{"id":836109,"date":"2025-08-28T10:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=836109"},"modified":"2025-08-28T10:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:27:13","slug":"the-hidden-cost-of-discrimination-at-work-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/836109\/the-hidden-cost-of-discrimination-at-work-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The hidden cost of discrimination at work in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It is critical for successful businesses to hire top talent \u2013 but it is just as important to keep these employees happy after they are hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, workplace discrimination can be a significant obstacle that holds you back from achieving this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is therefore vital for businesses to create a workplace where everyone feels they belong \u2013 not only for ethical reasons, but also for business performance and employee retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adpresearch.com\/assets\/summary-of-people-at-work-2024-a-global-workforce-view\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=August+2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click here to download the ADP Global Workforce View 2024.<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This is because discrimination is both a social issue and a business liability \u2013 one that quietly costs businesses big money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the findings of ADP\u2019s 2024 Global Workforce View survey, which shows that employees who feel discriminated against are significantly more likely to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Actively look for a new job<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Feel unproductive<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be disengaged from their work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the survey, job hunting is significantly more common among workers who feel they&#8217;ve experienced discrimination (34%) than those who haven\u2019t (14%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers who feel discrimination are not only looking to move \u2013 they are also more likely to be unproductive while at your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example: American and Canadian workers who felt discriminated against were <strong>3.5 times less likely<\/strong> to describe their output as \u201chigh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Geography and demographics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar trends play out globally \u2013 including across African markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, the survey found that the workers who felt the most discriminated against were in the Middle East and Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A staggering 33% of workers in the MEA said they experienced it, with particularly high levels in Egypt (50%), the UAE (46%), and Saudi Arabia (44%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, there are signs that progress is being made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the percentage of workers in the UAE reporting discrimination dropped 20 percentage points between 2022 (66%) and 2024 (46%) \u2013 a grim number but a positive trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa reported more positive numbers \u2013 but still with room for improvement \u2013 with 1 in 10 workers saying they face workplace discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it came to demographics, the likelihood of people reporting discrimination wasn\u2019t evenly spread across race, age, gender, or job level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a few key points that stood out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ethnic or racial minorities<\/strong> in their local markets are more than twice as likely to report discrimination<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Younger workers<\/strong> feel it more acutely than older generations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Executives <\/strong>are more likely to report it (26%) than <strong>entry-level staff<\/strong> (13%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Men<\/strong> (20%) report slightly more discrimination than <strong>women<\/strong> (17%) in the African region<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These findings clearly show that workers are impacted not just by where they are, but by who they are within that space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The way forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The message is clear \u2013 workers who feel discriminated against are more likely to leave and less likely to perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Business success is therefore dependent on creating a workplace where everyone feels they belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adpresearch.com\/assets\/summary-of-people-at-work-2024-a-global-workforce-view\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=August+2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click here to download the ADP Global Workforce View 2024.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is critical for successful businesses to hire top talent \u2013 but it is just as important to keep these employees happy after they are hired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":836110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[17745,19782,4588,5405],"class_list":["post-836109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-adp","tag-discrimination","tag-employment","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836234,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836109\/revisions\/836234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}