Rodey Wing, a partner at global management consulting firm Kearney, had to decide what to recommend to a struggling retailer client with over 200,000 employees. With the client's optometry division suffering from an excess of employees partly due to a pandemic downturn, Wing had initially planned to cut 1,500 employees from the division---laying off those with the lowest performance review ratings. However, a disproportionate impact assessment of the plan showed that employees from protected classes would make up a much larger share of terminated employees than expected. Wing had to determine how this information should impact his recommendations to the important client.

Rodey Wing, a partner at global management consulting firm Kearney, had to decide what to recommend to a struggling retailer client with over 200,000 employees. With the client’s optometry division suffering from an excess of employees partly due to a pandemic downturn, Wing had initially planned to cut 1,500 employees from the division---laying off those with the lowest performance review ratings. However, a disproportionate impact assessment of the plan showed that employees from protected classes would make up a much larger share of terminated employees than expected. Wing had to determine how this information should impact his recommendations to the important client.