Challenges and practical implications for human resources management

 

Figure 01: Challenges and practical implications

 Employees who experience religious discrimination may have serious psychological harm, such as sadness, low self-esteem, and trouble forming relationships. They could even feel guilty or ashamed for not being able to uphold their employer's religious standards. These workers also lose their social networks, which can be crucial in difficult financial or emotional situations. Additionally, because religious prejudice frequently coexists with racial and gender prejudice, it makes working conditions particularly unfriendly for workers who are already frequently marginalized in the workplace. This kind of work environment can result in low morale, high turnover rates, and an increase in workplace violence (Office of Cilvil Rights, 2022).

Companies must do their part to stop employment discrimination on the basis of religion. Compliance with legal regulations is crucial as a first step. To create a respectful work environment, corporate practices and culture must be examined holistically.

Senior leadership is best suited to lead the effort to end religious discrimination, but sometimes all it takes is one person with the guts to speak up for change. Employers who are committed to protecting staff members from discrimination's various expressions should think about joining Project WHEN (Workplace Harassment Ends Now). When businesses fail to comply with legal requirements and do not take preventative measures, acts of discrimination occur. It is time to start demolishing the organization when hostile behaviors are noticed, which can be done by having meaningful conversations and challenging the status quo (U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commision, 2022).

Video( Challenges of discrimination at workplace)

Following best practices can be adopted by employers in order to avoid religious discrimination at the workplace.

 

Ø  By creating documented objective criteria for evaluating applicants for recruitment or promotion and applying those criteria consistently to all candidates, employers can lower the risk of making discriminatory hiring decisions.

 

Ø  Employers can prevent discrimination during job interviews by asking all candidates the same questions and probing about topics that are specifically relevant to the position they are interviewing for.

 

Ø  By carefully and promptly documenting the legitimate business justifications for disciplinary or performance-related actions and communicating these justifications to the affected employees, employers can decrease the possibility of religious discrimination lawsuits.

 

Ø  Employers can lower the risk of discriminating decisions when management decisions call for the use of subjective judgment by training novice managers and encouraging them to seek advice from more seasoned managers or human resources staff when dealing with challenging situations.

 

Ø  An employer should think about communicating with and educating the customers about any misconceptions they may have as well as the equal employment opportunity legislation if they are faced with customer biases, such as a negative reaction to being served by an employee due to religious garb.

 

Ø  Employers can reduce the risk of retaliation claims by training managers and supervisors to be aware of their anti-retaliation obligations under Title VII, including specific actions that may constitute retaliation.

 

Ø  Employers can help reduce the risk of retaliation claims by carefully and timely recording the accurate business reasons for disciplinary or performance related actions and sharing these reasons with the employee.

 

Referenec

Office of Cilvil Rights, 2022. Religious Discrimination. [Online]

[Accessed 10 11 2022].

U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commision, 2022. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination in the Workplace. [Online]

[Accessed 10 11 2022].