Should organisations in the western world make reasonable adjustments for their religious minority employees?

Abstract

This research investigates whether organisations should be making reasonable adjustments for their religious minority employees. For example, the provision of prayer rooms or meeting dietary requirements. There is literature that discusses whether there should be adjustments implemented and the different attitudes towards such implementations. However, there is very little literature considering the perspective of religious minority employees. This is the gap this research intends to fill, and this is crucial due to the constant rise in diversity within the workforce. This research aims to investigate the perspective of religious minorities that are members of organisations within the western world, on whether they believe reasonable adjustments should be made for them and what the impacts of such adjustments would be. The aim, objectives, and time constraints of the research dictated the methodology to be a quantitative one. The method that was used was online questionnaires, where a total of 47 valid responses were recorded. Online questionnaires were selected because it was found to be the best method of reaching a specific sample due to the resource constraints and timeframe given. The general characteristics of the sample were Muslim males between the ages of 21-30. The results concluded that there are currently not enough adjustments being implemented within organisational practices for religious minorities. The preferred adjustments were prayer rooms alongside the time to pray, time off during religious holidays and meeting dietary requirements. It was found that reasonable adjustments would have a huge impact on employee motivation and engagement, and the majority stated that it would change the way they felt about work in a positive manner. Also, it was found that the majority of public and private sector workers highlighted that they felt their employer would be willing and receptive to implementing change within their organisations. Lastly, it was recommended for organisations to hold one-to-one meetings, and the training of all staff to raise awareness about religions and flexitime workers, to ensure a smooth implementation of such adjustments without any issues within the organisation.