Update: Minority Hiring Poll

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  Alex G02/11/08 Report as spam
  1

  Quick curveball idea here for you all...

  An interesting idea I picked up from Tim Harford's book "Logic Of Life" may apply here.
  
  Basically, companies that exert taste-based discrimination (AKA bigotry) in their hiring practices are in the long run shooting themselves in the foot because they are denying themselves access to a pool of talent that they would otherwise find valuable.
  
  So here's a possible corrolary - if talented minority candidates are excluded from many jobs, there might theoretically be a large pool of superior employees who are denied access to a percentage of opportunities. This means that the pool of ethnic minority jobseekers could be proportionally more able than those who find it easier to get a job as this latter group will be more frequently employed elsewhere.
  
  Hence 40% ethnic minority hiring could be the correct number based merely on the requirements of the job. The x% of talented minority candidates are not being syphoned off by the more bigoted firms, to the advantage of their more enlightened rivals.
  
  I'm not saying that's necessarily the situation, but it's a thought worth throwing out there.

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  Miss Cybernaut02/11/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Update: Minority Hiring Poll

  
  It might be good to look for cultural and other differences because its good way to stay flexible and raise the level of respect to habits that dont come from our cultural background.
  Just as with long journeys, minorities shapes our minds, without even noticing it - if your strategy is driving by innovations, diversity is a MUST. Helps minds stay opened.
  Its nice & comfortable way to get more different results and to get ideas you never would in just like-minded team.

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  brenda8802/11/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: Update: Minority Hiring Poll

  The more things change, the more they stay the same. I feel it is as descriminating to hire people on the basis of skin color, gender, sexual orientation (enter other categories here) as it is to NOT hire them on these bases. This hiring practice serves only to perpetuate the divisions between us instead of celebrating and including characteristics that unite us.

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  ingoodcompany02/11/08 Report as spam
  4

  Statistically Valid...

  There's some statistical merit in your hypothesis. If the bell curve applies to minority talent, and minorities are at the same time disproportionately exorcised from candidate pools, then there would have to be a statistically skewed bell curve of talent for minority candidates among unemployed minorities. But...
  
  Interestingly, the biggest excuse for not hiring qualified minorities is, "We can't find any, because they get recruited right out of college." Or, a similar one: "The good ones are already employed or recruited, and therefore they demand bigger salaries than their majority competitors, and we can't afford them."
  
  So the premise of this entire topic -- a 40% minority hiring ratio from a 20% candidate base -- is a bit far fetched, unless its a very small actual number of hires.

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  mmeller02/11/08 Report as spam
  5

  Minority candidates are perhaps more suitable

  But can we exclude from this definition of ?results? the fact that minority presence in the company brings better societal balance to the professional world?
  
  Probably, then for-profit organizations exist for different reasons. When reviewing the minority hiring initiative (being the task of original poll), I would first focus on overall purpose of this initiative. How did the company?s situation and business strategy change so that an increase in the minority workforce was required? What are the (expected) business implications of it?
  
  Increasing the share of minority hires makes a lot of sense in particular when the company?s customer base is increasingly coming from minority groups. Accordingly, an objective, for example, to increase customer satisfaction could demand a change in the workforce demographics and maybe even their competencies and behaviors. There are plenty of examples in B2C area.
  
  So, while ?better qualified candidates are being overlooked in the push? it does not necessarily mean that the new hires contribute less to the bottom-line. Accordingly, I would focus on ?suitable candidates?, not necessarily the best.

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  jackson2cute02/14/08 Report as spam
  6

  RE: Update: Minority Hiring Poll

  I am always struck by the fact that people don't see hiring only white's as a
  race issue, you know racism. It is also a laugh WHEN PEOPLE LOATH SO
  CALLED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS. PEOPLE WHO WERE
  USED BY SOME WHITES TO BECOME RICH AND WEILD POWER BY USING GUNS,
  RAPE, WHIPS, CHAINS, AND LACK OF EDUCATION PLUS PUMMELING OTHER
  WHITES, SUCH AS THE IRISH. THEN REFUSE TO SEE THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
  GIVEN TO THEMSELVES BY THEMSELVES FOR THEMSELVES FOR HUNDREDS OF
  YEARS TO KEEP POWER OVER OTHERS AS JUST THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE.
  INTERESTINGLY, HISPANICS COME HERE, FORCE US TO EDUCATE THEIR
  CHILDREN, GIVE THEM MEDICAL CARE, ALLOW THEM TO TAKE OVER
  NEIGHBORHOODS AND DEMAND CITIZENSHIP. THEY ARE HIRED FOR EVERY
  THING BLACKS AND ASIANS WERE HIRED TO DO, MAID WORK, HOTEL WORK,
  JANITORIAL WORK, COOKING, AND WAITRESSING ( SOMETHING BLACKS WERE
  NOT HIRED TO DO OFTEN ), AND CONSTRUCTION ( SOMETHING BLACKS
  FOUGHT TO DO IN THIS COUNTRY AND NOW ARE NOT BEING HIRED) . THE
  HATRED OF BLACKS AND EVENTUALLY HISPANICS IS ASTOUNDING. YES
  AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS A *****, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE GIVING AWAY
  THE COUNTRY!

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  JBurg15251@...02/25/08 Report as spam
  7

  RE: Update: Minority Hiring Poll

  I feel that Minorities are just as qualified to be promoted and hired as anyone else in this country or the world. To believe that Minorities are underqualified or not suited for management or certain jobs because of their race or ethic background is why we have the economic problems we have today in this country. To look at my daughter who is a student at Columbia College and judge her by her skin color is a major problem for America as a leader in the world economic market. James.