Equality and Diversity Approaches

Ques: Prepare a report to address each area of the employee relations data.These areas are The internal interview processes and BAME annual appraisals

Executive summary

Introduction

Internal Interview Process

Process of Appraisal 

Conclusion

References

The report focuses on a special case of NHS trust employees. The BAME employees are not provided the annual appraisal as much as the white employees. This is creating dissatisfaction among the employees. Gender biasness is also seen in the process of interview. Female candidates are not selected via the interview. Thus interview process and the appraisal technique of the organization have been reviewed in the present study. A transparent interview process has been suggested in the report. There are several appraisal techniques suggested in the report that could be conducted to make the process of appraisal fair and free from biasness. Suitable recommendations of the HR practices have been provided.

An equality and diversity approach is practiced in every organization. Equality is an important aspect for employment in all respect. It is expected by every employer and worker. Diversity is a positive approach for equality at work (Delivering equality and diversity, 2014; p-1-20) ; (10 Steps to Equality and Diversity for the Irish Hospitality Sector, 2014). It offers advantages to the organization. Cross cultural management is an important aspect in the organizations in UK. There are certain laws by the Government to treat the people in a fair manner irrespective of caste, age, gender. The laws are essential for carrying business in an ethical way. The 2010 Equality Act is applied against discrimination. The law has superseded previous laws that prevented discrimination at work place. The Equality Act 2010 has also superseded the Employment Equality Age Regulations of 2006 (Legislation.gov.uk, 2014). The laws in UK are consistent with the laws in other parts of Europe. They are also prevalent in other parts of the world especially the western World. According to the law, an employer has to be aware of the various implications of the equality legislations. An employee has to be aware of the equality rights. It will be beneficial for the employee and they will be able to take their own responsibilities. The legislations are not applicable for organizations that treat their employees fairly. Discrimination at workplace will create negativity at workplace. This will hamper the work environment. Diversity management will result in the development of equal opportunities (Britishcouncil.in, 2014). Employers have to abide by the policies of diversity management and initiate various programs in their organization that manage diversity at workplace. The review of the equal opportunity policies of EU shows that there are three major period for the development of equality in EU. They are equal treatment, positive action and gender mainstreaming. But the policies of the EU were limited to providing equal pay for equal work. Later on in 2000s the policies were modified and focused on gender mainstreaming (Gov.uk, 2013) ; (Equalityhumanrights.com, 2014).             

In order to avoid discrimination at workplace, the internal interview process has to be transparent. The Trust can avoid the discriminatory issues at workplace by adopting the following measures –

• The first step in recruitment is providing advertisements by the organization regarding job vacancy. The organization should avoid discrimination for the advertisements of job vacancies. The human resource department is responsible for the coordination of the advertisements for recruitment. The review of the advertisements will be done before they are published in order to ensure that the advertisement complies with the equality policies and discriminatory legislations and abide by the laws.
• The selection technique for a particular post must be appropriate.  The job description must be according to the role and specifications of the person must be used in making the selection decisions.
• The process of interview and short listing has to be transparent. The candidate will be shortlisted based on the information provided by him in the resume. Any other biasness related to caste, religion will not be considered.  The requirements of the job have to be fulfilled according to the description of the job.
• There has to be regular monitoring of the various job descriptions. The job descriptions must reflect the requirement of the vacancy.
• The skills, knowledge, competencies and abilities of the candidate will be reflected in the person specifications. The person has to carry out the job based on the specifications
• The interview process has to be specific. The questions in the interview will be based on the circumstances and requirements of the job. Questions that might be discriminatory should not be allowed in the process of interview.
• Any questions related to the health and disability of the person should be asked on the interview before the selection has been done. The Equality Act 2010 outlines the various rules to be followed during the process of interview. Organization has to strictly abide by the rules.
• The people who are responsible for recruitment and selection must be trained appropriately. They must be trained in the matters of diversity and equal opportunity. They people must be trained about the equal pay legislation. This will be done so that there is no discrimination at workplace. They must ensure that no discriminatory issues arise during process of recruitment. They must abide by the various rules of the Equality Act 2010.
• They must ensure that there is recording of the criteria for selection and the appropriate reasons are presented for selection or rejection of the candidate. This will provide a proof for future use.
• The results for the recruitment process have to be monitored. Special decisions have to be taken for measures which appear to be inconsistent.
• In order to make the recruitment process more transparent, the organization can contact with other firms in the same industry and ask about the requirements of qualification in the similar positions in their organization. Thus the requirements for the job will be posted according to the industry standards and there will be no conflict in the organization regarding the interview process. The salary range can also be set according to the standards of the industry. This will also make the process of recruitment more transparent. The compensation package has to be competitive.
• The interview questions must strictly focus on assessing the abilities of the candidate. The interpersonal skills of the candidates have to be judged. Judging the self motivation capability of the candidate during interview process is important. Any kind of question regarding the culture of the candidate, religion of the candidate, race should be avoided (Deeb, 2014).

Transparency in Internal Interview Process

BAME staff faced discrimination during annual appraisals. The annual appraisal of the staff was not at par with the white staff. This was raising dissatisfaction among the BAME staff. The process of annual appraisal could be made more effective by using the following methods for appraisal of performance (PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS: More Important than Ever in 2011, 2011; p-1-8).

The approach of performance appraisal should be a combination of the cost related approach and the behavior approach. The employees are rated based on their performance. The rating technique is based on the involvement of the employees in various roles, decision making ability of the employee, discipline of the employee. Subjectivity is minimized in this type of rating. The personal and behavioral aspects of the employees are not considered in this approach. The rating method is totally based on behavior.

