Discussion
UK has been working and stood towards the promotion of the equality in the place of work. The laws and legislation procedure of the Country had been dealing with the particular important features of discrimination in relation to the recruitment and selection procedure of the employees. The establishment of The Equal Opportunities Commission was done for undertaking the issues regarding discrimination based on sex, which was and is a present scenario all over (Tatli et al. 2012). The other commissions i.e. The Disability Rights Commission and The Commission for Racial Equality dealt with the discrimination of disability and race respectively.
The three commissions had a merger and the new body came into force, which is referred to as the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The major aim of the communion involves the promotion and protection of the rights of all the people in the workplace about the laws and regulations described in the Equality Act 2010 (Ellis and Watson 2012).
Question a
The Equality Act 2010 describes that every individual in the workplace must have equality in the application for selected posts, training and promotion at the employment period and having the termination in an equal and fair manner. The above denials by the employment are to be considered unlawful and unfair under the legal considerations of The Equality Act 2010 (Barak 2016). The workers must be equally treated and provided with the same set of opportunities without having- any regard to the sex, race, culture, age and other characteristics of personal nature on the basis of which the discrimination are made (Sargeant 2012).
The workers must have rights of receiving fair behavior and practices from the employers, fair allocations of the work, equality in the accessibility of benefits and rewards in the entity. The workplace must be free from the harassment, discriminations and other unlawful practices within the environment of the workplace. The processes for the recruitment and promotion should be equal and there must be fair processes, which would deal with the complaints and grievances related to the work (Morden 2012).
The process of recruitment must meet the criteria below:
The description of the job must be accessible to all independent of the age, religion, sex, race and other personal characteristics. The gender partiality must be removed and the applicants both female and male must be treated in an equal manner. As per the Act, even the pregnant and non-pregnant women must be treated equally (Garner and Enns 2012).
The first candidate was Joan Keenan
The act defines the establishment of the opportunities in an equal manner within a workplace, which includes the following assurances:
All the employees having similar qualifications must have an equality in the accessibility and opportunities towards the advances of facilities and training procedures without consideration of the age, gender, sex or disabilities (Hepple 2014).
The employees must be treated in an equal manner without being overlooked for equal payments or other treatments and there must be a surety in the dismissal criteria, not being due to any personal circumstances.
The above policies and regulations help in the assurance from the point of view of the employees and other staffs of the workplace. The employees will be more committed towards working hard and completing their work with great efficiency and effectiveness in a timely manner. The employees will have a safe feeling, as they will know that there will not be any barriers to the progression in the job assigned. Rewards and recognitions along with the other merits and encouragements help them attain their best (Phillips 2013).
In the given case, the legal risks the Company ABC Ltd is likely to face are as follows:
- The management had not posted any advertisements regarding the selection of the sales director in replacement to Steve Brown. Instead, a meeting was conducted for the announcement. There was no formal process and the selection was to be decided based on the emails sent by the interested members. Hence, the law restricts such policy of informal selection procedure, which comprises the legal risk criteria.
- Secondly, the appointment were decided by the members on the basis of gender i.e. the female Joan Keenan, among the two females of the workplace was rejected. The major reason as per them was that the old people would revolt against the same, as she was young and a female who had recently joined the firm. As per the laws and legislation of the UK Equality Act, one cannot discriminate based on gender or age i.e. being young or old; one must have a note of the qualifications and capability of the member. The judgment in the case of C-415/10 Galina Meister v Speech Design Carrier Systems GmbH found that a female who had applied for a position was rejected without any reason and therefore she had taken action in the court. Thus, the court concluded that the discrimination procedure carried on by the company was illegal.
- The second case is of Aldo Viscida, who being capable of the duties had been rejected due to lack of his written English. As per the laws and case decided above, the discrimination is not feasible. David constant the third candidate, was also rejected due to his age as he was about to retire in a span of four years, which is not correct. He possessed the required qualities and qualifications but still he was deprived of his position without proper discussion and communication (Mouriki).
