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Earlier this year, Chris Hughes, a Victoria man, was awarded payment from Transport Canada after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in his favor, demanding Transport Canada to compensate him with the salary and benefits he would have earned as an intelligence analyst— the job he applied for 13 years ago.

After admitting he had a mental illness during the job interview, Hughes’ candidature was rejected by Transport Canada. The company then blacklisted him and sent emails to federal government departments that tainted Hughes’ image, resulting in him becoming unable to find a job in his field.

Hughes’ case is a great example of hiring discrimination based on implicit bias toward mental illness. It’s possible for anyone to have implicit biases about something or a group of people. Unfortunately, whether we’re aware of our attitude or not, rejecting an aspiring worker based on beliefs and stereotypes not only hurts them, but also hinders the employer’s potential of finding the right candidate.

Chris Hughes’ case is also a human rights violation. Employers are required by law to give equal treatment without discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, age, disability, citizenship, and more. They must also give equal opportunities to women, Native American peoples, people with disabilities, and visible minorities. On top of that, employers must accommodate workers in a way that reduces or prevents discrimination in the workplace (including job duties). But workplace discrimination is highly common, and some of the most prevalent forms include racial bias, ageism, and mental health stigmatization.

Some may be rejected because of their non-western name alone. Resume whitening is a term referring to workers adopting anglicized names (or shortening their names) on their resume to seem more attractive to employers. Philip Oreopoulos, economist and researcher at the University of Toronto, conducted research in 2015 in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal about resume whitening. Resumes were submitted online across several disciplines with applicants’ real names, and other copies were sent with a mere name change. With all three cities combined, the study concluded that resumes with western names were 35% more likely to receive a call back than resumes with Indian or Chinese names.

The same study asked recruiters why they believed employers discriminate against applicants with non-western names, and they stated it was because employers worry that such applicants lack proper social skills and language fluency.

But just because someone’s native tongue isn’t English, doesn’t mean their language skills aren’t strong. Having workers from different ethnic backgrounds may bring in new customers or solidify relationships with existing ones if they see that there’s someone who looks like them; customers will feel more comfortable speaking with that worker, maybe even talk in their native tongue. Cultural diversity also brings in different perspectives, which creates innovation.

Older workers may be afraid that their age will be a barrier to employment. While employers might think that older workers aren’t up to speed with technology, the use of any tech device can be taught. Older workers are more likely to stay at the company for several years and remain loyal, unlike younger workers, who are usually more interested in moving up the corporate ladder, which means changing companies when a more attractive opportunity arises. Senior workers may have a larger and stronger network of professionals to tap into than their younger peers as well. On top of that, having several generations working together allows young workers to learn from older ones and vice versa.

According to CAMH, 39% of Ontario workers indicated that if they were facing a mental health problem, they wouldn’t tell their managers. Aspiring workers with mental illness fear confessing their issue will blemish their professional image. However, many people at work secretly have mental health problems they either hide from their employer or developed while working there.

It’s understandable why someone will want to hide their mental illness— employers could fear late starts, sudden absences, or erratic behaviour. But there are ways to lessen such behaviours. The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) released a report in 2018 that included solutions to hiring and retaining aspiring workers such as allowing flexible hours, extending lunch (for better rest), and discretionary use of sick days.

Again, sometimes biases are unconscious, but that’s no excuse for treating someone unfairly. Educate yourself and your employees on discriminatory workplace practices. There are several ways to prevent unfair hiring:

  • Include a thorough discrimination module as part of employee training in every department, followed by open conversations amongst coworkers.
  • Use software to screen applicants or mask the names of all applicants while reviewing resumes.
  • Implement bias interrupters: small adjustments to your hiring criteria, performance evaluations, worker compensation, and other systems that prevent or reduce discriminatory guidelines.
  • Design the work environment with people with disabilities and mental health challenges in mind.
  • Have an open heart and lead by example.

It’s important not only to educate yourself on hiring discrimination, but to continuously seek learning opportunities that will help you dismantle what you think you know about a particular group of people so that you can better your cultural knowledge and overall wisdom.

