(Newswire.net — June 30, 2020) — Updated on March 2024 – Every employee deserves to feel safe and secure at work and free from adverse or prejudicial treatment.The federal parliament as well as the states have stringent laws regarding workplace discrimination.
Workplace discrimination occurs when an employee(s) is mistreated due to personal attributes such as skin colour, ethnicity, age, gender or sexual orientation. Anti-discriminationlaws make workplace discrimination unlawful. Companiesthat do not put adequate safeguards in place and allow discrimination to occur can be subjected to hefty penalties. Apart from potential legal repercussions, investigating and addressing all manner of discrimination and harassment should be a top priority for leaders as these are features which can negatively affect collaboration and employee engagement.
Discrimination in the workplace can relate to a range of characteristics in the victim. These can be related to age, gender, disability, marital or pregnancy status, ethnicity, religion or sexual preference. Two of the most common forms of workplace discrimination are gender and generational bias.
Gender Discrimination
Have valuable female employees been quitting your company? Unfortunately, despite efforts in the last few decades, gender inequality and discrimination still exists in many contemporary workplaces.
Women are often treated differently from men in terms of unequal pay and benefits, lack of access to equal opportunities for promotions and consideration of needs. For instance, if you experience pressure to resign or fewer opportunities because you’re pregnant, take action by looking for pregnancy discrimination lawyers near me on the internet and seeking legal help, as this incident can cause postpartum depressive symptoms. Here are three types of gender discrimination (although these are not the only ones):
1. Disadvantageous treatment
This includes issues such as unequal compensation, unfair treatment or restriction of benefits, failure to promote, failure to take account of career responsibilities.
2. Stereotyping
Stereotyping is caused by implicit bias.
It is characterised by treating women as a uniform group and denying them their individual skills, talents and ambitions.This could translate into unfair hiring practices and skewed perception of capabilities or competence.
3. Sexual Harassment
Women often experience sexual harassment which refers to unsolicited behaviourwith a sexual element, including inappropriate verbal, written or physical interactions.
Gender discrimination not only has a far-reaching effect on women but also the organisation as a whole. Workplace harassment prevention training can help sensitise leaders and employees and foster a culture of respect and equality.
Generational Discrimination
Treating an employee unfairly or adversely because of age-related factors is referred to as ‘generational discrimination’. This form of discrimination affects older as well as younger employees. Assumptions and stereotypes about ‘older’ or ‘younger’ co-workers have an enormous impact on morale and decision-making.
Are any of the following forms of age discrimination happening at your organisation?
- Not hiring a candidate because they are too old or too young for the team
- Advertising for a candidate to join a ‘young, dynamic and energetic’ team
- Not hiring younger employees because of the assumption they will switch jobs often
- Not ‘wasting’ money on training opportunities for older workers because of the assumption they are ‘too old’ to learn new things
- Forcing an older employee to retire
- Assuming an older employee knows more than a younger one
Companies benefit when older and younger employees collaborate and learn from each other. Older employees are often apprehensive of being excluded from mainstream communications. Inclusivity training can help your organisation combine the specialised knowledge and experience of older employees with the energy and drive of younger workers.
Online equality and diversity training can help address problems of discrimination by promoting understanding and acceptance of differences. Workplace harassment issues are deeply interlinked with lack of diversity training. Training programs raise self-awareness levels and help address unconscious bias and the tendency to stereotype people. They also help your organisation review ineffective policies through interactive examples and realistic content.
As you grow your business, eliminate workplace discrimination and ensure that your employees enjoy a safe and welcoming environment.