Resolving Workplace Conflicts: Employee Relations - Discriminatory Interviewing & Hiring (PDF)

A key indicator of potential discrimination during the interviewing and hiring process is when the interviewer indicates the desire to hire a candidate that "fits." Often, that means that the candidate must look like, talk like and act like the rest of the team. Depending upon the makeup of the team, candidates may be automatically "written off" and not be seriously considered because they are "different." In all likelihood, an organization's customer base is diverse, so diversity represented on staff helps the organization be more responsive, creative and innovative in providing services/products in a diverse marketplace. A diverse organization is stronger, more relevant and more competitive. An organization that is not open to diversity finds itself with a negative reputation resulting in an inability to even attract diverse candidates for employment. Organizations that incorporate diversity requirements into their performance management systems hold supervision and management accountable to evaluate candidates based on their skills, education, experience and talents versus the color of their skin, their age, their sexual orientation, etc. Multiple options on multiple levels are presented in this tool for addressing discrimination during the interviewing and hiring process.

With this tool you get the following:

•  The effects discriminatory interviewing and hiring have on the organization.
•  Considerations for why discrimination occurs during employment interviews.
•  Numerous solutions for addressing discrimination in interviewing and hiring.
•  Ideas for negotiating/adjusting solutions.
•  Potential barriers and ways to overcome them to achieve resolution.
•  Implementation timeframe.
•  Follow-up review commitments.

Additionally, we provide a blank, editable Conflict Resolution Worksheet and the Worksheet Guidelines providing a step-by-step process for addressing your own workplace conflicts.