Managing diversity.
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Managing diversity.
Listen to a business management expert talking about the price that some companies have to pay when they fail to address diversity-related risks.
Instructions.
Listen to the audio. Next go to each Task and do the activity. If you need help, you can read the transcript at any time.
Task 2.
Transcript.
Interviewer Tell me, Mr Griffin, are diversity risks really still an issue? Aren’t companies these days dealing with diversity?
Mr Griffin Oh yes, they are very much an issue. We have come a long way since those days when employers were allowed to discriminate against job candidates just because of their race or their sex. The trouble is, the boundaries of diversity and discrimination are widening. Companies have a lot more to consider than a person’s skin colour or a person’s gender.
Interviewer So can you give listeners an example of what kind of things you are referring to here?
Mr Griffin Okay, let’s see. Well, one growing area of discrimination is ageism. In 1998, companies in the United States had to pay out more than fifty-five million dollars to employers who had filed age-related discrimination complaints against their companies. That’s a lot of money.
Interviewer Phew! So how should companies protect themselves from this kind of thing?
Mr Griffin Well, first of all they should think carefully about their recruitment policies and then they should take out insurance to cover themselves.
Interviewer Isn’t that expensive? For the companies, I mean.
Mr Griffin No, not as expensive as you might think. These days most small and medium-sized organisations take out EPLI – that’s Employment Practices Liability Insurance. The cost of the insurance has fallen over the years, and if a company isn’t covered and loses a discrimination case, well, let’s just say this is the cheaper option!
Interviewer You’ve mentioned ageism as a growing concern, but what other kinds of diversity should managers be aware of?
Mr Griffin Well, you’d probably be surprised to hear about some discrimination against single people, against married parents, against people who are too tall, too short, too heavy!
Mr Griffin Oh yes. Security firms are a good example here. They typically state that their employees need to be over or under a certain height or weight. They claim it’s necessary for the job, but there have been cases where people have claimed discrimination.
Mr Griffin Sometimes, yes. Then there are people with a criminal background. Employers used to feel justified in turning away job applicants just because they’d been in trouble with the law.
Interviewer Isn’t that still the case?
Mr Griffin No, not exactly. The law states that employers can only reject a job applicant with a criminal record if the crime bears a direct relation to the job in question. So somebody who has served a sentence for, let’s say, stealing cars would be all right in a job as a kitchen porter.
Interviewer And Mr Griffin, tell me, how many people actually go through with their threats to sue a company for discrimination?
Mr Griffin Well, I haven’t got the latest figures for the UK, but in the United States the Equal Opportunities Commission receive around eighty-five thousand complaints every year and that figure is rising. Race and sex account for most of the complaints that are filed, but age discrimination is on the increase too.
Interviewer So, any words of advice for risk managers?
Mr Griffin Well, first of all make sure that you have adequate insurance. Then address the issues of diversity from within the organisation. Get the employees involved. Celebrate the differences and try to build up a reputation as a fair employer. And remember – it is worth investing time and effort in addressing these issues because statistics have shown that you’re much more likely to be sued by an employee than a third party.
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Pearl replied on 1 April, 2017 - 08:50 Burma Permalink.
Hello British Council,
Regarding the missing word in the last sentence in task2, I would like to know why the word 'adequately' that is adjacent to the word 'insurance' in paragraph can not be considered as correct answer.
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Kirk replied on 1 April, 2017 - 16:28 Spain Permalink.
You could use the adjective 'adequate' with the word 'Insurance', but in that case it should be go before the word 'insurance' since adjectives generally go before nouns in English. 'adequately' isn't used in a way that would be natural in this sentence, though I expect most people would understand if you used it there.
The LearnEnglish Team.
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le hoang dong replied on 1 February, 2017 - 04:14 Vietnam Permalink.
please help me answer Peter Yang's question because I do have the same question and wait for the answer. Many thanks!
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Kirk replied on 1 February, 2017 - 16:51 Spain Permalink.
Hello le hoang dong,
Yes, Peter was right - please see my reply to him below.
The LearnEnglish Team.
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le hoang dong replied on 19 February, 2017 - 05:12 Vietnam Permalink.
Thank you for your reply!
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Daniel Manius replied on 27 May, 2014 - 17:32 Nigeria Permalink.
The reason behind your inability to understand is your inability to know that what you read was grammar. May not have happened in real life.
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Lin Thandar Aung replied on 12 May, 2014 - 05:02 Burma Permalink.
In conversation, they said EPLI is Employment Practices Liability Insurance, EPLI is not Employment Liability Practices Insurance.
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Kirk replied on 12 May, 2014 - 07:44 Spain Permalink.
Hi Lin Thandar Aung,
I see what you mean - the second and third words are in the wrong order. I'll fix that straightaway. Thanks very much for pointing out this error!
The LearnEnglish Team.
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Lin Thandar Aung replied on 12 May, 2014 - 10:36 Burma Permalink.
It's my pleasure.
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poll replied on 10 July, 2013 - 14:48 Singapore Permalink.
Discrimination is still an issue nowsaday. Employee could have difficulties to sue company for discrimination because they would no have strong evidence to support their cases.
For example, employer could just simply put aside those applications from candidates who have criminal records and it is hard for those employee to compain against the company. The same apply to gender and race discrimination, it is hard for employee to find any proof ro support their complaints.
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A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).
Equality, diversity and inclusion.
How we work.
As the UK’s principal cultural relations organisation the British Council is strongly committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. Our work is centered on building meaningful, enduring and respectful relationships across different cultures. We cannot do this if we do not have a commitment to equality, inclusion and valuing diversity.
Our Equality policy and our Equality, diversity and inclusion strategy set out how we approach the challenges of mainstreaming equality, diversity and inclusion internationally, which means we try to make it a part of everything we do. We have developed a range of tools and initiatives to help us build diversity into our work. Some of these are described below.
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