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.

Expressions of Faith in the Workplace

Q:I have a couple of employees who just started using religious expressions (e.g., “God bless” and “Your friend in God”) in their e-mails. Another employee is offended by the e-mails and wants me to make them stop. Any words of wisdom? A: In addition to prohibiting religious discrimination in the workplace, Title VII of the […]

Male-Male Sexual Harassment Claims on the Rise

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment charges by men have doubled since 1992, accounting for 16 percent of the 12,696 sexual harassment charges filed in the 2009 fiscal year. And while female-male sexual  harassment certainly makes up some portion of those claims, it’s evident that male-male harassment claims are also on […]

Stereotypes Are Alive and Well

We are beyond the day when an employer could evaluate employees by assuming or insisting that they matched the stereotypes associated with their group. — U.S. Supreme Court Price Waterhouse Facts Brenna Lewis started working for Heartland Inns, a small hotel chain, in July 2005. She mainly worked as a night-shift auditor, and in the […]

Language of Prosperity: Multilingual Employees

By Claudia N. Lombardo It’s hard to believe there was a day when nonnative English-speaking parents disapproved of their children learning any language other than English. Today, many parents embrace foreign languages as a stepping stone to their children’s economic success. That’s because businesses often prosper from employing bilingual and multilingual staff. The Vast Melting […]

Outed Vets Get Benefits for California Domestic Partners

By Jennifer Barrera The Commission on the Status of Women is a state agency founded in 1965 to study issues affecting women and to advise the California Legislature and state agencies on inequities in laws, practices, and conditions that affect women. The commission asked the California attorney general to respond to two inquiries regarding the […]

Outback to Pay $19 Million for Sex Bias

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $19 million and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a major class-action lawsuit alleging sex discrimination against thousands of women at hundreds of its corporately owned restaurants nationwide. According to the EEOC, Outback discriminated against female employees with respect to […]

Women’s History Month: March 2010

National Women’s History Month’s roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress […]

Recession Hard on Black, Hispanic Job Hunters

According to a report released in November by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), African American and Hispanic workers were hit particularly hard during the first year of the current recession. The report notes that while “the overall labor market conditions deteriorated markedly in 2008 following the onset of the recession in December 2007 . […]

Diversity a Goal for New OPM Deputy Director

Boston-native Christine M. Griffin has taken over the number two spot at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). One of her top tasks will be to help OPM Director John Berry increase the diversity of the federal government, which he has called one of his top long-term goals. Before being appointed to the position […]

Employer Shining Beacon During Economic Slump

For the third year, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) teamed up with Winning Workplaces to create its list of Top Small Workplaces for 2009. As the article notes, when faced with tough economic times, many employers try to cut just about everything that may be considered nonessential, including employee benefits, wellness plans, and other innovative […]