Human Resources professionals are asked to put together training on a variety of topics that can range from legal issues such as harassment in the workplace, managing requests for FMLA time off, and what constitutes overtime-eligible pay, to the more everyday sort of issues such as dealing with difficult people, communications skills and how to lead versus “be the boss.” One topic that straddles the legal and everyday categories is discrimination awareness.

Discrimination in the workplace is a legal concern. It is also an everyday issue, because the human race is diverse and we’re all just trying to get along and do the best we can. Sometimes that brings into focus differences that may exist from one person to another, how do we – in the workplace – overlook or embrace, ignore or focus on, but bottom line, accept the differences and incorporate them into our culture?

A little bit of history:  Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, among other things, banned discrimination in the workplace based on protected classes of citizens, which, at the time, were “race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy) or national origin.” That’s a good start on a basic definition of who is to be legally protected from discrimination. Essentially, this describes just about every human being on the planet.

Several times since 1964, through more Titles being added that list has grown to include additional categories. As of 2018 are:  sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, genetic information, disability or veteran status. Further, a good, all-inclusive model to follow is what the federal government says: “The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service or other non-merit factor.”

Those Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statements can become very long, as you see above in the government’s statement. Wouldn’t it just be easier to say that your company is an “EEO Employer?” That short statement not only takes up less space in job advertisements, but lets the mind consider the actual words when assessing candidates: “equal employment opportunity.” Doesn’t that tell you that everyone has the same opportunity for employment as the next person?

On that note, back to the statement about how discrimination straddles the legal and every day:  it should be common sense not to discriminate, whether a legally protected category exists or not. Why would you want to disregard any applicant for a position based on anything other than their actual qualifications to do the work?  Where might John Glenn be, were it not for three African-American female mathematicians?  Referring to the movie “Hidden Figures.”

Everyone naturally makes assumptions about people based on first—or second or third—meetings. Pretend you can’t see the person in front of you when you interview a job candidate (interestingly that would make you part of the protected class of people with disabilities). If you’re asking questions about their qualifications and experience for the position, or how they handle situations with co-workers or customers, then it really shouldn’t matter to you what they look like, where they came from, or what religion they identify with. It shouldn’t matter how old they are, if they’re a military veteran, or if they have any type of disability. What really matters is this: can they do the work of this position?

How do you train people on avoiding discrimination in the workplace?  You can create presentations, cite the law, send them to seminars, and educate them on the legal price to pay for non-compliance, all of which are good to do. However, wouldn’t your job of training people on avoiding discrimination be easier in the first place, if you hired people who instinctively understood that it’s wrong to discriminate against anyone, whether they belong to a legally protected class or not?