Wilkinsons Policies and Practices in Eastham Branch - Essay Example

Different age categories were created and the ages of respondents as indicated by them in the survey instrument were computed to understand the frequency and percentage distribution. The majority of the respondents belong to the 18-26 years old category at 52%. Those within the 26-35 years old bracket account for 40%; and 36-45 years old at 8%. There are no respondents who are between 46-55 years old; and >56 years old. According to the Labour Force Survey, (LFS, 9 July 2009), industries such as retail stores, fast food restaurants, call centers and entertainment centre prefer to use younger people in the age group of 18 to 30.

The main reason is that these people are well received by customers, they do not tire easily and because these people are enthusiastic and ready to work for lower wages. Customers like to be served by younger people and this shows that Wilkinson is taking the right steps by hiring younger people. For the frequency and percentage breakdown for gender, 72% are males, while 28% are females. The results would suggest that JK Wilkinson was discriminating against women and preferred to hire more men.

However, this is not the case as seen in the interview of the manager who has given in writing that there are 26 females and 21 males in the firm. However, in the survey, there are a majority of males and this is an unintentional occurrence. Lee (2001) notes that firms that are in the hospitality industry, service industry, or who have customer-facing stores and businesses prefer to have more women than men. Some of the reasons are that Women are less likely to job hop, they are more docile and also because women are more likely to work for lower wages.

Anyway, the results show that there is no gender bias in the firm. Most of the respondents at 60% are Islam; Hindu with 20%; Christian accounting for 12%; and others with 8%. None of the respondents are Buddhist (0%) or Jewish (0%). There seems to be an overwhelming majority of Muslims who are employed in the branch. A closer look at the area shows that this is an area that has a number of Asians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.