Equality and Diversity in the Workplace: A Case Study on Apple Inc.

This report examines the integration of equality and diversity within Apple Inc.'s workplace, focusing on recruitment processes and HR policies. The report begins with an introduction to the significance of equality and diversity, especially for multinational corporations like Apple. It outlines the project's aims, objectives, and methodology, including a project management plan with scope, quality, risk assessment, resource allocation, and communication strategies. A work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart are used to visualize the project timeline and tasks. The research methodology includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with data collection through primary and secondary sources, including questionnaires administered to a sample of 30 Apple employees. Data analysis reveals key themes regarding employee awareness of recruitment practices, the need for HR policy modifications, preferred recruitment methods, the benefits of HR changes, current recruitment methods, the impact of globalization, and ratings of HR practices. The findings are presented with data analysis and graphical representations. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing equality and diversity within Apple's recruitment and HR practices.

Equality and diversity in the workplace.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Aims and objectives for the project...................................................................................3
P2 Project Management Plan..................................................................................................4
P3 WBS and Gantt chart.........................................................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Research Methodology......................................................................................................8
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................11
P5 Data analysis...................................................................................................................11
P6 Recommendations as results and data analysis...............................................................18
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................19
P7 Reflection........................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
Equality and diversity is a key concept in the employment process as it helps in ensuring
that the recruitment and selection that is done in the organization does not involve any biasness
in their hiring practices and thus all the candidates are given equal opportunities (Brennan,
2017). When the companies are MNC’s Such as Apple Inc. and work or hire employees on a
global level, it gets difficult to incorporate equality while doing the recruitment and hiring at a
global level. Globalization is the process through which the companies will be able to work in a
more comprehensive manner.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Aims and objectives for the project
Background: Apple is a MNC dealing in technological field dealing in Consumer electronics,
software and other online facilities. Its headquarters are located in California, USA and is a
global leader in the technological industry. In this report, research has been conducted on the
methods through which the MNC’s like Apple incorporates equality and diversity in their
recruitment process and the HR policies that have been formulated.
Aim: To analyse the manner in which equality and diversity can be incorporated in the
recruitment process in order to conform to international recruitment standards. A case study on
Apple
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of equality and diversity at workplace
 To identify the major issues related to equality and diversity faced by employees of
Apple
 To ascertain the manner in which Apple can accommodate changes in its HR policies in
order to meet international standards
Questions:
 What is the concept of equality and diversity at workplace?
 What are major issues related to equality and diversity faced by employees of Apple?
 How Apple can accommodate changes in its HR Policies to promote equality and
diversity?

P2 Project Management Plan
Project management plan helps in formulating a proper plan that assists in determining a
series or sequence which can be followed by the project manager in order to achieve the task and
project objectives. There are a variety of aspects that need to be addressed in order to conduct
research successfully and these have been discussed below individually:
Scope: The scope of this research is limited to the employees of the Apple Company only and
will help in analysing the methods through which the current HR policies of the company can be
improved. This will help in determining the manner in which equality can be incorporated in the
company’s recruitment process so that it can meet the international standards and address the
requirements globally.
Quality: Quality aspect of the project management plan helps in ensuring that the data that have
been collected through primary as well as secondary sources that are being used by the
researcher are authentic and relevant to the research topic. The content collected and data
analysis and interpretations presented by the researcher must be extremely relevant, correct and
upto the mark so that the validity of the research cannot be compromised with.
Risk: There are a variety of risks that are faced by the researcher while collecting relevant data
and conducting the research (Caven and Nachmias, 2018). The most prominent risk is accuracy
i.e. when collecting primary data the researcher might not be able to gather accurate data that
provides true insight into the mind-set of the respondents acting as a representative of a wider
population. Another major risk is that even if the researcher does not intentionally incorporate it,
there are increased chances that the answers given by the respondents might be biased and
therefore the true image and hence accurate interpretations will not be generated for the
company.
Resources: Under this category, all the resources those are required to be used in the research
are incorporated and categorized accordingly (Tatli and et.al., 2015)). Investigator i.e. researcher
conducts the desired research on a wider level and therefore there needs to be pre planning
regarding the resources that are required and various tools and techniques that will be used but
the researcher needs to be arranged for so that research can be conducted in the desired manner.
Communication: Communication is another major aspect that needs to be addressed keenly and
is a key aspect ensuring that the research is carried successfully (Khanum, Dsouza and Dsouza,

2019). There are a variety of parties that are interested in the research that is being carried out
and these should be conveyed the end results as well. Customers, employees, suppliers etc. are
some of the key stakeholders that are interested in what the research was and the result that was
derived for the problem.
P3 WBS and Gantt chart
Work Breakdown Structure is used to break the entire project into various activities and sub
activities so that it becomes easier to track the performance, set standards and then compare these
standards accordingly (Syed and Ozbilgin, 2019).
Gantt chart is a graphical representation of the schedule of all the activities that need to be
performed and time interval is allotted to all the activities within which they are to be performed
(Sheehan and Anderson, 2015).

