Whether is be racism in the workplace, ageism, sexism or one of the many other issues; diversity in the working environment is about promoting acceptance, respect and teamwork that creates a more pleasant and accepting working environment. This has benefits for employees in creating a more friendly and inclusive working environment and for companies, it helps to attract, retain and progress diverse talent within their business.
While the Equal Pay Act has helped to address women being paid less than men, there is still a significant percentage of the workforce in the UK who believe that businesses will hire men over women. Similarly, across multiple industries, it is widely believed that men are more likely to be promoted.
This imbalance of gender equality still needs to be addressed and employers need to prevent gender discrimination in the workplace while maintaining equality in hiring, salary and promotion opportunities.
Millennials are changing the working culture of businesses globally and while this has many positives, other generations of employee may find it difficult to adapt to changes in technology and working culture that younger generations are bringing to the the workforce.
Issues with racism in the workplace are still present and despite widely-reported incidents in recent years that have highlighted a need for this to be addressed, there is still much that needs to be done. There are still some in the UK workplace who withhold prejudice against those of different ethnic, cultural and religious beliefs and backgrounds. This type of prejudice and discrimination should never be tolerated anywhere, not least the workplace. Addressing racism in the workplace and the unconscious bias that so many employees unknowingly demonstrate is just one step that we can take to address diversity issues in the workplace.
This is where you are treated unfairly in your working environment either because you are a women or a man. While there are very obvious examples of unconscious sexism, there are also very clear examples that can be direct or indirect and take for the form of victimisation or harassment. The Equality Act of 2010 makes it unlawful, whether it is a man against a women, a women against a man or even a women against a women or man against man.
If an employee is treated differently or to a lesser standard that others in the workplace because of their sex, that is sex discrimination.
