Question 1: 
You are assessing the performance of a regional personnel manager, Julia. There has recently been a forced-redundancy program at her location and, as a consequence, there have been three complaints about her handling of the redundancy process. In two cases, legal action has been threatened. A summary of the complaints and her response to each of them follows: 

a. Complaint from John: She told me that they had to let me go because I was the eldest in my section. I think this is age discrimination. I’m going to sue. 

Response from Julia: I told John that, as there were forced redundancies and that he was closest to retirement, that he would be least financially affected of his workgroup. Further, after taking account of tax breaks and superannuation law, the actual monetary impact for him would be very minor, whereas his colleagues are all substantially younger and would be more affected. His work performance was no better or worse than that of his colleagues. For these reasons he was selected for forced redundancy. 

b. Complaint from Sue: I was told that since there were forced redundancies and that I was just a majority race person in the workforce, I would be let go. This is ‘reverse’ discrimination. I’m going to sue. 

Response from Julia: Sue’s complaint is essentially true; her performance was not outstanding, and I’ve got diversity targets to reach, so I’m using the forced redundancies to improve our workplace diversity index. 

c. Complaint from Trang: I’m being fired because I’m Vietnamese. My performance assessments in the last two years are only bad because I’m Vietnamese – my English is not so good, but I deal very well with the Vietnamese-speaking customers, which almost nobody else can. 

Response from Julia: Trang’s performance has been sub-standard since his engagement three years ago, and his last two year’s performance assessment records confirm this. This was the sole basis for selecting him for redundancy. This was clearly explained to Trang, but he does not accept it. 

In your understanding (and accepting all statements as true until further investigation), has the regional personnel manager acted properly in handling the redundancies, bearing in mind national and state local Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Equal Opportunity legislation? 
Is there any counseling which should be given to Julia to improve her future performance? 

Question 2: 
You are assessing the performance of the NSW regional operations manager, Tom. Tom (and the regional financial manager, Roger) has a high staff turnover in his section, so he is frequently engaged in recruitment, especially for clerical personnel who look after product ordering. He usually conducts the interviews together with Roger, and the successful candidates are channeled to operations or finance according to their skills and current openings. 

The quality of the candidates employed by this process has been, in general, very good and this is partially responsible for the high turnover as these staff tend to move on to other sections or locations. Unfortunately, both Tom and Roger have continuously failed to reach their workplace diversity targets and there has been some grumbling about their unorthodox interviewing techniques. 

The regional personnel manager, Julia, has reported that Tom and Roger usually start an interview asking applicants what Rugby team they support and what they think about the latest test cricket match. Tom says that this is just his way of getting candidates away from the standard, practised interview responses – he doesn’t care which team they follow. Nevertheless, Julia is concerned that there might be a gender, cultural and racial bias in this interview approach. 

Is there a problem with this interview technique, bearing in mind national and state Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Equal Opportunity legislation? 

Is there another approach to managing the recruitment interview process which you would recommend for Tom and Roger? 

Question 3: 
Your performance assessment process is being assessed by your regional HR manager. She tells you that your last three years’ performance assessments have consistently ranked female employees as having lower performance than their male counterparts in the same jobs. This has resulted in a drift in relative salaries, to the point where, on a job-by-job basis, there are now no female employees paid as much as the lowest paid male employee and that this is an indicator of strong gender bias. 

You respond that you have assessed performance systematically on evidence gathered from agreed KPIs and that any apparent gender bias arises coincidentally from the fact that your female employees are simply not performing up to the same level as the male employees. She replies that the KPIs themselves might be inducing bias. 
Discuss whether statistical analysis of performance that indicates potential gender bias, is a reliable indicator of true bias, bearing in mind national and state Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Equal Opportunity legislation. 

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