Equal Opportunities and Diversity Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Equal Opportunities and Diversity - Case Study Example The business case chosen for review is Tesco Ireland. This is one of the leading employers in Ireland and is also a classic example of an organisation that has to deal with diversity. Among its eleven thousand employees, the Company has a large percent of them coming from different parts of the world like America, Africa, Asia and other parts of Europe. The Company has a fair representation of people from various age groups that start from fifteen to eighty five. Besides this, the Company has also recruited and managed people with disability, different religious beliefs among others. Correspondence/similarities between equal opportunities and diversity have been demonstrated even in customer care by Tesco Ireland. The Company has made some changes that make shopping easier for persons with disabilities; first the Company has wide aisles that enable a person on a wheelchair or any device that helps in movement to use their stores easily. Secondly, Tesco has installed shelves that can easily be reached by children, undersized people or those on wheel chairs because those shelves are lower in height. Besides this, the Company has also incorporated wide ranges in its stores. All these changes were made after surveying Customers in a routine program managed by the Company called Customer Question Time Panels. (Mckillion, 1999) However, differences between equality and diversity were shown in the treatment of Polish Immigrant Workers during the year 2005. In the month of August, there were some agency workers of Polish origin who felt that they were not being granted equal opportunities in comparison to other workers. They engaged in a strike that highlighted the following discrepancies; Unequal salary payments between non-Polish workers and them Minimal chances of permanent employment for Polish Workers Poor working conditions These Polish workers were engaged in the distribution section of the Company. The Company tried to stand up for itself but their words to the press had already tarnished their image. In light of this strake, Tesco Ireland demonstrated that it did not treat its diverse workforce in an equal manner. (Berry, 2005) Equal opportunities and diversity in recruitment In the year 1999, Tesco Ireland worked hand in hand with North side Partnership to hire a number of employees perceived to be needy. These included; Travellers People with disability Recovered drug addicts Former prisoners (Thomas, 1990) These groups of people were hired to work in a new supermarket that would be opened five years from that time. The Company did not decide to hire these needy persons because there was lack of a better alternative; it did this because it wanted to grant equal opportunities to people in that area-Clare Hall. In actual sense, there were very many other people in need of employment in that area as unemployment was at a record high of sixteen percent in Clare Hall. By so doing, Tesco Ireland has shown that equal opportunities can be available to a diverse workforce thereby demonstrating that there are similarities in the latter two concepts. Similarities between equal opportunity and diversity have also been demonstrated by the Company by recruitment of people who have exceeded the official