  Graphic rating scale is used to rate the employees based on their behavior. The ability of the employees to manage a team, ability to work in a team, ability to handle conflicts are the measures considered while rating a candidate based on behavior(Elverfeldt, 2014; p-15-30).

In this process of appraisal the performance of the employees is monitored by the supervisor. The progress of the employee is monitored throughout the period of appraisal. At the end of the appraisal period, the supervisor uses a rating technique to make the assessment of the employees. They meet with the employees in order to discuss the assessment. It must be ensured that the supervisor is not biased in the process of review. An interview of the employees with the supervisor is organized. The performances of the employees are discussed with the supervisor (Kokemuller, 2014). However it is seen that there is lack of motivational effect in this kind of appraisal process. But the assessment occurs without biasness. The employees are given scope for discussing their view. The parameter in which the employee lacks is discussed by the supervisor. The employees discuss about weaknesses directly with the supervisors and the supervisors suggest ways for improvement. The ways of improvement is discussed by supervisor with the employee. In this method of appraisal, follow up meetings are conducted to monitor the performance of the employees. Any problem faced by the employees is directly handled by the supervisor (Gresham, 2014).

The employees can review their own performance by the self appraisal technique. However this type of technique for appraisal can only be successful with highly motivated employees who are self directed and are highly focused. It is a self assessment program. The employees are asked about their feelings about their performance. They are not under the pressure of the judgement of the supervisor. This is a useful technique in which the supervisors and the employees participate. The participation of the employees is crucial for the process of appraisal.  This type of appraisal process is known as two way appraisal process. The interaction between the supervisor and the employee is direct in nature. The employees and the supervisors have common grounds of discussion. They work together for the welfare of the organization. This is an effective evaluation process as it does not have any individual opinion or biasness attached to it. The process of self appraisal can be conducted verbally as well as in written form. The employees and the supervisors are provided with identical worksheets. The responses from the worksheets are compared. The comparison shows the views of both the employees and the supervisor. The areas of improvement are discussed accordingly (The Job Analyzer: BLR’s Complete Guide to Analyzing, Evaluating, Pricing, 2014; p-200-210).

Effective Appraisal Techniques

This type of assessment process is also known as 360 degree process of feedback, three dimensional or full circle appraisals. The feedbacks about the employees are gathered from various sources (Brutus and Derayeh, 2002). They are generally constructive feedback. The goal of taking such feedback is assessment of the employee in an accurate manner. The rating technique involves information provided in a number of forms which contains various statements. The forms consist of various questions which raters have to respond. The forms are filled up by the subordinates of the employees, peers, the supervisors of the employees and the external or the internal customers.  Thus the process of appraisal is a team work which does not have any kind of religious biasness attached to it. Thus the employees receiving the highest rating are provided with the highest appraisal. There is no biasness related to caste, creed or race in the process of appraisal. In this process, the identities of the raters are hidden. Their identity is not revealed in front of anyone. Thus there is no manipulation of the raters. The raters are given proper training prior to rating the employees. This ensures that they have conducted the process in an ethical manner (employersassociation.com, 2014).

Conclusion

 The organization must ensure that the interview process and the process of appraisal is free from any cultural biasness. The process should not be subjective. This will attract more employees towards the organization. The BAME employees will be motivated to work in the organization. They will not feel degraded. They will not face identity crisis. The interview process must only focus on recruiting employees that are academically and professionally suitable for the organization. Any questions related to caste, creed or religion should be avoided in the process of interview. The interview process has to be transparent. The individual responsible for taking the interview must be provided with proper training prior to the interview. They have to be regularly monitored in order to ensure that the transparency of interview process is not hampered. The process of appraisal should also be free from biasness. There are certain techniques to be followed for appraisal of the employees. It can be top down appraisal, self appraisal technique and the multisource assessment. The supervisor must be free from any cultural or religious biasness while conducting the review of the employees. The employees can also participate in the review process. This will be a mutual process. The employee and the supervisor can discuss their issues with one another. This will make the process transparent and free from bias. The grievances of the employees will be understood by the employer. Similarly the areas of improvement of the employees will be discussed by the supervisor. Another way of conducting fair process of appraisal is rating the employees by a group of anonymous raters. The raters will be properly trained before the rating process is conducted. They will not reveal their identity in front of the employees or the supervisors. Thus the rating technique will be fair and free from biasness.

References

10 Steps to Equality  and Diversity for the  Irish Hospitality Sector. (2014). 1st ed. [ebook] pp.1-7.

Britishcouncil.in, (2014). Equal opportunity and diversity | British Council. 

Brutus, S. and Derayeh, M. (2002). Multisource assessment programs in organizations: An insider’s perspective. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 13(2), pp.187-202.

Deeb, C. (2014). How to Avoid Discrimination When Hiring. 

Delivering equality and diversity. (2014). 1st ed. [ebook] pp.1-20. 

Elverfeldt, A. (2014). Performance appraisal – how to improve its effectiveness. 1st ed. 

employersassociation.com, (2014). Performance Appraisals. 

Equalityhumanrights.com, (2014). What is the Equality Act? | Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Gov.uk, (2013). Equality Act 2010: guidance – Detailed guidance – GOV.UK. 

gov.uk/government, (2014). DIVERSITY & EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES.

Gresham, T. (2014). Advantages & Disadvantages of Top-Down Performance Reviews. 

Kokemuller, N. (2014). Top-Down Performance Appraisal Method.

Legislation.gov.uk, (2014). Equality Act 2010.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS: More Important than Ever in 2011. (2011). 1st ed. [ebook] pp.1-8. 

The Job Analyzer: BLR’s Complete Guide to Analyzing, Evaluating, Pricing … (2014). pp.200-210.