An employee Retention program is an effective way to source new talent, but it may create unintentional disparate impact if only a particular set of employees are continually appreciated and rewarded especially if those set of employees are from the same race, religion, national origin or other protected class.
A strategy to avoid unintentional discrimination when managing an employee Retention program might include:
- Using a variety of Retention methods when creating your reward system in the organization. This will help keep the reward pool—and by extension, the reward system—more diverse.
- Keeping the employee Retention program open to the entire organization, not limiting it to specific employee groups, departments or divisions.
- Evaluating all candidates—including employee-referred candidates—using the same qualification criteria.
- Conducting ongoing analyses of the workforce and the applicant pool to ensure that the employee Retention program is effective and is yielding the intended results. Included in the analyses should be diversity categories, the various method of Retention spread. If the program is not meeting its intended goals and is negatively affecting workforce diversity, the organization may need to reevaluate its program.