The Procedure of Awarding the Ethnic Friendly Employer Brand

The promotion of the concept of the Ethnic Friendly Employer brand mainly consists of 5 consecutive steps:

• contacting employers
• performing investigations to define the level of equal treatment in their company
• supporting the employer to ensure equal treatment
• certifying the employer ceremonially
• presenting and promoting in the media the issue of equal treatment on the employment market, Ethnic Friendly Employers and good practice examples.

Undergoing objective investigation to verify nondiscriminatory approaches is a basic step for awarding the mark to the employer.

Procedure of investigation

An Interview with the Employer´s Representative (management)
An interview with the employer´s representative is made on the subject of measures adopted by the employer to ensure non-discriminatory environment.

In the first part of the investigation we mainly examine:

• In what way the question of anti-discrimination/equality is treated formally, i.e. by internal regulations?
• In what way does the management distribute information on anti-discriminatory measures among the employees?
• Is the procedure for submitting and handling complaints or any suggestions incorporated in the regulations and are the employees (or clients) sufficiently acquainted with this procedure?
• If discrimination occurs, how such a case would be dealt with?
• Were complaints ever submitted in the past or were there problems in connection with the question of the ethnicity of an employer on client, business partner, job applicant etc.?

Study of relevant written in-house regulation
The first part of the investigation focuses on getting acquainted with relevant written in-house regulations - i.e. with regulations concerning the personnel issue in general.

Relevant written in-house regulations are analyzed in terms of:

• Equality of treatment of the employer´s employees of various ethnicities both in the phase of selecting and employing new employees.
• The employees' access of further education, development and possibilities of promotion.
• Regarding employee wages and other areas.
• Clauses imposing obligations on the employees or on the managers to observe the principle of equal treatment.

Interviews with Ordinary Employees of the Applicant
The second part is interviews with ordinary employees of the applicant which are to define the level of their acquaintance with these measures. It is possible to talk both with several employees of minority ethnicities and with the members of the majority.

In the employee interview we mainly ask:

• Whether the employee is aware of the existence of internal regulations which we evaluated in the first part as pivotal in terms of anti-discrimination.
• Whether the employee has commonly access of these regulations (where specifically s/he can check them)
• What the employee would do if s/he happened to be a victim of (ethnic) discrimination at work, or what would s/he advise to a colleague complaining of unequal treatment at work (by which we identify both how widespread the awareness of the process of complaining is, and how and whether individual management levels communicate with their subordinates - coexistence of both formal and informal procedures is an ideal).
• Whether the employer experienced, personally or indirectly, ethnic discrimination in the company in the past (whether on the part of his/her colleagues of superiors), and if so, in what way the situation was handled and what the result was.

Certification of the Applicant for the Brand
For purposes of the promotion of the certification event in the media, it is useful to cooperate with appropriate governmental institutions which can provide official patronage, premises for the certification ceremony, contacts with the media and opportunity to combine the event with some of its own promoted projects.

Presenting and promoting in the media
Promotion in the media is also one of the most essential factors which may encourage the employer to struggle for the EFE Brand, and to cultivate the environment both in his/her own company and in the surrounding society.