One of the great HRM issues of our modern time is workplace discrimination. Simply put, some people just don't have the same access to high$-$quality

opportunites as other people. However, not all discrimination is illegal. Discrimination only has the potential to be illegal when it occurs with a

distinguishable group for which protective legal action has been put in place. Title VII of the $1964$ Civil Rights Act, the genesis of all modern

employment law, protects five such groups: race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. More groups have been added since then, including age,

pregnancy, and disability.

How does one determine if illegal discrimination has occurred? The starting point is to understand that there are two very different types of evidence

towards illegal discrimination: disparate treatment and disparate impact. Disparate treatment, which was the focus of Title VII, is based on overt intent

to treat someone from a protected group in a less favorable way. In contrast, disparate impact has nothing to do with intent, but rather to statistical

disparity in the outcome or status among those who apply and$/$or are hired.

The first purpose of this exercise is to give you practice in determining if there is evidence for disparate impact. As noted in the book, the 'gold

standard' for evidence is the infamous fourth$-$fifths $($or $80\%)$ rule. Specifically, one determines the hiring ratio for the unprotected group $($e$.$g$.,$ males$)$ and

then multiplies that ratio by four$-$fifths $($i$.$e$.,\mathrm{.}8).$ The result is the benchmark for determining if disparate impact is present. If the hiring ratio for the

protected group $($e$.$g$.,$ female$)$ is less than this benchmark, disparate impact has occured. Of course, disparate impact is only evidence, and by itself,

does not constitute illegal discrimination. Rather, it is combined with other considerations such as business necessity and bona fide occupational

requirements to make a final determination.

This second purpose of this exercise is to give you an opportunity to provide suggestions for how a company can find and hire more people from a

protected group. Too many companies keep posting the same help wanted posting in the same traditional outlets as they have for years $($e$.$g$.,$

newspaper ad$),$ which in our modern era, is becoming less and less effective.

The third and final purpose is to help you refine your Excel skills. Some of you may be very advanced already and know much about the formulas

presented. However, for those who haven't used Excel extensively, you will learn some really neat methods for compiling information in a dataset.

There are five tabs after this one. The first is the scoring rubric, which you are STRONGLY encouraged to read carefully.The next three tabs present data

for hypothetical hiring scenarios, for which you will do the actual computations to determine if disparate impact is present in each. Don't worry if you

haven't done this before, as step$-$by$-$step instructions are provided. The final tab is an opportunity to meaningful recruitment suggestions to the two

organizations which did have adverse impact present.