Joséphine Mwanvua | Contributing Writer

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This article raises a vital question as to how executives can successfully improve financial performance at all levels of an organization and may lack the fundamental fortitude necessary, to be an all-encompassing model to predict financial performance. It further encourages executives to investigate scholarly work to increase financial performance, enhance profitability and sales, and improve shareholder value.

Drawing from the existing literature, new insights identify workplace diversity as a primary driver of sales, profitability and financial performance for companies. Identifying a new managerial approach may be necessary, as the new business environment demands are increasingly difficult to adapt and sustain these three key factors.

The critical and unanswered question is: how can corporate leaders improve financial performance?

There are many academic studies that focus on the organizational and managerial factors that drive sales, profitability and financial performance. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace are areas that play critical roles and are a strategic prerequisite for business success in today’s hypercompetitive global environment.

In particular, a diversity and inclusion strategy can help companies to improve financial performance in terms of achieving commercial goals and the quality of products and services. This is the reason that this strategy is so popular among practicing managers today.

The ultimate business outcome is financial success which narrows the gap between success and failure. This can be achieved by the commitment of its members and facilitated by an executive acting as a facilitative leader. In doing this, corporate leaders need to focus on the critical human assets such as commitment and help followers to effectively implement organizational changes, with both efficiency and effectiveness.

They can shed light on the strategic role of follower attitudes and values to accomplish a higher degree of effectiveness and highlight the importance of employees in implementing changes at the organizational level. When corporate leaders show concern for the employee’s individual needs, individuals begin to contribute more commitment and they become more inspired to put extra effort into their work. This extra effort improves the quality of products, customer satisfaction, impacts the return on assets, sales, shareholder value, and improves financial success and operational risk management. 

Financial success can be only be achieved by a diversity and inclusion strategy. Diversity of skills and interpersonal relations that is based on trust and reciprocity, can improve innovation and the performance of group cohesiveness.

At this point, you’re probably asking why the diversity of skills is so important.

The simple answer is that companies that may lack diversity in the workplace can’t share their knowledge. With an effective diversity and inclusion strategy, global leaders may improve knowledge sharing and learning that can eventually enhance financial performance in global markets, through empowering human resources and enabling change at the organizational level.

Executives can increase workplace diversity to facilitate knowledge sharing and build relationships, aiming at improving customer satisfaction through acquiring additional knowledge from customers, developing better relationships with them, and providing a higher quality of service and/or products for them.

Furthermore, creating an expert group or steering committee may be short-sighted because such groups may not have sufficient diversity to comprehend knowledge acquired from external sources.

Leadership in some companies has failed to pay attention to this important matter and create a team that makes diversity a priority and represents a variety of ideas and perspectives. A leadership status that isn’t only a failing platform but one that represents destruction, as opposed to innovation and expansion. This leadership gap can provide lessons for CEOs and executives in today’s organizational challenges.

The fact remains that leaders who manage diversity and use it as an important driving force for financial success, find their companies to be more competitive and on the cutting edge.

The question posited for top management executives and leaders in any and all companies is to accept the challenge of diversity and inclusion strategy implementation. That way they can address the current gaps in business effectiveness and improve their financial performance and competitiveness in global markets.

I suggest that executives embrace a diversity and inclusion strategy. I attempt to blend scholarly concepts with real world application through thoroughly looking at an effective strategy for maximizing financial performance.

Based on this article, executives can now see that they must be aware that their diversity in the workplace can fundamentally impact the way a corporation performs and can make a change in the processes a company achieves commercial objectives, improves sales, profitability, and increases financial performance. Financial performance is dependent on how executives formulate their diversity and inclusion strategy. Success for companies in today’s global business environment can be better achieved when a diversity and inclusion strategy is effectively applied and widely used to achieve a higher degree of performance. Therefore, when companies can have a diverse employee population, they will secure a foothold in the ever-expansive global business environment.

Mostafa Sayyadi | Contributing Writer

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Finding the right candidate for a job can be a daunting process for many employers. Individuals with a great work ethic and a strong skillset are essential for maintaining a productive organization. When it comes to finding the right people, utilizing the services of a recruitment agency is an effective way to fill job openings.


