Assignment task:
Workplaces that are diverse and inclusive tend to be more successful than those that aren't. However, not everyone sees it that way and being diverse and inclusive in the workplace is often more challenging in practice than it is in theory.
Please review Chapter 4 from last week on global communication and diversity, as well as the two chapters from this week for this assignment. You'll need to work toward improving your own EQ, as well as focusing on document design and style for this assignment.
Scenario 1: Challenging Hiring Decision
You are on the hiring committee for a key role in your organization. After a thorough and lengthy process, the committee has narrowed the field to two final candidates: Candidate A and Candidate B. The interview process has concluded, and now it is time to make a decision. Will you hire Candidate A or Candidate B?
Both Candidate A and Candidate B meet all of the requirements for hiring in terms of education and experience. That said, Candidate A went to a more prestigious university than Candidate B, and Candidate A also has slightly more job experience than Candidate B. In the interview process, both candidates answered the questions very well, demonstrating high levels of knowledge. Candidate A was a bit smoother and more confident, but Candidate B occasionally hesitated before responding but also seemed more genuinely enthusiastic. Candidate A is a traditional applicant, and Candidate B is from a historically underrepresented minority.
Later today you will be meeting with the hiring committee to make the final decision. Your task is to do a short message to share with the rest of the hiring committee in which you recommend hiring either Candidate A or Candidate B. Be sure to explain which factors were most important to you and why.
Scenario 2: Evaluating Workplace Diversity
Because of your volunteer efforts in the local community, your supervisor has appointed you to lead DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) efforts at your medium-sized company. As you begin doing research on the diversity of the company's workforce, it appears that the company's employees are indeed diverse, having good representation from various races and ethnicities, genders, people of varying sexual orientation, religions, abilities, and ages. However, as you spend a bit more time researching diversity in employment practices, you learn that it is not enough to have a diverse workforce but also a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization. What you instead discover is that women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) employees are almost entirely employed at the lower levels of the organization but management and corporate (C-Suite) levels are almost exclusively made up of white, male employees.
Your task is to do a short message to share with the executive team and board in which you recommend changes to the hiring and succession training processes so that the organization's leadership better reflects the diversity of the workforce as a whole.
The channel that you use to communicate your message (email, memo, three- to four-slide PowerPoint presentation, etc.) is up to you. However, part of business communication is choosing your channel mindfully and then formatting your message appropriately. If you compose an email, it should have a To:, From:, Date:, Subject:, and correct spacing for an email. The same goes for other channels. Please utilize the elements of readability and style you learned in Chapter 6 for this message.