Best Corporations for Minorities to Work For

The interior of the largest Whole Foods in the...

Image via Wikipedia

The term “minority” has taken on a very broad definition in the 21st Century. However, there are still some corporations that do a better job than others when it comes to giving minorities a quality work life.  Although many small businesses offer excellent work environments for people of diversity, there are a few corporations that do a great job, too.

Healthcare Industry

When CNN and Fortune Magazine listed the best 100 companies to work for with a large percentage of minority employees, it was the healthcare industry that took the lead. Companies like Methodist Hospital Systems, Baptist Health South Florida, and LifeBridge Health have thousands of employees, and over 50% of them are minorities.

The healthcare industry needs diversity because it is a business that cares for diverse people. Therefore, the corporations like to hire people who can work easily with similar patient demographics. It’s key to quality care.

Tech and a Grocery Store

The tech business is populated with young, diverse, bright employees, so it makes sense that it’s an industry full of minorities. Most tech companies are connected worldwide, so their employee populations are certainly going to look like the world.

However, the one place many minorities would never shop happens to be one of the most minority friendly corporations in America. WholeFoods Market hires young and diverse employees, and they pay a fair wage. Although the white, middle class shops there, the staff is black, hispanic, gay and lesbian, asian, and everything that makes the U.S. a diverse country full of opportunity.

It’s the new corporations who are finally breaking down the discrimination barriers.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Corporations and Discrimination

One of the biggest challenges for any human resources department is discrimination. It comes in many forms that most employees aren’t even aware of, but it only takes one recognized offense to cost a corporation thousands of dollars.

Racial Discrimination

We’ve come a long way, but racial discrimination still exists in the workplace. As the Hispanic population grows in the United States, so do the incidents of hate crimes and discrimination against these immigrants. Politics and national debates don’t help the situation, so human resource departments need to be especially vigilant about educating workers about the dangers of that one offhanded remark.

Sexual Discrimination

With email jokes flying around the workplace, sexual discrimination has found a new way to give corporations fits. Employees who send these jokes via the company email put the business at great risk of a law suit. Therefore, human resources should have very strong policies about the personal use of work email.

Another form of sexual discrimination that companies may not even think about is called third-party discrimination. If a corporation hires an outside contractor to offer any service, and that contractor makes a sexual remark to an employee, the corporation can be sued for not managing their contractor better.  It has happened, and the complaining party won!

Discrimination should always be taken very seriously in business, because it only takes one time to ignore it or ask a victim to ignore it, and a corporation can be in serious trouble.

Enhanced by Zemanta