Top Five Ways to Integrate Social Justice into your Business Practices

News Type: Other — Seeded on Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:33 AM EDT

Article Source: sistersinbiz.com

business, how-to, diversity, social-justice, corporate-responsibility, business-practices

Consider integrating these into your mission statement and encouraging others at your place of work to engage on developing a company-wide social justice mission statement.

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{"commentId":344138,"authorDomain":"elliearroway"}

ellie mae

Thanks for the nice article. If only we could get everybody to implement just a few of these suggestions!

{"commentId":344138,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"elliearroway"}

1 vote

#1 - Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:31 PM EDT

{"commentId":344218,"authorDomain":"kylen"}

KyleN

It was disappointing that they believe a socially just company includes discriminatory hiring practices as one of it's 5 points. I guess everybody has a different idea of what constitutes being just.

{"commentId":344218,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"kylen"}

#2 - Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:20 PM EDT

{"commentId":344288,"authorDomain":"elliearroway"}

ellie mae

Actually two of it's five points, if I interpret your meaning correctly. I believe in social equity... meaning one should have employment/advancement opportunities based on ability, experience, etc. However, though most largish companies and all public and government entities have "non-discrimination" policies in place, there's still a significant anomaly in the employment and job level statistics of women and minorities. In employment discrimination cases, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff, thus it is necessary to prove that the alleged discrimination was based on gender, race, religion or whatever. Proving that one person was more qualified for the job is next to impossible when the employer can simply say something like, "Well, ol' Joe-Bob here has a better vision of what our company's philosophy is." and be found "not guilty" of employment discrimination.

The last company I worked for offered me a 30% salary increase and other benefits to stay after I submitted my letter of resignation. My reply was, "If I am worth that much to you, then why weren't you paying me that much?" The person they hired to replace me was less educated, had no experience, and was hired at a higher salary than I'd been making. Discrimination? Decide for yourself. Provable? Not a chance. Welcome to the real world. This would have been less likely in company with any kind of "social justice" philosophy.

{"commentId":344288,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"elliearroway"}

1 vote

#3 - Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:54 PM EDT

{"commentId":344346,"authorDomain":"kylen"}

KyleN

Too often people confuse discrimination with straight up trying to make a buck or 'keep costs down'. If a white male is fired or laid off it's because either they were bad or the company has problems. If the person fired isn't a white male though then it becomes an exercise in figuring out why the company discriminated against them in the highly likely case that somewhere else inside the same company a white male retained their employment.

In the case you relate, it could be discrimination, it could also be simply a retention policy that is out of whack with their hiring policy. I've seen or read about the latter in many companies including the one I'm employed with currently. I think if it was truly discrimination they never would have offered you anything but a push out the door. What happened was you changed the rules of the evaluation game from looking at differences in performance to cost of replacement. In a tight labor market that is how employees should always play it because the value of their work increases inflation style usually more than their productivity increases.

A real policy suggestion for companies that makes good business sense and would tangentially solve many discrimination claims is to treat yearly (or whatever period) evaluations as re-hires instead of performance measures. In a tight market employees will be happy, in a weak labor market they will not but that's how the chips fall and it's completely fair.

A socially just society can't be created through fiat. Only a new era of bitter, repressed people can come of such a policy.

{"commentId":344346,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"kylen"}

1 vote

#3.1 - Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:19 PM EDT

{"commentId":344977,"authorDomain":"elliearroway"}

ellie mae

Thanks for your perspectives, Kyle. The whole deal with my former company did seem like a rude awakening into the real world at the time, but I didn't stay mad very long... maybe 39 seconds total (15 seconds when they made the offer, and another 24 when I found out who they hired and for how much). Since I was leaving anyhow it didn't really directly involve me, but I thought they should have promoted from within instead of having HR sort through their file drawer of resumes.

{"commentId":344977,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"elliearroway"}

#3.2 - Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:01 PM EDT

{"commentId":345267,"authorDomain":"TheObserver1"}

The Observer

4) Foster Diversity at all Levels: Hire women and people of color at your highest levels of management. Fortune Magazine uses an annual 50 Best Companies for Minorities and Working Mother Magazine uses their yearly 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers to encourage you with specific solutions.

Forget that! Hire the best people available at all levels! Ignore race and gender and hire on merit only.

{"commentId":345267,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"TheObserver1"}

#4 - Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:02 AM EDT

{"commentId":346373,"authorDomain":"kymlee"}

kymlee

You should check out this article...it gives a little insight why talent is becoming less important in the workforce (I know...frustrating for all of us who are more about the work than an image). While not saying it specifically, I would think that this also applies to the importance of diversity in the workplace. People can be trained but diversity must be intentional and chemistry must happen organically.

{"commentId":346373,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"kymlee"}

#4.1 - Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:56 PM EDT

{"commentId":346066,"authorDomain":"collectionconnection"}

Paul B

Hire the best people available at all levels!

This works great if everyone sits in cubicles. When people have to work together it's best to have a team that gets along well too.

{"commentId":346066,"threadId":"49739","contentId":"412965","authorDomain":"collectionconnection"}

#5 - Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:01 PM EDT

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KYMLEE

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