Notes

SHARPEN YOUR AWARENESS!

EEO is an equal employment opportunity organization in Switzerland which acknowledges that job discrimination is a worldwide problem; it is non-profitable and foresees fairness for all job applicants. Each candidate has the right to apply and to be considered for a job without being discriminated by any of the following items:

• Age
• Sex
• Photo
• Handwritten Letter
• Mother tongue (Language)
• Religion
• Military Service
• Race/color
• Affiliation
• National Origin
• Police Record
• Psychological Testing of Personality

By EEO, we mean that each applicant should be judged with respect to his or her qualifications (knowledge, skills, experience, and education) not by any of the forementioned subjective criteria which have nothing to do with a person’s abilities and skills to successfully perform work-related duties. An applicant’s integrity should be respected on the basis that he or she is involved in a fair competition, and there is an objective standard for selecting the best candidate with respect to job tasks and responsibilities. Human resources have to be respected and treated with integrity before any organization can fully enjoy such resources in order to obtain organizational objectives. We believe that each sector should act voluntarily prior to legislation.
Currently, both private and public organizations in Switzerland and other countries practice job discrimination; we hope that these employers would be more sensitive to their employment practice and then make the appropriate change.

AGE Discrimination; affects older people (from 35 years onward) who seek employment. It has absolutely nothing to do with an applicant’s qualifications. Most organizations should be aware of the facts that selecting candidates on the basis of age is a fundamental discriminatory practice. Older applicants should be legally protected against age discrimination. The phrase ‘Join our young team’ also suggests age discrimination.

Sex Discrimination is intolerable in any society, especially against pregnancy and other related medical conditions. For qualifications have no sex. When employers ask for military records prior to employment, it is a form of sex discrimination because most women are not a member of the military institution.

Photo Discrimination provides a subjective selection of candidates. This is just discrimination, for it has nothing to do with a person’s qualifications, and abilities to do a job tasks effectively and efficiently. A picture theory cannot predict anything whatsoever; it is useless in employment. Thus, demanding photo prior to employment is unfair, and it shows the declination of human values in society.

Handwritten Letter Discrimination is also a blatant narrow-minded subjective criterion for evaluating job applicants. This method was well known in the Dark Ages, and it belongs there. This requirement for employment shows us how ignorant some employers are. Employment decisions should never be based on such a primitive requirement, for it takes back to the store ages in which all impressions were carved in lifeless stones.

Mother Tongue Language Discrimination is also a prejudice against people who want their application to be treated and evaluated in accordance with skills and abilities. Job analysis consisting of the matching between job descriptions (job duties and responsibilities) and job specifications (applicants’ qualifications) should request for candidates language competencies not for native speaker. The word Bilingualism, for example, should be used rather than native speakers or French, German, Italian, etc. This sort of discrimination is related to geographical regions, for it discriminates against a certain group of people while it favors a particular one. Employment decisions should be based on language competencies. Thus, native speakers refers to language discrimination in employment. To ask for language competencies, it motivates people to learn other languages.

Religion Discrimination has nothing to do with one’s skills and abilities.

Military Discrimination is also a subjective standard for choosing a candidate who is seeking employment. An objective method is based on a person’s qualifications, and abilities. Military ranks, discharges, anti-military people, etc. are not criteria for employment. It is used to classifying applicants subjectively which has no relevance to what people have to do concerning job-related-duties. This is related to type of discharge.

Affiliation Discrimination merely shows which group someone belongs to. Nobody should accept this kind of prejudice, and employers should promote fair employment hiring practices, for a diversified work group increases the value of human resources in a firm.

Race/color Discrimination is totally incompatible with a person&’s qualifications and abilities to satisfy job requirements. A subjective model of selecting employees does not have any place in this era in which EEO is a social object in the world.

Psychological Testing of Personality Discrimination is not an exact method in all situations. Experts disagree about its relevance. This sort of testing is not conclusively true. Employees and potential employees should never submit themselves to the treatment of a rat in a maze, so employers could only guess what the psychological qualities of a candidate are. Only experts are allowed to do testing because all testings have to satisfy a scientific standard: first, accurate prediction of job-related performance and abilities, second, validity (a test measures exactly what it should measure), third, reliability (evidence and consistency), fourth, informing candidates about the exact nature of the test, candidates; agreement prior to testing. Because testing would be very expensive for most organizations, in most cases, testing is not necessary. Qualifications and abilities are sufficient for most employment.

