Diversity and Employees’ Challenges in the Workplace: The Case in Selected Resorts in Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines

With present issues pertaining to discrimination and underrepresentation, the growing demand towards equality and equity in society as reflected in legislative bills being filed, street demonstrations, and organized programs, and the number of studies that confirms higher productiveness of diverse workplaces, employers are expected to evaluate prospective employees\u27 socio-demographic profiles aside from knowledge, skills, and personality. This has led to this study that aims to develop a conclusion if the workplace in the tourism industry, resort establishments in Calamba City, Laguna, embraces diversity, as well as to know the challenges that employees experience in working with colleagues who have different demographic profiles, if any. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees working in the front of the house of two selected resorts, while data were analyzed using a quantitative and qualitative research design, whereas frequency and percentage were computed, and thematic analysis was performed. Results showed that firms still have their recruitment preferences or biases; one firm prefers hiring older staff while the other prefers younger ones. The LGBT community, on the other hand, has been found to be underrepresented. Moreover, the assessed establishments also favor people with less experience and less formal education, particularly for entry-level positions. Data presented also showed challenges faced by employees working with their colleagues, particularly with the opposite gender, those with lower and higher educational attainment, with different religion, and those younger and older. Findings provide low organizational diversity, therefore, serve as an indication of the need for programs that would promote inclusiveness in society. This study explored a problem in the field of social science that seems to have been ignored or least prioritized in the Philippines over the years. This study is a few of the available literature that provides a picture of poor diversity in society, particularly in workplaces that leads to operational dilemmas