Question b
Though the legislation of the Equality Act does not leave any loopholes for the discrimination and other unlawful actions carried on by the employers, the employers can save themselves from the actions as taken by the act and various laws (Wood et al. 2015). The same is described and discussed in the following paragraphs-
In the given case, Steve Brown the Sales Director had thought of taking an early retirement as they have found a way of travelling through the substantial commission earned by him in the years served by him for the company. The company will thus need a replacement and hence the management will require taking steps for the appointment of the necessary director in replacement.
The managers came over a decision of internal recruitment i.e. without any public announcement or advertisements. The said decision was incorrect as proper advertisements and announcements must be done in a manner proper under the laws and regulations of the country. The legislation of employment never asks the non-announcement of any recruitment or selection procedure; hence the above procedure applied by the company can be termed as null and void. The employers can take the step of proving the same as correct by explaining that the cause was internal and an announcement was done in the meeting of twelve members. The incorrect invitation for informal mails for the confirmation of their concerns can also be proved right by saying that the necessary people were invited and their concern was dealt in an individual manner to give them priority.
The second candidate was Aldo Viscida
The employment can rescue itself by explaining that she was a female member between two women and were currently employed in the company. Furthermore, she was a young member of the company and thus the older members could have easily revolted against such appointment, which would result in the loss of trust from their side in the company. The revolts would have created fuss in the company and harassment situations for the company and the society.
However, the employers stand weak because the law clearly states that any kind of discrimination is to be removed and hence the discrimination done based on gender and age is unlawful. The feminism and the younger age cannot stop one to become a successful and efficient Sales Director. She has the same rights as the other qualified people in the group of the company.
The second candidate was Aldo Viscida.
The candidate had the necessary qualifications and efficiency except the fact that he is poor in English, which the management has taken into consideration while selecting the Sales director. Aldo has won many prizes and has won the respect of all other employees in the team but the management had a view that English knowledge is too necessary for the writing of the regular reports. In addition, the work of sales requires lesser written communication and knowledge as compared to the position of the Sales Director.
Again, the contention of the management is weak as Aldo has efficiency in managing the work of the department. Regarding the knowledge of English, he can keep an assistance to help him in preparing reports and communicating with the important clients, which is required in the sales department. The disability cannot be regarded as important as the candidate possess flexibility in the other required criterions.
The third candidate was David Constant.
The candidate was among the member who had been serving the company for the longest span of time. Hence, he was most reliable, trustworthy and experienced among the other members of the team. He was even the most respected and liked by the other members of the team which is a positive thing. The management contented that the candidate was of 61 years and as per the law, he was to retire in a span of 4 years i.e. 65 years of age and hence it was not sensible to appoint him. Further, the contention was put that his wife was suffering which would decrease his energy.
The third candidate was Anne Jackman
The contention was vague as the age and health of the family member cannot affect his work and energy. Thus, the management must find some useful contentions and proofs of their point of view.
Question c
The success of the organization depends on the relationship between the employer and employees. If the relation is strong, the employees will be more efficient, productive and loyal towards the organization (Mowday et al. 2013). The major benefits to the organization are as below:
Productivity: The employment relationships help in the creation of an atmosphere, which will increase in the motivation of the employees, which will instead increase the productivity and profits of the business (Scott and Davis 2015).
Loyalty: The pleasant environment of the entity helps in creation of drastic effect on the loyalty of the business. This results in assurance of a lower employee turnover and the employer has skilled set of workforce (Fossum 2014).
Reduction of conflict: There are lesser or no conflicts in the workplace and the lesser conflicts result in proper concentration of the employees, which makes the work productive and up to the expectations of the organization (Benn et al. 2014).
The employees will dislike the unlawful actions like discrimination based on age, gender etc. The same will conflict against the same, which will result in loss of loyalty and productivity of the organization (Porter 2014).
The senior management team can apply good practice in recruitment and selection to achieve their objectives and the same can be as follows:
Setting goals: There must be strong relationship between the employer and employees for achievement of the success and goals of the entity. There must be goals set which must be achieved through continuous motivation and creation of a peaceful environment in the organization (Billings-Harris 2013).
