Introduction
As discussed in the Canadian employment equity act, employment equity refers to the responsibility that employers have in ensuring equal treatment of the employees and also give room for accommodation of differences. Employers are supposed to remove the barriers in their organisations that may seem to oppress any designated group. Women, the physically handicapped people, aboriginal and the visible minorities happen to be the groups of people that are usually vulnerable to mistreatments in their place of work. A reasonable accommodation could be used as the remedy to such barriers of employment (Greising, 2010).
This barrier that add up to inequity among employees seems to cut across many organisations worldwide. Wheelchair inaccessible buildings, practises within the organisation that end up making some of the members of the designated groups uncomfortable for example meetings being held in a strip club, racism that can be identified by practises such favouring employees who belong to a specific skin colour while denying opportunities that are supposed to be shared to the rest and unfair remuneration among the employees are some of the barriers to employment equity.
Employees should target to achieve the goals of employment equity by;
- Elimination of employment barriers to the designated groups in organisations which from our discussion happen to be mostly comprised of women, People with physical disabilities, the aboriginal and the visible minorities.
- Making correction to the practises that had earlier led to employee discrimination in employment opportunities and put measures that will ensure prevention of future barriers that may happen.
- Improvement of access and representation of in all occupations and at levels for the designated members.
- Fostering of a climate that promotes equity within the organisation.
Nevertheless, employers should give attention to gender equality by ensuring that both male and female are given an equal chance in the organisation. A survey that was done on a section of organisations in New Zealand shows that about 53% of the employed women in the organisations w ere part time compared to the 20% of the employed men. Generally women make up to 75% of all part-time workers. This is believed to reflect the ratio of men to women working in organisations worldwide.
Benefits of equity in employment
Equity will ensure that all the members of an organisation will play their roles by the same rules thus encouraging a peaceful co-existence and a constructive workplace (Greising, 2010).
Expectation of reward
Expectations are one of the crucial features of work place equity. Workers will strive hard to ensure that their effort commensurates to the expectations of reward. If equity and fair rewards exist, the employees will be motivated and give out their best unlike when employees are treated poorly and end up quitting or performing poorly to match their effort with the inadequate reward that they expect (Greising, 2010).
Meritocracy
Employer and employee need to build a meritocracy. Equity creates a platform meritocracy which means the rewards that people get such as bonuses and promotions that are awarded by merit without preferential treatment. It encourages a healthy competition among employees.
Morale
Achievement of the organisation’s objectives becomes easier when the employers communicate out their expectations to the employees. The management will create quantifiable goals that the employees will strive to achieve without the fear of benefiting someone else. This will be as a result of equity that creates trust and security where people get on with business (Greising, 2010).
Retention
With high morale, employees can go an extra mile in their responsibilities to ensure that the set objectives are met. Employers will incur extra costs if equity is lacks in their organisations since workers will see no need of being loyal while being mistreated. An organisation known for its equal treatment of employees attracts good prospects and the potential workforce (Greising, 2010).