There are many benefits of a recruitment agency and using their services will significantly simplify the hiring process for you and your organization. Here are a few of the advantages:


Time and Cost


Time is of the essence in today’s world, especially if companies want to remain competitive. Stopping or slowing production can result in a loss of revenue. Job openings need to be filled with suitable candidates who can learn fast and make notable contributions to an organization. Recruitment agencies can match and shortlist candidates, saving your company on countless hours of sorting through hundreds of applications. As a result, open positions can be filled much faster, saving you time and money.


Network


Recruitment agencies maintain an extensive pool of skilled candidates in their databases. Job seekers seek them out for employment opportunities, which ensures that agencies are always receiving new applicants from a wide cross-section of backgrounds, experience levels, and expertise.


Pre-Screening


Candidates go through extensive assessments and evaluations before being referred to a potential employer. The agency will take care of all the background and reference checks, ensuring that only the best and most qualified candidates move on to the next stage.


Employee Retention


Workplace turnover is significantly reduced when the employee is the right fit for the job. Knowing that the available candidates have already gone through a thorough screening process puts the manager’s minds at ease when selecting an employee. That added confidence makes the final hiring decision that much easier to make.


Building Relationships


Over time, employers will find that the hiring process through the recruitment agency they’ve engaged becomes more efficient. The agency will have established prior knowledge of the employer’s specific needs and expectations, and thus be able to provide valuable advice and expertise on future hires.


For your next job opening, consider using a recruitment agency. The benefits will be reflected in an efficient and skilled workforce that’s capable of boosting company morale and helping you achieve your organizational goals.


N. Johnson | Contributing Writer

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Hiring can sometimes be a nightmare. You need someone to fill a position quickly, but you’re not sure where to look, or you don’t have time to take care of it on top of all the other things you have to do. There are lots of companies dedicated to servicing this issue, but weeding out the good ones from the bad can be almost as confusing as actually hiring for the job you’re looking for. This week, we’re here to help you make the distinction a little more painlessly. Here are four qualities of a successful staffing agency:


A Good Curated Network

A good recruiter knows that their strength only extends as far as their contact list will allow it to. Any respectable staffing agency will place the highest emphasis on making sure their candidate pool stays “free of leaves” and will screen their candidates extensively before adding them to their database. Bear in mind that a great network only stays “great” if it’s updated constantly. Look for companies that maintain a strong presence within the professional community and seemed to be as engaged now as they were 5-10 years ago. Otherwise, you may end up with a list of people who were fantastic prospects – a decade ago.


Regional Knowledge

Before you get too excited about the size of a company’s database, make sure that they actually have a strongly established network for the region you’re hiring in. If they claim to hire all across Canada, press them about the areas that they say they have the strongest presence in. If yours is one that they’re still “developing”, then it might be best to find another agency.


Industry Know-How

So the agency has a solid network in your area and a strong commitment to keeping it that way. Seems like a great time to jump on board with them, right? Well, not so fast. Before you decide whether a company is right for you, make sure that they’ve actually got experience hiring for the field and the type of position you need. A recruiting organization dedicated to helping young professionals might not be the best place to find new senior management; likewise, a staffing firm with a history of helping marketing/sales professionals probably isn’t going to have the right structure to help you find a new mobile app developer. Do some research on the companies you’re considering and observe whether they’ve hired successfully for the areas you need. Meet with them and ask them questions about the industry and see how comfortable they are with the subject matter.


They Communicate & Ask Questions

When sitting in a meeting with a representative from the agency, there should be plenty of questions being asked from both parties. If you’re the only one who seems curious, then that should be a big red flag. Hiring can be a complicated process, and every company has very different ideas about what the ideal employee will be. A good recruiting organization will maintain a constant dialogue with you to make sure that they know exactly what you’re looking for. This an on-going process, since new questions can come up on almost a daily basis. For example, if someone has a great personality and all the skills required but only has 4 years of experience instead of 5, should they be considered for the role? Regular follow-up is key in ensuring that stellar candidates don’t slip through the cracks in those kinds of situations.

Staffing is already hard enough without creating another headache by wrestling with ineffective recruitment agencies. Bad hiring can cost an organization thousands in a very short amount of time, so focus on finding the one with the right connections, location, knowledge and engagement before you fork over any of your hard earned cash.


L. Wang | Contributing Writer

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