Due: TBD see class schedule at the end of the syllabus

NO cover page

4-5 pages

12 Pt type, double spaced

 

15 pts

You are a senior level director in human resources for Ferguson MO, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York – or any city where there has been a highly publicized death of an African American while in police custody.   Huge protests and massive media attention are focused on the City leading to violence and destruction of property in the streets, loss of business investment, tourism and just bad publicity. 

You are tasked with re-creating the police force to make it more reflective of the community – and to do it legally because your bosses cannot afford more bad publicity or further splitting of the community along racial and/or soci economic lines. You need to recruit in “effective places,”  ask questions in interviews that are legally appropriate, administer applicant tests that are both legal and produce candidates that will quell the tension.   Assume that an Affirmative Action plan would be appropriate.  (See my notes on a legal AA plan)

Objective

This assignment presents you with a situation you could encounter as an HR professional designing a recruitment and hiring campaign.  The objective is to shape your workforce to maximize its effectiveness while minimizing the risk of litigation arising from a recruitment and hiring program that will be closely watched by everyone for how it is conducted and its results.

Your city has approximately 1 million people - 40% African American and 15% Hispanic, 5% other ethnic minorities and 35% Caucasian.  The police department is 85% white.  There is a history of cooperation among community (political church, civic, business and union) leaders in the past.  

Political leadership wants the Police Department to increase minority representation throughout but especially in the front line officers who work in the community. They want police out of their cruisers and walking the streets where they can build closer ties to the community.  The new officers must have (or can be trained to have) a temperament and approach appropriate to the task.

To Do

Describe your recruitment and hiring plan in a 4-5 page double spaced paper. Answer the following questions: 

1.  Describe 4-5 essential elements of the job in context of police officers’ duty and the history in this specific community?  By essential I mean they are the heart of what this job is about.  Ex; Arresting people is not essential; protecting is.  There are many ways other than arresting to protect.

2.  Describe the recruitment campaign you would undertake to find the right applicants.  Where would you post radio, tv, web based ads? Where in the community would you go to post recruitment signs?  Who in the community would you talk to find candidates?  Explain your answers.

3.  Write the first few paragraphs of the job description that describes the job in a way that communicates to the applicants what characteristics you need in a police officer.

4.  List  5 questions you would want answered either through the application or in employment interview. Consider which questions are legal and which are not legal and therefore cannot be part of the application.  For the illegal questions tell me why the information is relevant and how you would otherwise obtain the information about the applicants.

 

For example: “What is your race?  Illegal question but I want more African Americans on the police force – or at least people who are comfortable and capable of working in a predominantly African Am community.  I would not be able to get this info from asking the question on the application or in an interview but I would be able to at least see the person’s race in a face to face interview.

5.  List 5 tests you would require the applicants to take: include physical and emotional testing.

6. Include an Affirmative Action plan. See my notes on the necessary elements of a legal Affirmative Action plan.

 

	Excellent 5	Good 4	Fair 3	Poor 2	Does not meet requirements 0-1
Job Description	Includes necessary qualifications, essential job functions and non essential job functions	Includes all necessary elements but not all are complete and clear	Missing one element	Missing two elements	Missing more than 2 elements
Job Application	Limited to job related information, makes it easy to compare candidates	Limited to job related information but does not contain all the necessary questions to clearly identify best candidates	Either includes unlawful questions or questions that are not relevant to the job	Some questions are not relevant, and does not make it easy to identify potential candidates for the position	Does not facilitate identification of potential candidates
List tests/documents	All tests and documents required are relevant and legal	A couple of the tests and/or documents required may not be legal or relevant to the position	Three tests and/or documents are not legal or relevant	Four tests and/or documents are not legal or relevant	More than four of the required tests/documents are not legal or are not relevant.
Action to increase minorities	Appropriate and legal use of practices to increase minorities	Mostly appropriate and legal use of practices, may need some clarification	Some practices may create questions and potential litigation issues	Use of illegal or inappropriate practices	Does not contain a plan to increase minorities
Grammar, mechanics and APA	No errors	Minor errors	Some issues with errors cause lack of clarity	Errors in paper create difficulty in understanding the paper	The paper cannot be read due to numerous errors and mistakes

