4 follow up responses to discussion question.

Do you think there is a difference between diversity management and affirmative action? Provide an explanation for your response. Support your response with APA cited reference(s).

1.Hi Dr. Luckett & Class,

There a difference between diversity management and affirmative action. Affirmative action is the steps that an organization takes to ensure that minorities are provided the same opportunities as non-minorities, and in some instances, minorities have an advantage over non-minorities. Diversity management inside of an organization is the efforts taken by the organization to get the most out of a diverse workforce. From an organizational perspective, investing more time in understanding how to manage diversity in the organization is the place to start. This approach allows an organization to analyze their current workforce and then look to market more heavily to diverse groups that are successful within the organization. Additionally, if analysis indicates that a particular group is severely under-represented in an area of the organization, recruiting efforts can be adjusted to search out qualified members of the under-represented group to ensure reasonable compliance while not giving up productivity and efficiency.

Sincerely,

Re: Topic 2 DQ 2

2.Hello Class!

Yes, I do believe there is a difference between affirmative action and diversity management.  Diversity management focus on heterogeneous group consisting of variety of demographic, cultural and personal difference whereas under affirmative action, the employer is required to design programs to eliminate discrimination at the work place. The aim of diversity management is to bring behavioral changes in individuals by changing the organization culture, developing skills and policies that will be made while keeping everyone in mind. It focuses on the interactions between managers and the employees they supervise, among peers and between employees and customers or clients.  Diversity management seeks these changes through programs that promote awareness of difference, empathy for those are "different" and attitude change - often involving efforts to assist employees to identify and confront their stereotypes about people whose characteristics differ from their own.  Affirmative action policy represents a commitment to end discrimination as a primary value which is not subordinated to other values.  Affirmative action compliance does not emphasize changing organization policies, practices and climate in order to ensure that, once hired, members of the designated groups would be full and equal participants in the workplace.

References:

Diversity Management - Learn About the Types and Best Practices. (2020, June 16). Retrieved July 08, 2020, from  https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/diversity-management/

About Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion: American Association for Access Equity and Diversity. (n.d.). Retrieved July 08, 2020, from  https://www.aaaed.org/aaaed/About_Affirmative_Action__Diversity_and_Inclusion.asp  

Identify an organizational-level goal that would be incorporated into an annual business strategy (e.g., financial performance, service, productivity, competitive advantage, innovation.) Develop three organizational development strategies relating to HRM you would utilize as a manager to support this goal.  Create the goals utilizing SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) criteria, specifically identifying how the goal will be measured using evidence-based HRM.

1.Customer satifisfaction is the biggest part of the business strategy for these Las Vegas resorts.  It's so important that they hire secret shoppers to test their employees and catch them on camera.  The employee is then rated on their performance.  If they get a low score, they risk being terminated.  Employees aren't terminated right away, unless they're caught on camera getting nasty with the secret shopper, which has happened!   

Another thing that the resorts do is that they send out surveys to their guests after they check-out.  Guests are asked about their experience, the quality of their rooms, and etc.  Guests are also able to make complaints about employees or even praise them.  They also utilize social media and other websites, such as Yelp and Trip Advisor.  If guests are making complaints against certain employees on these websites, then HRM will see a pattern and terminate those employees.  

These complaints go directly to the General Manager who will in turn send them directly to the director of the department that the employee is in.  

When it comes these secret shoppers who get caught on video.  If they get a low score, then the employee gets retrained.  If the employee gets another low score, then the employee receives disciplinary action which can lead up to being terminated.  I don't know how often these secret shoppers get to employees because I only got it once almost two years ago and I haven't been shopped since.  The reviews and surveys are collected daily.  This is how the resorts implement SMART.  (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, Wright, 2019)

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2019). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. ISBN-13: 9781260076844. 

2. I feel productivity is an organizational-level goal that should be incorporated in an annual business strategy. My job is constantly finding ways we can service more clients as we continue to grow our clients. We have a set standard we implemented that shows an average of calls answered per hour over the region and compare those numbers to every representative we have to show them exactly where they fall in the region average. This promotes competitiveness and accountability for ones own productivity.

Three organizational strategies I would use as a manager to support the goal of increasing productivity would be performance training, time management, and using company resources more effectively. This would be used through the SMART criteria by being specific on what the training would focus on. Measurable would fall under setting a goal they would reach to show they not only comprehend the trainings, but they are implementing them. Attainable would come from setting small, short term goals that shows the reps they can do what is asked of them even with minimum effort. Realistic will be utilized by setting goals that are actually being done by our reps in the same region dealing with the same clients that is shared on a website that is accessible to all associates. Timely would mean we roll this out and have it done within a couple of weeks so the reps will feel better trained in productivity.

Using company resources to find answers for the clients would help the resolving of the issue much faster tan placing the client on hold for a support rep.