In Good Faith: How Employers Can Foster Inclusion of Religious Diversity
As workplaces become more diverse, religious practices are gaining visibility. Across different faiths, men and women may indicate their religious observances through their garb, grooming or work habits.
With a worldwide increase in violence by people claiming religious affiliations, is the risk of religious discrimination and harassment at work greater? Evidence so far suggests it isn't, but employers must be thoughtful about religion in the workplace, experts say.
“Even in light of what's happened this year, I don't see workers being unkind” to colleagues on the basis of religious differences, said Gail Meriweather, area vice president at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.'s Human Resource Consulting Services. “Most human resources issues have been about how to accommodate religious differences, not because someone was harassing an employee. The biggest issue for HR directors is to know how to make reasonable accommodations for religious practices,” she said.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination and harassment. Since 2010, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed 68 religion-related lawsuits. In 2014, the most recent year for which data was available, the EEOC filed eight religion-related claims, representing 10% of all Title VII suits, down from 2013. Claims ranged from refusing to hire or terminating religious employees to refusing to accommodate religious garb to retaliating against workers who complained about religious bias.
“If it does not pose a hardship on the entity, employers have to accommodate religion,” Ms. Meriweather said. There are multiple ways to do this.
“On certain days and periods, prayer time may occur during the middle of the workday. For employees who need to fulfill religious obligations, it's not uncommon for employers to make available a quiet room,” she said. “It doesn't have to be designated as a space for religious practices, but it provides an accommodation for people's various needs.”
“A part of regular diversity training is awareness of stereotyping and inherent bias,” Ms. Meriweather added. “Whether it's religion or other differences, one of the most effective things in increasing awareness is opportunities for examples and discussions.”
“With diversity strategies, there is a broad spectrum of approaches. Employers need to think about where they want to be on that spectrum,” said Corbette Doyle, a lecturer in Leadership Policy & Organizations at Vanderbilt University. “At one end is accommodation to comply with the law and at the other is developing an inclusive environment. To make effective decisions on how to approach different dimensions of diversity, employers need to think about where they want to be on that spectrum and what kind of culture they want to create,” she said.
“An important topic for employers to be thinking about formally is how they want to approach religious diversity,” Ms. Doyle added. “For people who don't identify with a religion — and that's a significant percentage — how do you accommodate them?”
“Even though religious discrimination is illegal, work and school calendars in the United States tend to be structured around Christianity, with some accommodation of Jewish holidays but rarely a broader focus beyond that,” she said. “Inclusive organizations might, for example, minimize fixed holidays and increase flexible paid holidays as a simple way to accommodate people with different religious observations.”
In most workplaces, unless they are religiously affiliated, “religion doesn't necessarily come into play. It's not a huge separating point for us,” said Gallagher's Ms. Meriweather. “The only time we're really separated is on Sundays.”