LO 2
P4 Research Methodology
Research methodology helps in determining various tools and techniques that will be
used by the researcher in order to conduct the research:
Quantitative research: Quantitative research is generally performed to collect, analyse and
interpret the numerical or quantitative data i.e. the data that is not is theoretical terms (Klein,
2016). The quantitative research is a very systematic approach where the data is collected in the
form of number and statistics. In order to conduct quantitative research, statistical tools like
Excel and other tools such as SPSS are used to analyse and interpret the numerical data that is
being collected. The data collection methods under this techniques involve surveys,
questionnaires, polls etc. which are used to collect the relevant data.
Qualitative research: Exactly contrary to the quantitative research, qualitative research is used to
analyse theoretical facts and data where the underlying opinion is researched and is conducted
for the purpose of developing insight into a particular topic for which research is being
conducted (Morden, 2017). The qualitative data is collected through tools such as personal

interview, observation method, case study analysis, focus group interviews, questionnaire
methods etc. The tools that are used to analyse the data that is collected in such a manner involve
thematic analysis in particular that uses charts and other figures that are used to interpret the data
in a simplified manner.
Data Collection: Data can be collected through two major sources and these are:
 Primary research: Here the researcher collects the data on a first hand basis i.e. the data
has not been used in any manner before and is original data (Sharma, 2016).
Questionnaires, interviews, surveys etc. are some of the methods of conducting the
research based on collection of primary data in such manner. Secondary Research: Under this, the data that has already been collected and analysed is
used to interpret and take reference for the research that is being conducted currently by
the researcher (Paraskevopoulou and McKay, 2016). This methods saves both the cost
and time of the researcher and is done by studying previous articles, journals, case studies
etc.
Sample Size: The sample size would be 30 employees working in the Apple Inc. which would be
selected on a purposive random sampling basis.
Questionnaire:

LO 3
P5 Data analysis.
Theme: 1 Yes, maximum employees aware about recruitment practices of your company.
Particular % of respondents Participants
Yes 66.66667 20
No 33.33333 10
Total 100 30
Interpretation:
The above graph is shows that the maximum number of employees are aware about the
recruitment practices for the company. This creates more effectiveness for company in order to
hire eligible candidates for company. 20 out of 30 employees are aware about recruitment
process. They said that that is very important and effective process which has helped to hire best
and eligible candidates for vacant posts.
Yes No
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70 66.6666666666667
33.3333333333333
% of respondents

Theme: 2 Need to modify current HR policies to incorporate equality.
Particular % of respondents Participants
Yes 60 18
No 40 12
Total 100% 30
Interpretation:
The above graph is shows a 60% employees said there is need to modify current HR
policies to incorporate equality as reflects. This is reason they are not satisfied with the current
HR practices because that are not favour in them. But, the remaining, 40% employees said that,
their has not any need and requirement to change its. They feels that the current HR practices are
best which are effective for maintaining equality and diversity at workplace.
Yes No
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
60
40
% of respondents

Theme: 3 Best method of recruitment which apple can adopted.
Particular % of respondents Participants
Internal environment 33.33333 10
External environment 66.66667 20
Total 100 30
Interpretation:
Above Pie chart shows the best method of recruitment is external environment because
that is helps to hire best and eligible candidates for vacant posts in Apple. The higher % which is
66.67 is with external and the remaining with internal. The apple company can adopt external
environment method for hiring the best employees. With the help of this, employer able to create
great advantage for company by creating larger pool of employees works.
Theme: 4 Benefits with implement changes in HR practices of apple.
33.3333333333333
66.6666666666667
Internal environment
External environment

Particular % of respondents Participants
Enhance customer base 6.666667 2
Increase business profitability 10 3
Both of the above 83.33333 25
Total 100 30
Interpretation:
The diagram reflects that the maximum employees i.e. 83.33% said the implement
changes in current HR practices has creates both mention benefits for company is effective
manner. Those benefits are enhanced customer base and increase business profitability because
through that employees are able to improve their performance at workplace as per requirement.
Theme: 5 Current recruitment and selection used by apple.
Particular % of respondents Participants
Enhance customer base
Increase business profitability
Both of the above
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
% of respondents