Category: Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is an important and ongoing strategy of any HR plan. Ensuring that your company supports hiring, engaging, and retaining diverse workers with varied backgrounds will set your company up for long-term success and an increased bottom line. This topic offers the latest strategies for talent management, key insights from diversity leaders, case studies on D&I in the workplace, and more.

You’re not a doctor, and you don’t play one on TV

by Jane Pfeifle An employer made an incorrect assumption about a disabled applicant. When a court disagreed with the assumption, the employer paid the applicant more than $50,000. Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & Lebrun, P.C., the firm of article author Jane Wipf Pfeifle, was involved in this case. All facts are taken solely from the court’s […]

Tips for leveraging inclusiveness for a more productive workforce

Employers are always searching for ways to empower their employees to do their best work. They invest in training to help workers gain skills, and they develop policies designed to keep the workplace running smoothly, but other components—cultivating cultural intelligence and fostering an environment of inclusiveness—may be overlooked.   Simma Lieberman, a diversity and inclusion/culture change […]

To build or not to build? That’s the inclusion question

by Brad Federman Typically, an organization employs inclusion efforts because it notices there’s a morale issue within a certain group or within the organization as a whole, a legal challenge has been filed against the organization, or there has been an effort to organize a union. Unfortunately, many inclusion or diversity efforts fail because they […]

Different pay for unequal jobs OK

by Charles S. Plumb The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) prohibits sex-based discrimination in pay and benefits. Employers shouldn’t pay different wages to employees of the opposite sex for substantially equal work. “Substantially equal” work doesn’t mean identical work. It means substantially equal in terms of required skills, effort, and responsibilities.   An employer can […]

EEOC issues FY 2013 performance report

On December 16, 2013, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its fiscal year (FY) 2013 performance report, which indicates the agency is as busy as ever. According to the report, the EEOC received a total of 93,727 private-sector charges of discrimination in FY 2013, making it one of the top five fiscal years in […]

Promising or perilous? Exploring the future of Millennials in the workplace

More than a few HR professionals have combed the Internet, consulted their peers, and examined their own experiences as they search for a crystal ball capable of revealing the future of the millennial generation in the workplace. Some HR pros see enormous potential in well-educated, confident, passionate, energetic, and collaborative team players, while others see […]

ENDA may be coming soon—what will its impact really be?

by John R. Merinar, Jr. A great deal of attention has been focused on the U.S. Senate’s recent passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The House of Representatives has yet to take up the bill, but there’s much speculation that […]

EEOC to update guidance on English-only policies?

by Amanda Shelby Chief among the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) current priorities are (1) eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring and (2) protecting immigrant, migrant, and other vulnerable workers. It therefore should come as no surprise that the EEOC might be setting its sights on revising its guidance relating to English-only policies since those […]

‘My meds made me do it’: medication side effects and the ADA

by Connor Beatty Sometimes an employee who isn’t making the grade may blame his lackluster performance on the side effects of certain medication he’s taking. Although managers may express some skepticism about that excuse, there are times when a cause-and-effect relationship might exist. That appears to have been the case for a Maine lawyer whose […]

Rental car company can’t drive off employee’s suit

by Brian J. Kurtz Is it technically race discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if you terminate an Assyrian employee because you think he is an Arab? An Illinois district court recently faced that question.   Less than courteous Afram Boutros, an Assyrian of Lebanese descent, went to work for […]