Businesses and Corporations in Hiring Minorities (Essay Sample)

Should large businesses and corporations be required to employ
a number of minorities proportionate to the population?
Name of the Student
The University
Should large businesses and corporations be required to employ
a number of minorities proportionate to the population?
The key purpose of any business or corporation is to produce profit for its owners. Nowadays, however, a business should exist because it produces not only monetary benefits but also some positive societal values (Zairi & Peters, 2002). Equality in terms of economic opportunities, particularly employment is a highly significant societal value, which business organizations must generate. Considering this, the minority groups are the most unrepresented (De Jong & Madamba, 2001), making a wider socio-economic gap. Responsible organizations, therefore, should participate in addressing such inequality by employing some minorities proportionate to the population.
In the United States, the term minority commonly pertains to ethnic and racial groups, including (1) Hispanics, (2) American Indians and Alaska Natives, (3) African-American, and (4) Asian and Pacific Islanders (Pollard & O’hare, 1999). The most recent labor market studies show that Hispanics has a 16.8% unemployment rate (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021), American Indians and Alaska Natives, 26.3% (Feir, 2020), African-American, 16.6% (Ajilore, 2020), and Asian and Pacific Islanders has 31% (International Labour Organization, 2020). These statistics show a significant proportion of unemployed minority groups, which should be a call to action for the private sector, especially those established as corporations as they have a substantial stake as far as employment opportunities are concerned. Not doing so will only increase ethnic discrimination (Lancee, 2021) along with all societal problems associated with it.
Such studies above provide a strong basis that businesses at all levels, especially corporations should consider inclusive hiring policies and implementations. There could be many challenges associated, including cultural and religious orientation. Thus, organizational leaders must work on leveraging human capital synergy. A policy brief released by the Democracy Collaborative (n.d.) recommends some best practices to make this work. Such recommendations include setting a target proportion of minority groups in an organization’s human capital, incentivizing recruitment personnel supporting such targets, and partnering with local community-based institutions for capacity-building programs for minorities.
References
Ajilore, O. (2020). The Persistent Black-White Unemployment Gap Is Built into the Labor Market. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2020/09/28/490702/persistent-black-white-unemployment-gap-built-labor-market/#:~:text=
De Jong, G. F., & Madamba, A. B. (2001). A double disadvantage? Minority group, immigrant status, and