Equity and Diversity in the Workplace

Answer

Equity and Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity in the workplace goes beyond the race and ethnicity of the employees and the customers. It is the realization that the employees and customers of a particular organization have different and varying abilities as well as characteristics, which include their level of understanding, education, religion, political beliefs and affiliations, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and even from different geographical locations (Marques, 2010). The net effect of this knowledge is that no particular employee would be denied an employment opportunity based on the factors mentioned. Equity, on the other hand, means that the organization treats all employees- irrespective of their diverse characteristics, the same from the recruitment and selection processes to the promotion and retention programs that are offered (Marques, 2010).

In the view of Sayers (2012), the promotion of equity and diversity in the workplace ensures that there is cohesion and respect as well as appreciation of each other’s differences, which eventually leads to the success of an organization. Successful strategies for diversity management in the workplace is critical for the success of any organization. As such, according to Paul, McElroy & Leatherberry (2011), the failure to manage diversity paints the organization in bad light and is indeed contrary to the provisions of various laws including the Equality Act that outlaws discrimination in the workplace based on the factors mentioned in the previous sentences. Equal employment opportunities means that organizations do not have any discriminatory restrictions during recruitment based on the color, race, sex or other grounds (Paul, McElroy & Leatherberry, 2011).

“Cultivating a culture that is inclusive for all people regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, physical abilities or sexual orientation has proven really beneficial to the culture of an organization as a whole and businesses that have policies and processes in place to support employees in these areas, have seen tangible improvements in productivity and engagement”. This statement is correct to the extent that it offers organization the true benefits of implementing diversity management strategies. In this regard, the statement implies that the management of diversity is correlated to the productivity of an organization. Therefore, the opposite is also true. Failure to have policies and processes that are aimed at supporting the diverse characteristics of the employees means that the productivity will be adversely affected. Therefore, it imperative that organizations embrace cultural diversity and should indeed; avoid discriminating their employees based on the race, color, or even other discriminatory grounds that are not related to the ability of the employees to competently execute their mandates in the organization (Wood et al., 2013). This paper will, therefore, evaluate this statement by assessing the equal employment opportunities and diversity initiatives that have been deployed by Harborview Medical Center and the Walmart Retail Stores.

Harborview Medical Centre is a constituent of the University of Washington that offers comprehensive health care services with more than 400 beds. The medical center strives to control illnesses and promote the restoration of the health of the patients that it treats. Specifically, Harborview Medical Center is owned by King County and governed by more than ten board of trustee members while the management is bequeathed to the University of Washington on a contractual basis. Surprisingly, the Centre serves as the only level 1 adult and pediatric trauma center for the Washington state. More importantly, it serves as the referral facility for Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. The number of staff and employees of the Medical Center are all members of the University of Washington Physicians’ Practical Group.

Walmart Retail Stores is a multinational corporation headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. and that deals with an array of products located in its hypermarkets, grocery stores, and the company’s discount departmental stores. The organization was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton and later incorporated in 1969. Walmart is ranked as the world’s largest organization in terms of revenues. Additionally, it is termed as the biggest private employer in the world with more than 2 million employees across its branches in the different countries over the world. Additionally, the company is operated by the name Walmart in its branches located in the United States and Canada. More importantly, the organization consists of over 11, 000 stores and clubs in over 25 countries that it has commenced its operations.

Discussion and Evaluation of the Specific EEO and Managing Diversity Initiatives In;

1. Harborview Medical Center

The cultural commitment of Harborview Medical Center to diversity starts with the nature of patients that it admits for treatment. In this regard, the board of trustees- within the resources that are available ensures that priority is given to the diverse population of patients. These include but not limited to; incarcerated patients from the King County jail, mentally incapacitated patients-especially those who have been treated involuntarily, persons suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, individuals with cases of dug and substance abuse, indigents without the third party coverages, non-English speaking patients, individuals suffering from trauma victims of domestic violence, victims of sexual assault and rape, and specialized emergency care to all. This is the first type of diversity that the center deals with. In other words, it treats patients with different characteristics without discrimination based on any ground (Shi & Singh, 2015). The reason for this is to ensure that a balanced clinical program and fiscal viability is maintained.  Due to its efforts in diversity of the patients that the hospital treats, it has been recognized as one of the best safety net hospitals in the United States.

According to Shi & Singh (2015), the other initiative of diversity that is embraced in Harborview medical center relates to the staff and indeed, their cultural diversity. In this regard, the mission of the hospital is clear about the diversity aims of the organization. This trickles down to even the various departments of the organization. The policies related to personnel reinforce the structure and hence, their cultural diversity objectives. In this regard, there are new employee orientations programs, staff competency training programs, as well as varieties of other cultural diversity programs aimed are at reinforcing the cultural competence of the organizations personnel. They ensure that the environment is conducive so that their employees are able to work cohesively in ways that embrace diversity in their workplace. Moreover, there exists a program in the organization that seeks to highlight any cultural barriers and obtain the input of the employees on the best ways of promoting diversity.

