Diversity

MTE is a robotics firm that has clients all over the world but is based in the U.S., with offices in most major cities. Recently MTE has been experiencing an upsurge in discrimination lawsuits by women and minorities since they grew from 2,000 employees in 2016 to have 3,500 employees by the third quarter of 2019. A demand for their technology services exploded with the expansion of some of their clients’ high-technology needs in the medical industry. There are currently 3,000 employees in the Northeastern U.S., and 500 employees in other countries.

The lawsuits claim that women and minorities are not being hired in equitable numbers due to a discriminatory hiring system. MTE has an automated hiring system on its hiring website. Applicants first submit their resumes, which are scanned for certain educational requirements (including top 10 university degrees) and key phrases. Then those applicants that pass the initial screening take an online technology test that is timed to see how many answers they get correct within a short time frame. Those that pass this test are contacted for a group online interview using Google Hangouts™ and a few company robots that ask a series of questions from one of five possible question lists. After this third screening, they are contacted by an automated HR message to have an individual interview by an actual HR person, and subsequently a group interview by several actual managers and a robot during the same day of the individual 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 technology firm’s HR department to work for MTE and are tasked with the following:

Checklist: Write a minimum 1- to 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.