National Origin is another form of job discrimination which is used to favoring a particular origin. EEO is about everyone who has a valid work permit and legally living in a country can be considered for employment on the grounds of qualifications and abilities to perform job duties and responsibilities. National origin includes spouse’s history, family’s genealogy, birthplace, native language, etc.

Police Records are used as a subtle form of job discrimination especially when it is not related to a job functions and responsibilities. Convictions, arrests, or court records are also forms of job discrimination. For example, in a bank, it is important but not for cleaning the streets. This is related to “any inquiry related to arrests. Asking or checking into a person’s arrest, court, or conviction record if not substantially related to functions and responsibilities of the particular job in question (is an employment barrier)” (Fundamentals of Management, 1996, D.S. Miller, S.E. Catt, and J.R. Carlson).

‘Genetic Analysis’ depends on the accessibility of technology; it could be used to reinforce job discrimination in the future.
From recognizing job discrimination, employers are requested to be more careful and sensitive about their hiring practices and their job analysis, and job-related duties and candidates’ qualifications.

There are some exceptions with respect to employment discrimination. For example, a woman is used for modeling female clothes. Police records are important for financial institutions. Psychological testing for certain jobs which carry a high level of stress.

In certain cases, corrective actions are necessary in order to bring about a balance work force. This might supercede if it attempts to correct past employment discrimination.

With respect to searching for international employees, a local employer is obligated to find a local resident with reasonable qualifications to fill that position. If nobody could be found, an international search is justified. All this does not imply that an employer has to make a job requirements unreasonable. Job descriptions and specifications should match skills and qualifications that are normally available in the country where the position is offered.

PUBLIC SECTOR

Each person seeking employment should be treated fairly and equally, regardless of age, sex, appearance, race, affiliation, religion, mother tongue, graphology, military services, psychological testing, national origin, etc. Government represents the interest of everyone so that there is an equal treatment for all, concerning employment practices.

Unfortunately, most governmental agencies consistently practice job discrimination; this problem is worldwide. This sort of discrimination is mostly caused by managerial insensitivity; job discrimination, I hope, is not an official policy of any country. Most importantly, political awareness has to meet societal needs and public opinion. Nonetheless, discriminatory employment decisions can be easily corrected without adding any cost. If not, it looks like the following: You are paying your taxes to the government and community so that they can continue their discrimination against you. Thus, you are paying for your own miserableness. Job discrimination in the public sector (government offices, communities offices, universities, hospitals, public organizations and institutions, etc.,) is the most disgraceful. It makes looking for a new employee as a task for seeking a mating partner for the night. Job discrimination weaken a person’s loyalty and commitment; it restricts societal advancement.

The government sector, by definition, represents every inhabitant’s interest, equally and fairly, but job discrimination is a violation of this agreement. Furthermore, with employment fairness, every participant in society benefits including business. Nobody wants to pay taxes to any government which, in turn, favors a particular class of people with its job discrimination practices. The public sector should endorse EEO in order to not only finding the best qualified candidate, but it stands for every single individual’s interest – society advancement. Employment hiring practices should be nothing less than EEO for everyone, and the public sector should be a model for private organizations. For all government offices, non-profitable organizations, any form of employment discriminations is utterly unacceptable. Laws are necessary in order to change attitudes.

The practicing of job discriminations paints a marvelous picture about the general competency level of public administrative personnel; it appears as though most of them had been hired on the basis of job discrimination practices in which their qualifications and abilities were considered as a secondary factor in their employment. For this reason, they blindly practice employment discrimination. We hope managers are aware of EEO, for applicants want fairness and equality in employment decision-actions. Since laws are important against discriminatory hiring practices; education is equally important.

In Switzerland, we have about ten thousand non-profit organizations, and most of them consistently practice discriminatory hirings. I believe that the Swiss government would act with cooperation from other European countries.

