THE MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES DR TESSA WRIGHT

Lecture 5: Equality and Diversity

Why is equality and diversity important to HR managers?

Social justice: evidence of inequality in society and at work

Institutional discrimination and legal requirements

The business case: the costs of inequality and benefits of diversity

Employment patterns by gender

Employment rates for men are 77% and 66% for women

But women much more likely to work part-time than men

MEN WOMEN

Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time

88% 12% 58% 42%

Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2013

Occupational gender segregation

Source: ONS, Labour Force Survey April-June 2013

High and low-paid jobs

Average

hrly pay,

%

women

%

men

Thous

ands

High-paid jobs

Chief executives and senior officials 43.17 25 75 76

Medical practitioners 30.26 42 58 242

Financial managers & directors 28.28 36 64 275

Marketing and sales directors 33.55 24 76 146

Senior professionals in education 29.77 62 38 95

Low-paid jobs

Sales & retail assistants 6.81 66 34 1,080

Cleaners & domestics 6.71 72 28 607

Kitchen & catering assistants 6.40 63 37 456

Waiters and waitresses 6.20 68 32 154

Bar staff 6.20 60 40 187

Source: TUC 2014, From Annual Survey of Hours and earnings 2013

Implications for gender equality

Gender pay gap 2014 9.4% gap between men and womens full-

time median hourly earnings 19.1% overall gap (full-time and part-time) Part-time hourly earnings 36% less than FT

Women managers will have to work until 80 to earn same as male counterparts (CMI, Xpert HR Management Salary Survey 2014)

Employment rates by ethnicity, full-time

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Male Employed full-time Female Employed full-time

Source: EHRC, 2010, How Fair is Britain?

Employment rates by ethnicity, part-time

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Male Part-time Female Part-time

Source: EHRC, 2010, How Fair is Britain?

Implications for race equality

Unemployment levels are higher, particularly for

some ethnic minority groups

Less than 1% of senior staff at Foreign and

Commonwealth Office from an ethnic minority; and

only 6% of senior civil servants in London are from

ethnic minorities

Discrimination can be compounded for ethnic

minority women

Employment status for adults by DDA status, 2009-10

0 20 40 60

Full-time - self employed

Full-time - employee

Part-time work

Workless - retired from paid work

Workless - unemployed

Workless - sick or disabled

Workless - other inactive

Percentage

Non-disabled adults DDA disabled adults all adults

Source: Office for National Statistics

Implications for disability equality

Life Opportunities Survey (ONS, 2010) first major

survey to look at social barriers, not only medical

Involuntary unemployment high for disabled people:

56% believe they are restricted in access to

employment, compared to 26% of non-disabled

Pay gap of 11% for disabled men and between

disabled women and non-disabled men it is 22%

(EHRC, 2010: 415)

Equality legislation

Equality Act 2010 covers: Race Sex Disability Religion and belief Sexual orientation Age Gender reassignment Pregnancy Marital status

Equality legislation

Equality Act 2010 includes:

Direct discrimination

Indirect discrimination

Harassment

Victimisation

Equal pay

Public sector equality duties

Theories of equality

Conceptualising equality

Sameness v difference

Equality of opportunity

Liberal and radical approaches

Jewson and Mason (1986)

Equality of outcome

Equality legislation

Sameness: individual comparator

Difference: indirect discrim., public sector duties

The critique

Liberal approaches

Political will and resourcing

Bureaucratisation

Sameness or the white, male norm?

Radical approaches

Special treatment and the backlash

Challenging the status quo?

Managing diversity

Focus on valuing difference, utilising difference

Not only concerned with legal compliance

Business case benefits:

Making best use of human resources

Flexible workforce

Attracting ethical investors

Integrating equality into corporate objectives

New business ideas from a diverse workforce

Business case at Network Rail

6. Customer focused organisation

7. Investing in our people

8. Opening up

9. A railway fit for the future

10. Reduced public subsidy

1. Everyone home safe every day

2. Reliable infrastructure

3. Reliable timetables

4. Biggest investment since Victorian era

5. Technology enabled future

The critique

Evolution or sanitisation?

Individualistic approach: social group disadvantage?

Flaws in business case (Noon, 2007):

what if rational to discriminate?

evidence for cost benefits?

employer prejudice?

Rhetoric or reality?

HR practice on equality & diversity

Fair recruitment and selection, promotion and appraisal processes

Pay audits by gender and ethnicity

Zero-tolerance of harassment, bullying; addressing organisational culture

Work-life balance: part-time and flexible working opportunities, at all levels

Monitoring and equality impact assessment