Minorities unfairly targeted for layoffs, survey concludes

Citation

(2003), "Minorities unfairly targeted for layoffs, survey concludes", Career Development International, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi.2003.13708cab.003

Minorities unfairly targeted for layoffs, survey concludes

Minorities unfairly targeted for layoffs, survey concludes

Diversity initiatives have not affected the belief that minorities are the last hired and first fired, according to a recent survey.

Around 72 per cent of respondents believe that minorities are unfairly targeted for layoffs. Some 59 per cent gave racial and gender bias as the primary reason for the unfair treatment, followed by the lack of minorities in decision-making positions. In addition, almost 70 per cent of respondents believe that ethnicity and gender are disadvantages in seeking employment.

One possible reason for the belief that minorities are unfairly targeted is that organizations' diversity initiatives and goals may still be unclear to employees. More than three-quarters of respondents indicated that employers do not have clearly defined or communicated equal-opportunity or workplace-diversity programmes.

Dan Honig, chief operating officer of WorkplaceDiversity.com, which carried out the survey, said: "In this economy, employers must do a better job of showing employees and the public that lay-off decisions are based on sound financial reasons and not race or gender."

"Despite diversity initiatives, people still believe that minorities are the last hired and first fired."

He continued: "Companies must further support and empower their diversity departments to enable them better to communicate the commitment to workplace diversity and make employees more aware of the programmes that will make that commitment a reality. Otherwise companies may make themselves vulnerable to even lower employee morale or possible discrimination lawsuits."