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couturepopcafe
Community Member

Extreme Prejudice of Diversity Badge Exclusion

The idea of the Diversity Badge is a good one; clients have the opportunity to choose someone of a specific race, gender, nationality, culture. But why does this badge eliminate Whites and Males? Diversity is NOT about minorities. It's about diversity and should include all types of people. The groups list is non-inclusive to some races and genders. Why? This is beyond prejudice; it's insulting to the people who are not included and should be remedied immediately. Again, the diversity badge should not be about minorities, but the power of the client to find and choose a person within a certain group, not just minority groups.

 

Groups to include:

White

Male

Native American

Pacific Islander

Asian

Biracial

 

The category of "Other" should allow someone to type in what that "Other" is. 

43 REPLIES 43


Amanda L wrote:

Claudia Z wrote:

Amanda L wrote:


Except it's more complicated than saying "race or gender-based discrimination is unlawful".


Ofcourse it's more complex than that but it can be extended to the point that a company can be liable for discrimination by an independent contractor. - No, they can't. That's my whole point. Did you read my post or the links to the actual laws? 

 

As I said, I presume Upwork grants access to gender-race/whatever based search filters only after verifying that the company has an affirmative action plan, in accordance with whatever regulations there are. It's not meant to be an instrument accessible to the general audience.


"To start, this certification will only show to Enterprise and Business clients as we monitor the impact. These clients have indicated they are most interested in seeking out diverse businesses and often have diversity and inclusion initiatives as part of their hiring practices."




Upwork likely does no such thing because as I said the law is much more complex than that. It does NOT apply to hiring independent contractors, so, no, they don't need an affirmative action plan in place.


I did not question if Upwork does such thing, I presume they already do it because it's available to Enterprise clients which may employ freelancers under Payroll Services. 


The point I'm trying to make is that it's something related to U.S. regulations, ie affirmative action or whatever.


Someone outside the U.S. or someone not aware of the affirmative action may have difficulties to understand the diversity badges, and their role.

Claudia Z wrote:

Amanda L wrote:

Claudia Z wrote:

Amanda L wrote:


Except it's more complicated than saying "race or gender-based discrimination is unlawful".


Ofcourse it's more complex than that but it can be extended to the point that a company can be liable for discrimination by an independent contractor. - No, they can't. That's my whole point. Did you read my post or the links to the actual laws? 

 

As I said, I presume Upwork grants access to gender-race/whatever based search filters only after verifying that the company has an affirmative action plan, in accordance with whatever regulations there are. It's not meant to be an instrument accessible to the general audience.


"To start, this certification will only show to Enterprise and Business clients as we monitor the impact. These clients have indicated they are most interested in seeking out diverse businesses and often have diversity and inclusion initiatives as part of their hiring practices."




Upwork likely does no such thing because as I said the law is much more complex than that. It does NOT apply to hiring independent contractors, so, no, they don't need an affirmative action plan in place.


I did not question if Upwork does such thing, I presume they already do it because it's available to Enterprise clients which may employ freelancers under Payroll Services. 


The point I'm trying to make is that it's something related to U.S. regulations, ie affirmative action or whatever.


Someone outside the U.S. or someone not aware of the affirmative action may have difficulties to understand the diversity badges, and their role.


LOL, yes, but in this case, the OP is from the US, and doesn't understand the regulations. 

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi All,

Thanks for the discussion about the Diversity-Certified Badge as well as for sharing your thoughts and suggestions.


I'd like to clarify that Upwork doesn’t award these certifications, however we provide the Diversity-Certified Badge if a freelancer has earned certification from an outside group and added it to their profile. We do have clients with diversity- and inclusion-initiatives who want to support underrepresented groups (i.e. women-owned, minority-owned, LGBTQ-owned, disability-owned, and veteran-owned businesses). Business-level diversity certifications allow diverse talent to be showcased to our largest (Enterprise) clients.


Some of you have shared concerns that these certifications are currently only available for talent based in the U.S. While the guidelines for diversity certifications are clearly defined for U.S. businesses by the Billion Dollar Roundtable, they are not as clearly defined in every country. We are actively pursuing partnerships to broaden our geographic reach, but have found that diversity certification is much more prevalent in English-speaking countries like the U.K., Canada and Australia. We will keep working though, so stay tuned!
We are also looking at providing more resources on how to get certified and creating networking opportunities within these communities.

~ Valeria
Upwork


Valeria K wrote:

Hi All,

Thanks for the discussion about the Diversity-Certified Badge as well as for sharing your thoughts and suggestions.


I'd like to clarify that Upwork doesn’t award these certifications, however we provide the Diversity-Certified Badge if a freelancer has earned certification from an outside group and added it to their profile. We do have clients with diversity- and inclusion-initiatives who want to support underrepresented groups (i.e. women-owned, minority-owned, LGBTQ-owned, disability-owned, and veteran-owned businesses). Business-level diversity certifications allow diverse talent to be showcased to our largest (Enterprise) clients.


Some of you have shared concerns that these certifications are currently only available for talent based in the U.S. While the guidelines for diversity certifications are clearly defined for U.S. businesses by the Billion Dollar Roundtable, they are not as clearly defined in every country. We are actively pursuing partnerships to broaden our geographic reach, but have found that diversity certification is much more prevalent in English-speaking countries like the U.K., Canada and Australia. We will keep working though, so stay tuned!
We are also looking at providing more resources on how to get certified and creating networking opportunities within these communities.


Thank you, Valeria. I think you brought in the key word here that the OP has missed. Diversity efforts are about increasing representation among under-represented groups, which are historically underrepresented due to a variety of reasons, including systemic and institutional racism, ableism, and sexism/misogyny. 

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