The demographics of the patients that the health care admits is one of those aspects that shows its management of diversity. In this regard, the patients that present themselves for care in the organization come from different places and represent various cultural and ethnic groups.  As a result, to manage this diversity, the board of trustees ensures that full ranges of different programs are offered with the aim of decreasing the linguistic and cultural barriers, which might arise from the non-English speaking patients in the center (Shi & Singh, 2015).  Specifically, interpreters of over eighty languages and dialects are available in the hospital 24 hours a day. As such, annually, over 90,000 interpreters encounter over 100,000 hours of service. Mostly, the Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali comprises of more than 50% of the interpretations that are made. Caseworker Cultural Mediators from the Community House Calls Program (CHCP) are able to serve those patients with diverse languages especially the Amharic, Vietnamese, Oromiffa, Spanish, Tigrigna, Somali, , and Cambodian.  Moreover, the Harborview’s CHCP education program, named Ethomed is intended to provide information about the various cultural beliefs, the medical issues and other aspects, which are crucial to the healthcare of immigrants.

The students in the facility are also a reflection of the diversity that is embraced by the organization. In this regard, they are all from different races, sex, sexual orientations, religions, color, among others. Notably, the employees of the center are students from UW schools of Medicine and Nursing, and Allied Health. The methods that are used to select them are purely based on merit. In the patients that they treat, 49% are those of color while 30% are poor or exhibiting severe mental or physical difficulties. Irrespective of the origin or color of the patients, Harborview is committed to treating them and offering them quality services. Indeed, the organization offers equal employment opportunities to those students without any discrimination. As a result, the initiatives devised to address diversity in the medical Centre have seen the organization being voted as one of the best in embracing diversity and offering equal employment opportunities in the health sector.

1. Walmart Stores

The diversity mission of Walmart stores is to embed and inspire the diversity and inclusion of all in the organization’s processes and activities. As such, the organization has various initiatives that are meant to recognize and respect cultural diversity and offer equal employment opportunities to its prospective employees. According to Gereffi & Christian (2009), this is in form of goals that Walmart works towards achieving. In this regard, the organization has a diversity goals program that accelerates the opportunity for women and people color to be involved in various departments of the organization. Specifically, the program aims at field management placement goals especially for the minority including women and people of color associates. Secondly, good efforts aimed at the ownership of diversity and inclusion in the organizations culture. Thirdly, there are active coaching review that aims at improving the state of discrimination and harassment of staff in the course of the duties. Finally, the organization aims to customize the various diversity and inclusion plans for the leaders of the organization. These goals are set after every five years with the aim of ensuring that improvement in the ways that Walmart conducts its business respects diversity and offers equal employment opportunities to its recruits (Rao, Yue & Ingram, 2010).

With regard to the diversity of workforce, Walmart is a reflection of the diverse communities that form part of its customer clientele.  As such, in the view of Greenhouse (2010), the company has full and part time associates who come from different ethnicities, backgrounds, experience, styles and orientations. The thoughts of those associates are not restricted to a certain culture but are global. Regarding the hiring of employees, Walmart attracts, seeks and recruits diverse talents and fosters a diverse and inclusive culture as well as talent acquisition. This diversity of talent ensures that the company moves in the right direction and productivity increases exponentially. In the last three years, the company has implemented in its employment various procedures, as 53% of the people it hired in 2013 were women while 51% were people of color (Greenhouse, 2010).

The Global Women’s Development Series, which is an initiative of Walmart, is a commitment that the organization has made with the aim of celebrating, developing, and lifting women in the company and in the communities that the company sells its products. This series of events are meant to champion for the rights of the women employees in a way that they can grow and thrive globally. Additionally, the organization intends to be the catalyst of women development across the globe. Ultimately, this program will provide accessibility as well as an equal platform for the support of women. All programs that have been embraced by Walmart are aimed at ensuring equality in the workplace and appreciating the diverse cultures that exists in the working environment. Specifically, the diversity existing in Walmart include the minority, African American employees, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaskan Native.

The Harborview Medical Center and the Walmart Stores organizations could have improved initiatives aimed at managing diversity and offering equal employment opportunities. In this regard, they could achieve this by setting more profound goals that are focused on appreciating the cultural diversity in their workplace. Specifically, in the view of Amaram (2011), they should have recruitment and selection policies that are more specific on the type and nature of employees that they wish to have. More specifically, they should have a specific number of women, youth, and minority groups that they will have to employ in each recruitment (Stone, 2013). This will ensure that there is balance and indeed, an equitable way of getting employees. However, the policies that do not contain those aspects are likely to fail in the management of diversity and the offering of equal employment opportunities. Apart from the recruitment and selection, McMahon (2010) states that the two organizations can improve in the manner in which they do their promotions and retention. In this regard, there should be a clear and acceptable procedure for promotion that is fair and equitable. This will encompass offering equal opportunities for promotion for both men and women (McMahon, 2010).

To conclude, diversity in the workplace is not only the concern of the race and ethnicity of the employees, but also the appreciation of all the differences in characteristics of the employees. The management of these differences is critical to the success and profitability of the organization. The Harborview Medical Center embraces diversity by designing initiatives aimed at ensuring that people from all walks of life get medical attention in their facility. Specifically, they have a group of interpreters that are critical for the non-English speaking patients.  Empowering women and people of color on the other hand is the concern of Walmart retail stores in managing diversity. Additionally, the diversity of the organization in talent acquisition and offering equal employment opportunities to people of different races, sex, sexual orientation and locality is part of their diversity management initiatives. However, these two organizations could improve their diversity initiatives by starting with recruitment of equal number of men and women as well as minorities. This would ensure that there is diversity and equality in the workplace. Additionally, the promotion and retention of employees’ mechanisms should display diversity, fairness, and equality.