Performance as a Function of Increased Minority Hiring

The authors examined the impact of increasing the percentage of hires (above the T.A. Cleary, 1968, fair-hiring level) from minority groups with demonstrated lower average job performance. Increased minority hiring resulted in only a small performance loss, even when minority hiring exceeded the minority applicant representation. However, when minorities were hired at a rate equal to or greater than their applicant representation, the expected performance loss among the hired minorities was much greater than the performance loss across all hires. More important, the discrepancy in performance between majority and minority hires increased as minority hiring increased. With minority hiring above the level of minority applicant representation, this discrepancy exceeded the population difference in performance between the two groups. These findings suggest additional considerations when raising minority hiring above minority applicant representation.