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Overwhelmingly Positive Response to the Idea of Worklace Diversity from New York Area Hiring Managers and Job Seekers
Overwhelmingly Positive Response to the Idea of Worklace Diversity from New York Area Hiring Managers and Job Seekers
Published 03-05-02
Submitted by New York Times, The
NEW YORK, March of The New York Times advertising department, announced today that both hiring managers and job seekers in the New York area most strongly associate "equal opportunity" and "fairness" with workplace diversity. "Quotas" and "red tape" are least associated with diversity, although job seekers more often associate these ideas with diversity than do hiring managers. Of the ideas asked about, survey respondents associated them with diversity in the following ways:
Equal Opportunity...........94%.................90%
Fairness....................90%.................86%
Affirmative Action..........66%.................71%
Good Publicity for Company..65%.................66%
Quotas......................26%.................39%
Red Tape.....................9%.................30%
There was less agreement between job seekers and hiring managers on other questions. More than half of job seekers (57%) say that workplace diversity is more of an issue in the New York area than in other parts of the country, while less than half of hiring managers (42%) say this is true.
Supporting the view that attitudes differ according to region, the survey found that hiring managers in New Jersey and Long Island are more likely to associate workplace diversity with affirmative action than are hiring managers in the five boroughs of New York.
Answers also differed based on race, with Caucasian job seekers associating fairness with diversity more frequently than did job seekers of other races (93% as opposed to 78%).
These findings are part of the first report of a three-part series on workplace diversity that The Times's Job Market research team will issue over the next few weeks based upon ongoing original research on trends and practices in employment in the greater New York area.
Subsequent reports will examine the benefits of workplace diversity as well as the best practices used to achieve a diverse workplace.
When asked in an open-ended question to define workplace diversity, hiring managers and job seekers gave a wide variety of answers. Most respondents defined diversity in terms of the following different groups of people working together:
.....................Hiring Managers.......Job Seekers........
Races......................15%................20%
Ethnicities................13%................18%
Ages........................6%................17%
Genders....................10%................16%
Cultures....................9%................11%
Nationalities...............5%.................9%
Religions...................5%.................6%
Educational Backgrounds.....4%.................3%
Disabilities................3%.................3%
Sexual Orientation..........1%.................1%
Some respondents also defined workplace diversity in terms of different types of jobs, varied skill sets or capabilities of employees.
More detailed results of this research, designed and executed by The New York Times advertising department, will be posted regularly on the Job Market page at NYTimes.com. Please e-mail any questions or comments to jobmarketresearch@nytimes.com.
The New York Times Job Market provides employers with a convenient way to reach the best talent and the broadest audience in the New York area with a single integrated advertising buy. Employers are now able to view their job listings in both the newspaper and in a searchable database online at NYTimes.com/jobmarket. The Job Market section online also includes career-related Times articles, exhaustive research on companies, a résumé database and other tools designed to make the job recruitment process easier for both employers and job seekers.
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