Delegation: The job or work must be delegated in a effective manner as it is the process in which the employer takes an opportunity of teaching their employees. The strengths and weaknesses are understood well through this process and the following must be taken into consideration while delegating:
- There must be assignment of tasks which are challenging in nature
- There must be responsibility assumption for the mistakes of the employees
- The management must never take credit of the achievements of the employees
- The personal mistakes must be accepted by the employment
Effective communication: A vital or key factor for an environment of work is the network of effective communication and the same helps in the regular reminding of the inquiries or concerns as a manager or owner of the business. The maintenance of the open channel of the flow of communication can help in the early awareness of the problems, which can lead to quick resolutions of the troubles, which have approached the entities (Castells 2013).
The fourth candidate was Hasan Ali
Implementation of Equality: Most of the employers do not consider the equality and the partiality and favoritism can make the employees subconscious. The equality development and implementation in the organization helps in the generation of equality and fair game in the environment of work for all the employees. The employee on feeling equal and important is more likely to work in a harder and more productive way (Hackman and Johnson 2013).
Hence, the above must be considered in recruitment and selection of the team for the good practices to achieve the desired goals and objectives.
Conclusion
The overall report talks about the legislations related to the equality or the discrimination, which should be avoided to get a perfect and effective management. There are various forms of discrimination, which are a part of the discussion, of the above report. In addition, the case studies related to the same have been discussed above along with the possible defenses that ABC Ltd has in relation to the course of action outlined in the case study in relation to each of the four applicants. The weakness of the employers has been discussed for the same and the results stated in the above report.
The role of the relation between the employees and employers are presented above. The relationship helps in the increase in efficiency, productivity and loyalty of the employees. There can be reduction of conflicts, which will result in the productive nature of the employees, and the same will result in the lowering down of the employee turnover in the entity.
The senior management must apply good practices in recruitment and selection to achieve their objectives, which are part of the discussion above. There must be proper set up of goals and delegation as per the requirement of the discussion. There must be an effective communication, which is vital for the regular reminding of the inquiries or concerns as a manager or owner of the business. The implementation of the equality procedures must also be present as the employee on feeling equal and important is more likely to work in a harder and more productive way.
The future and the present practices must be strong in the employment function to get an efficient and effective working of the whole system of the organization (Carnes and Holloway 2012). The best practices might include the following:
The commitment from the top-level management and authorities i.e. an effective vision of the diversity must be discussed and communicated throughout the entire organization by the -level management.
There must be a diversified nature of the strategic plan of the organization and a plan, which is developed and has an alignment with the plan of the entire organization.
The diversity must be linked with the performance and the same must be understood that the greater the diversity and inclusiveness of work, the higher yield and productivity of the organization. The same will result in the improvement of the individual and organizations performances (Bozhko 2014).
There must be a set of measures both quantitative and qualitative in nature to study the impacts of the various values related to the entire plan of diversity.
There must be accountability on the part of the leaders to ensure their responsibility and link the assessment of performances with the progress and other initiatives.
There must be a planning of succession i.e. the ongoing and process of strategy, which would identify and develop a large pool of success for the potential leaders in future.
References
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Benn, S., Dunphy, D. and Griffiths, A., 2014. Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.
Billings-Harris, L., 2013. The diversity advantage: A guide to making diversity work. BookBaby.
Bozhko, O., 2014. Managing diversity at the organizational level.
Carnes, W.J. and Holloway, M., 2012. CREATING AN UNDERSTANDING OF DIVERSITY SKILLS AND SUCCESS. Journal of Knowledge & Human Resource Management, 4(6).
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Wood, S., Nolte, S., Burridge, M., Rudloff, D. and Green, W., 2015. Dimensions and location of high?involvement management: fresh evidence from the UK Commission’s 2011 Employer Skills Survey. Human Resource Management Journal, 25(2), pp.166-183.
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