Scenario: NTE is a large accounting firm that has client’s all over the world but is based in the U.S. Recently NTE has been experiencing an upsurge in discrimination lawsuits by women and minorities since they grew from 100 employees in 2016 to have 500 employees by the fourth quarter of 2017. A demand for their accounting services exploded with expansion of some of their increasing roster of high technology clients since they pride themselves on their technology expertise. Their employees currently are 480 U.S. employees from the Northeastern U.S., 20 employees from other countries.
The lawsuits claim that women and minorities are not being hired due to a discriminatory hiring system. NTE has an automated hiring system on its hiring website. Applicants first submit their resumes which are scanned for certain educational requirements (including certain top 10 university degrees), key phrases, and words the employer is looking for. Then for those applicants that pass the initial screening, they take an online accounting test that is timed to see how many answers they get correct within a short time frame. From those that pass this test, they then are contacted for a group online interview using Google Hangouts™ and are asked a series of questions from one of five possible question lists. After this third screening, they are contacted by HR to have an individual interview and subsequently a group interview by several managers during the day of their interview. Finally the Managers make a decision and submit it to the HR department that then makes an offer of employment to the selected candidate.
You have been newly hired away from another Accounting firm’s HR department and are tasked with:
Checklist: Write a minimum 1–2 page business memo (i.e., minimum of 250–500 words) to the HR Director regarding the following:
Describe the problems with the company’s hiring practices and the laws that have been violated.
Explain how the firm can increase employee diversity by changing the hiring practices.