 

 Notes on Affirmative Action

No where in Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (the law that  made discrimination based on race as well as religion, gender, national origin and color illegal)  is the phrase Affirmative Action (AA).   AA was created by the Courts as a way to help end intransigent discrimination that was not changing several years (1978) after passage of the Civil Rights Act.  The facts around the initial case are that a white guy (Bakke) applied to medical school at UC Davis and was denied admission while minority applicants with lower scores were admitted. The school said we need more minority candidates to make their education offerings more valuable.  Bakke lost at the S Crt level but the court, for the first time, acknowledged that AA plans can be challenged.  IF they  

See Bakke vs UC Calif -- http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/regents-university-california-v-bakke.html

There are court imposed AA plans and there are voluntary AA plans.  Before either type will be found legal all four of the following elements must be present in the plans.

1)     A govt finding of under representation or discrimination.

a.       The govt finding can come from different sources.  It could be a court finding long standing discrimination in a workplace or industry.  It could be a employment survey that shows certain groups underrepresented in an industry based on their presence in the geographic area and assuming they are qualified.

2)     The plan cannot totally close the door to hiring the majority

a.       AA plans can add extra points for being a member of an under presented group and/or otherwise encourage the hiring.  But the hiring plan cannot be completely closed to the majority groups.  For example, you can have a plan that says we are going to give special attention to Asians in this area but that same plan cannot say we will not hire any whites. 

3)     All applicants must be qualified

a.       It is not enough to say, for example, black women make up 30% of the NYC metro area but only 10% of the university professors in NYC.  Be fore you can find an underrepresentation of black women as professors you must know the percentage of black women who have the qualifications of a professor.

4)     The plan cannot last “too” long.  Attain diversity NOT maintain it.

a.       AA plans must have a  limited not fixed time frame.  The plans are to eliminate the under representation not maintain diversity.

 

 Below is a brief set of facts and an application of the AA requirements.

Case (abbreviated)

1. June Smith recently assumed the leadership of the Bedrock area company, Smith & Company from her 90 year old father. Recognizing the increased diversity in both her available workforce and her customer base, she immediately set out to implement a voluntary affirmative action  (AA) plan.  Her plan calls for hiring the first twenty applicants with Asian ancestry who apply, and then hire only African Americans until the Company’s workforce demographically mirrors the surrounding community that she assumes to be 50% African American, 25% Asian and 25% white.  Once that perfect balance is achieved the plan is to remain in effect for fifteen years. 

Questions:  Will June’s plan meet the requirements of a legal AA plan?  Why or why not?

2. The facts of this article raise questions about the application of the elements of a legal Affirmative Action plan to the actions of June. 

 

3. The elements of a legal AA plan are:

1)     All AA plans must be based on a legislative, judicial or administrative finding of under representation or pervasive discrimination. 

 

Application of facts to this element: June did not have a legislative, judicial or administrative finding of under representation or pervasive discrimination. 

hat finding.  She based her actions on her personal observation of the workforce and her assumption of the company’s customer base and surrounding workforce. 

 

2)     AA plans cannot close the door entirely to all hiring of non-minority candidates.

 

June’s plan did not provide for hiring non-minorities.  She is going to hire the first twenty Asians who apply – and then African Americans until a certain percentage is reached - with no consideration of qualifications.   A legal AA plan must not close the door entirely to hiring members of groups that are not underrepresented.

 

3.  Legal AA plans must be temporary.

 

The rule is “Attain, not maintain” diversity.  June’s plan is too long and too rigid.  It is be in effect for 5 years or more with no recognition or taking measure of how the plan attains and maintains representation of the workforce.

 

4.      Finally, all applicants must be qualified.

 

June’s plan made no contingency for the qualifications of the applicants.

Summary:  June has good intentions, but she lacked the proper research and development tfor her plan.  The plan fails in several areas – it is:

·         not based on a proper findings,

·         leaves no contingencies for hiring groups that are not under represented,

·         it is not flexible and temporary,

·         and it does not take qulaifications into consideration.

 

 It is illegal for the reasons described above.