and prejudices are present in many areas of public life, significantly impacting it. Discrimination manifests itself in the non-recognition of equality of certain groups and unfair treatment based on gender, age, disability, race, belonging to LGBTQ, and other characteristics (Triana et al., 2021). In workplaces, it significantly affects the hiring and selection of employees, their orientation, and promotion. For example, the representation of racial minorities in various positions in health care is much less than their representation in the population in percentage ratio (Wilbur et al., 2020). Moreover, these groups often remain in low positions without receiving a promotion (Wilbur et al., 2020). Discrimination has various causes, brings negative consequences for the organization and HR, and must be eliminated.
The reasons for discrimination can be considered in terms of recruitment. Kroll et al. (2021) identified its three key sources – the attitude and subjective opinion of recruiters, direct managers’ instructions, and recruiters’ assumptions about the managers’ preferences. Consequently, candidates for the position can be refused if recruiters or managers consider them unsuitable for the work, evaluating other characteristics besides the necessary competencies. In the case of mistaken assumptions of recruiters, the risk of discrimination increases when a company turns to external agencies’ services (Kroll et al., 2021). Without an accurate idea of the company, external recruiters can be guided by the search for a stereotypical ideal candidate (Kroll et al., 2021). For example, when looking for a nurse for a medical office, a stereotypical candidate will be a woman. This situation has profound implications for HR and affects their decisions and activities.
Understanding the issue of discrimination, its possible manifestations, and the consequences is essential for the company’s HR department. Various researchers indicate that in the modern world, the expression of discrimination can harm the organization’s image (Dolan et al., 2020; Kroll et al., 2021). As a result, the business and customer relations of the enterprise may suffer. At the same time, it has been proven that diversity in the workplace is a crucial factor in success, and in times of crisis, such companies are more resilient (Dolan et al., 2020). It will be much more difficult for HR in a company with a damaged reputation to find and attract talented employees to work, which also affects the venture’s well-being. For these reasons, tackling discrimination and promoting diversity are essential.
Discrimination determines the decisions that HR representatives make. For instance, under its impact, they are less likely to turn to women, migrants, or older candidates when hiring and selecting employees (Kroll et al., 2021). As a result, the decision may not be successful, and a talented applicant will get a job from a competitor. In some cases, recruiters and managers may not be aware they show bias. When making recruitment decisions implicitly, with an insufficiently transparent approach to hiring, they have less control over the process (Kroll et al., 2021). At the same time, with a clear and thoughtful procedure, recruiters can better control their decisions and reduce the manifestations of discrimination.
Another aspect of new hires’ employment where discrimination can be detrimental is orientation. This process is intended to introduce the new employee to responsibilities, colleagues, and other aspects of the work, including company policy. Successful orientation can contribute to employee retention and dedication to the organization (Onochie, 2020). Bias, in turn, can cause HR to decide on failed orientation methods leading to talent turnover. Therefore, the employer must offer information on the company’s policy and culture to potential employees – statements supporting diversity and non-discrimination will create a positive image (Triana et al., 2021). Organizations will contribute to their well-being by showing concern for the fight against prejudice.
Thus, discrimination is a severe problem for those looking for jobs and those searching for employees. It manifests in an unfair attitude towards potential candidates on the grounds that do not reflect their competence. Since diversity positively impacts the work of organizations, the manifestation of bias only causes harm. In the case of continued discrimination, the company may worsen its image. With recruitment and selection, discrimination can affect the preference for one of the applicants and the ignoring another talented candidate. During orientation, bias can cause HR to show insufficient effort to support a new employee, leading to the talent leaving. Therefore, creating a straightforward procedure for hiring and training new employees is essential, which will help fight discrimination. It should include policies to reduce biases about what new hires should learn during orientation. Potential employees should receive information on the employer’s position on diversity and actions to maintain it.
References
Dolan, K., Hunt, V., Prince, S., & Sancier-Sultan, S. (2020). Diversity still matters. McKinsey Quarterly. Web.
Kroll, E., Veit, S., & Ziegler, M. (2021). The discriminatory potential of modern recruitment trends-a mixed-method study from Germany. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 1-21. Web.
Onochie, L. A. (2020). The changing nature of new employee orientation: ‘Staff retention and turnover reduction’ An empirical study in the Gambia’s public and private sectors. SSRN, 1-20. Web.
Triana, M. D. C., Gu, P., Chapa, O., Richard, O., & Colella, A. (2021). Sixty years of discrimination and diversity research in human resource management: A review with suggestions for future research directions. Human Resource Management, 60(1), 145-204. Web.
Wilbur, K., Snyder, C., Essary, A. C., Reddy, S., Will, K. K., & Saxon, M. (2020). Developing workforce diversity in the health professions: A social justice perspective. Health Professions Education, 6(2), 222-229. Web.