What Can You Do to Decrease Discrimination in a Business Setting?

Decreasing discrimination in your workplace requires policy and education.

Discrimination in the workplace is more than just hostile or demeaning -- it's likely illegal. Creating policies that address discrimination and educating your employees about what constitutes discrimination and how to avoid it or respond to it can help keep your workplace pleasant and in accordance with the law.

Federal Discrimination Legislation

Certain types of discrimination in the workplace are prohibited by law. Various federal laws forbid employers from discriminating against employees due to race, gender, national origin, age or disability, and more. State and local laws may also prohibit discrimination. Furthermore, even when the employer does not discriminate, the organization has a duty under law to prevent other employees from displaying discriminatory behaviors while at work.

Creating Policy

Employers should adopt anti-discrimination policies that instruct their employees on what types of discrimination are forbidden by law, any additional types of discrimination that are prohibited by the organization, and how the employer will handle any instances of discrimination. Ideally, an anti-discrimination policy would be part of an employee handbook distributed to and signed off on by employees.

Uninformed Employees

Informing employees of their duty to follow laws and policies regarding discrimination is essential to prevention. The Institute for Corporate Productivity, known as i4cp, reports that although many organizations have anti-discrimination policies, few actually inform and educate employees about the policies, what constitutes discrimination, and what the consequences of discrimination are. Uninformed employees can be a costly problem for employers; a study by i4cp found that 43 percent of organizations surveyed reported addressing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission protected class harassment charges, discrimination charges or litigation related to discrimination.

Educating Employees

Policies that forbid discrimination and posted federal laws prohibiting discrimination are clearly not enough to prevent discrimination in the workplace. Employers need to educate employees about discrimination in order to prevent it from happening. Educating employees should start with new hires, who should be asked to read over and sign a form accepting the employer's policy handbook. From there, employees should have regular continuing education opportunities that help them to understand what discrimination is, how to avoid it, and what to do in the event that they are either victims of harassment, or see harassment happening.

References

• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Laws Enforced by EEOC
• i4cp: Anti-Discrimination Policies Are Poorly Communicated, Suggests New i4cp Study
• Association of Corporate Counsel: Preventing Discrimination and Harassment In The Workplace
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Laws & Guidance

Resources

• U.S. Small Business Administration: Employment Discrimination and Harassment
• Nolo: Employment Discrimination in Your State