Legal Compliance: Xerox

Legal Compliance: "Xerox"

1. Discuss how human resource professionals can ensure that top organizational leaders encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines.

A major element of employment advocacy is to ensure people are treated fairly. The human resource role provides vital guidance when it comes to assisting organizations in obeying discrimination and employment laws. To accomplishment this, human resource professionals must convince top organizational leaders to encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines. Organizational leaders must be knowledgeable of the major laws relating to discrimination and employment to include the: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1991, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Pay Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and Executive Order 11246 (Stewart & Brown, 2009). To ensure this happens, Human resource professionals should offer regular training sessions for all employees - top leaders, managers and workers. These training sessions should not only include the laws and regulations, but also the procedures to follow if such laws and/or regulations are violated. To ensure compliance, all employees should be required to sign documentation stating they received training. The sign document could be used to hold employees accountable for their actions. Standard operating procedures and guidelines should be established to assist employees with questions and/or concerns pertaining to prohibited behavior. And lastly, human resource professionals should address all questionable acts of discrimination. This is important as it helps to reduce legal issues, saving the organization thousands and thousands of dollars they would have to spend on fighting accusations and/or attempting to repair a damaged reputation (Stewart & Brown, 2009).

2. Discuss how hiring women and minorities improved Xerox's profitability.

Xerox improved its' profitability by changing its' cultural mindset and hiring practices. Xerox believed that a diverse team of employees would bring a variety of perspectives, allowing them to become a more creative and innovated company. Prior to 1970 the company operated on an old-style organization mindset. Employment for minorities and women were limited and fair treatment of black employees was almost non-existence. However, this all begin to change when top management became concern about its treatment of black employees. The company soon began to take an assertive approach in hiring and supporting black employees; and as feminisms caught hold, Xerox's progressive attitude toward race and gender moved them toward change (Stewart & Brown, 2009). This change in attitude and hiring practices made Xerox more diversified. According to David Kearns, former CEO, the movement to promote women was not because of fairness or humanity but because extracting from a larger labor pool gave the company a competitive edge. Now over 40 years later, the company is ranked as one of the best companies for women and minorities to work (Stewart & Brown, 2009). Xerox diversity strategy has been the driving force behind its profitability, and they continue to benefit from the surplus of ideas extracted from its diversified workforce.

3. Identify the changes that Xerox made to become a more attractive employer for women and minorities.

To become a more attractive workplace for women and minorities, Xerox changed its hiring practices and operational strategy. Changes in their hiring practices meant creating a more diversified workforce. Xerox's objective is to provide a work environment where all employees are treated with equality, dignity and respect; not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the lifeline behind their success (Diversity, 2009). Hence, to ensure they maintain a diversified workforce and promote inclusion,