<< Back to Homepage>>

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back - Diversity Initiatives Gone Awry

September 17, 2019

1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

HR professionals and corporate executives often focus too much attention on a very common Diversity metric: the comparison of incumbency to availability. To make matters worse, they often see under-representation in a specific group for a specific gender/race as simply a recruitment issue and that the best way to address the issue is to simply make sure recruiters "cast a broader net." Unfortunately, this mindset misses the "big picture" . . . that the composition of an organization's workforce, and where employees are within that workforce, is a by-product of not only hiring, but of transfers, promotions, demotions, voluntary terminations, involuntary terminations, RIFs, glass-ceiling issues, training opportunities, etc.

Further, this over-simplified strategy to address all under-representation by simply diversifying the applicant pool can do more harm than good. Well-intentioned organizations with a desire for a diversified workforce will often "over-diversify" their applicant pools, leading to elevated adverse impact and, in essence, "shoot themselves in the foot." This happens more often than people might think. We track these cases in a file labeled, "No good deed goes unpunished."

The session will focus on bringing these issues to light and will include discussion regarding how HR practitioners should be reviewing different analysis results so that meaningful outreach programs can be created.

Speaker: Marife Ramos, PHR, SHRM-CP & Cassie Shamber, PHR-SHRM-CP

Marife Ramos was born in Manila, Philippines and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines in with a Bachelors Degree in Commerce major in Business Administration.

Ms. Ramos has been practicing in the field of EEO and Affirmative Action since 1996 and is currently a Senior Consultant and the Director of EEO/AA Operations at Biddle Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG). Her primary responsibilities include the oversight of the day to day operations of the EEO/AA Division, litigation support, affirmative action plan (AAP) development, and AAP audit support. Within that capacity she has been involved in hundreds of projects involving statistical adverse impact analyses of personnel actions (hires, promotions, and terminations) for employers ranging in size from 50 employees to well over 50,000. Ms. Ramos has conducted numerous training programs across the United States on AAP methodology, adverse impact analysis, and compensation analysis. 

Cassie has been a member of Biddle Consulting Group, Inc.’s (BCG) enthusiastic team of EEO/AA specialists for the last nine years. Not only has she been heavily involved in the development of hundreds of affirmative action plans for clients of various sizes during her time at BCG, but has also successfully supported numerous clients undergoing OFCCP compliance reviews. In addition to her current role as Consultant, Cassie is also the Associate Director of BCGi, BCG’s Institute for Workforce Development, and specializes in training and advancing the knowledge base of human resource professionals in areas such as equal employment opportunity (EEO), OFCCP compliance, affirmative action planning, compensation analysis, and a variety of other human resource topics with a focus on EEO.