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What If Your Business Really Needs Minority Workers?
Consider this... You have two, equally-qualified applicants for a position with your company. One is a minority. You know that, unintentionally, your work force has few minorities and to avoid the financial and PR fallout an accusation of racial prejudice could cause, you'd like to remedy the imbalance. You hire the minority applicant for that reason.
Or suppose your company wants to start doing business with Latin American companies. You believe that hiring some Hispanic management-level employees will make you a more attractive business partner, and those employees will be able to more effectively deal with their Latin American counterparts. So you instruct your HR department to consider Hispanic applicants more favorably than white applicants for these real-world, practical reasons.
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In these typical scenarios, you would not be favoring a minority applicant because of a preference for a particular race or nationality, but because of some practical, tangible business purpose - avoiding accusations of bias, or fostering customer relations. It seems that this should be permissible and, in fact, this kind of needs-based, practical analysis was one of the important factors considered by the Supreme Court when it permitted the University of Michigan law school to consider minority status as an admissions criterion. Sixty-five major corporations having annual revenues in excess of a trillion dollars filed a brief extolling "the importance of racial, ethnic and other diversity in our leading institutions of higher education" in the preparation of students for business life in a global economy. The Supreme Court bought the argument, writing, "American businesses have made clear that the skills needed in today's increasingly global marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints."
The university admissions process is plainly analogous to the workplace admissions process, isn't it? Doesn't the same logic apply in both places?
Many companies apparently think so. In our practice, we have noticed that many business owners and executives have interpreted the mass media reporting of the University of Michigan decision, and the entire modern ethos favoring diversity, as an endorsement of hiring practices intended to increase diversity in the workplace. Some have even gone so far as to direct their HR departments to add specific numbers of minorities to specific departments or management levels, and to brag about the accomplishment as if it were a PR coup worthy of front page treatment.
Counsel Consulting Group LLC helps companies throughout the United States avoid employment and HR-related claims and liabilities. CCG assesses existing policies, procedures and problem areas; it provides customized liability-avoidance training to managers and executives; and it designs and implements business techniques that reduce employment liability risks on a long term basis. CCG also offers specialized workshops for managers and HR executives, customized consulting in focused employment-related areas, and CD-ROM and web-based training alternatives. For more information, contact us at info@powelltrachtman.com and visit our website at www.counselconsulting.com.
Powell, Trachtman, Logan, Carrle & Lombardo, P.C. is a full service law firm with offices in suburban Philadelphia, PA, Harrisburg, PA and Cherry Hill, NJ. Powell Trachtman represents a variety of commercial enterprises, entrepreneurs and business executives in respect to their litigation, litigation avoidance planning, business formation, business transactions, estate and tax planning, and other needs. We are also approved defense counsel for numerous insurance carriers in matters pertaining to professional malpractice, products liability, employment practices, directors and officers liability, and many other fields. For more information, contact us at info@powelltrachtman.com and visit our website at www.powelltrachtman.com.