PRIVATE SECTOR: JOB DISCRIMINATION

Affecting loyalty and commitment: Nobody wants to associate himself/herself with a firm which practices employment unfairness. If a candidate is hired by a subjective criterion: then (a) this person infers that his or her promotion would not be determined by skills, experience, abilities, and job competencies but by some other forms of internal discrimination and subjective assessment. (b) Job discrimination affects most hired employees’ self-development and responsibility in their organization. (c) It affects employees’ motivation and career development. (d) It discourages an applicant who perfectly matches an employer’s job descriptions from applying for such a position. (e) It affects the long-term need of a company, in particular, and society, in general. Generally, it is obvious that job discrimination undermines job satisfaction, discourages positive attitudes, and weakens morale among employees.

Restricting recruitment: Job discrimination, by definition, means a restrictive selection process, and it works against a company-best-interests and finding the best candidate for specific job tasks. Instead of preventing costs, a company will increase its costs by hiring low level human resources, and it also employs a high-risk candidate because the newly hired person may not be satisfied with job duties and his hiring method for several reasons. Because of this, it is likely that he would replay his hiring game without being involved in organizational goals. To avoid high-risk employees EEO would be an advantage in all employment decisions because it would be easier to match job descriptions with job specifications.

Candidates are aware of employment fairness: Any person with a grain of common sense concerning fairness would completely stay away from any company which practices job discrimination. For these companies have no integrity, and it tells new candidates to guess the actual nightmare what really goes on within such firms.

Undermining fair competition among candidates: If we continue to instruct applicants that everything comes down to job discrimination not qualifications, skills, and abilities, then we are also telling them to be less qualified and creative. Since this leads to negative consequences in society, companies and organizations should not blame academic institutions for not molding qualified candidates. Students would not be motivated to acquire excellence, for reality dictates that qualifications and capabilities are not important for employment.

Poorly trained managers: The practicing of job discrimination reflects that managers were inadequately trained. First, human resources dept do not want to take the responsibility of making a bad choice of newly hired employees; it distributes its incompetence by using a subjective criterion in its employment decisions. In this way, other people, who are not trained in recruiting processes, are called upon to participate in the selection process as they tag along with their personal standard. Since the others were not trained in hiring people, the human resources dept shifts the blame in case a bad apple is hired. For example, when a handwritten letter or psychological testing is practiced on applicants, other so-called experts often collaborate with the personnel dept to select candidates. If the hired person turns out to be a bad choice, nobody, in particular, wants to take the blame. Thus, personnel in the human resources dept are hiding their weaknesses behind job discrimination because they have a degree of difficulty constructing job analysis.

To practice job discrimination is very consequential for companies. For instance, job discrimination sends a direct message to new investors for not investing in a company because this company’s managers are unqualified with respect to job analysis. If a company could not select applicants without mingling in subjective assessment, this company discourages investors, for they conceive a company which practices job discrimination as a high risk. Qualification, skills, and abilities are entities of an objective criterion for making employment decisions; any yet, the central reason for implementing EEO is that it is just and fair for everyone, and EEO is relative to societys needs.

A Positive Course of Action

• Create a positive corporate image for your employees to identify and to motivate themselves with.
• Customers would be satisfied to have your products or services.
• Remember: job barriers only reduce your recruiting pool to less than second-best-candidates.

Moreover, removing employment barriers today is an act of recognizing human fundamental value and public opinion in the world. For job discrimination leads to a dangerous course because it is foreseeable in the near future that employers would ask applicants for an analysis of their genetic codes prior to employment. And this has certain negative ramifications in selective breeding. Currently, employment barriers are parallel to a primitive stage of selective breeding. Thus, EEO intends to stop a process (employment barriers) from evolving any further in other directions.

Some More Qualifications:

Mother tongue does not matter, but a good knowledge of the language (with or without accent) should be a criterion for employment

Race and Nationality – if there are two people with the same qualification on the job, the local one should be preferred (the one who grew up near by, because if there is total equality between a local and a one from abroad, the local will be forced to go abroad). Once the one from abroad lives near by, he should have equal opportunities, because he has become local in the mean while.