Abercrombie and Fitch

Abstract

A&F is a worldwide retail company, which targets young, dynamic and good- looking people. As a result the company’s image and culture primarily emphasize on people’s appearance.
These recent years, the company had faced different trials because of unethical and discriminatory behaviors against potential candidates and actual employees.
Also the company “look policy” has been called into question as it was excluding a certain range of candidates who were not considered as being able to portray the brand’s image.
In order to have a better understanding on A&F’s hiring practices, the report highlights the importance but also the possible impact of hiring workers who embody the company’s culture and image. Also, it investigates the ethicality of the “look policy” and the impact of A&F’s initiatives to improve people’s perception about the brand.

Table of Contents

Abstract 2
Background 4
KEY ISSUES 5
 Hiring workers who embody A&F culture and image 5
 Ethicality of A&F’s “look policy” and effectiveness of the company’s initiative concerning equality and diversity 8
 Ethicality of A&F’s “look policy” 8
 Company’s equality and diversity initiatives 10
RECOMMENDATIONS TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS 11
 Revise the company “look policy” 11
 Implementation of a new hiring strategy 13
CONCLUSION 15
REFERENCES 16

Background

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American Retailer Company (Redman, Wilkinson 2013), which has stores across different countries and because of its rapid worldwide expansion the firm received a wide range of demand from a diversified workforce, who are expected “to be ambassadors for the brands (Redman, Wilkinson 2013) toward their attractive physic.

The company’s recruitment is exclusively based on image and its hiring process has been criticised of being discriminatory on different matters. The brand has been accused of mainly focusing its recruitment based on the candidates’ appearance and therefore to hire good-looking

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