by The E in DEI is often overlooked, but workplace equity is an essential part of any strong DEI strategy, helping to create an inclusive work environment where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive, contribute and succeed.
But building an equitable workforce is no easy task. It involves taking a deep look at an organization’s policies and procedures and reshaping them to remove systemic and structural barriers to enable individuals or groups of individuals to thrive and progress in their careers fairly.
Read on as we provide you with the perfect introduction to workplace equity, see the difference between equity and equality, provide tips on promoting equity in your organization, and explore how to measure workplace equity.
What is equity in the workplace?
Workplace equity is the concept of creating a culture of fairness, fairness, and justice through employment policies and practices.
Equity focuses on ensuring that all employees have comparable access to career and development opportunities, equity in pay and benefits, and are treated without favoritism or discrimination with respect to job duties and responsibilities. Therefore, equity is different from equality.
Achieving an equitable workplace involves promoting and implementing policies and procedures that ensure equal opportunity for all employees, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, location, or disability.
Equity vs. equality: what’s the difference?
You might think that fairness is a lot like equality in the workplace. And make no mistake, the two concepts are very similar.
The key difference between fairness and equality is that equality focuses on treating all employees equally. For example, your company has a policy that all employees, regardless of gender, are entitled to the same amount of paternity leave.
Equity focuses on giving employees the opportunity to succeed in the workplace by recognizing that everyone has different needs and requires different levels of support. For example, your company implements a mentoring program to promote professional development for underrepresented groups.
Why is equity in the workplace important?
You are a neurodivergent woman working remotely in a development role for a non-profit organization. Your company rotates to bring employees in-house, asking them to return to the office five days a week.
Due to his neurodiversity, he finds it easier to focus at home with minimal distractions, but his manager says everyone must come home, providing little flexibility or accommodation.
How would you feel in this situation if your employer has not removed the barriers that help you perform at a high level? Probably disengaged, resentful, and demotivated: Critical issues undermining business performance and employee retention.
This is why organizations need to focus on creating workforces that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion so that employees of all backgrounds feel equal and included and have the same resources and opportunities as any other employee. .
In addition, building an equitable company builds employee trust, fosters a sense of belonging and community, helps reduce bias and discrimination, and enables employees to work at their best, helping your business grow while retaining value. talent.
Create a diversity, equity and inclusion committee
If you’re just at the beginning of your company’s DEI journey, consider creating a diversity, equity, and inclusion committee to help support your DEI efforts. Typically, a DEI committee is made up of employees from various departments who are passionate about and committed to diversity within their workplace.
A key benefit of a DEI committee is that the group helps hold the company accountable. For example, it commits in its diversity, equity and inclusion statement to adhere to transparent hiring practices to support equity in the workplace. Your DEI committee can help ensure that the commitment comes to fruition.
Focus on pay equity
Let’s say Sally and Bob have the same job, at the same level, with the same responsibilities. Sally receives a payment of $84,000 and Bob receives a payment of $100,000. Who is going to be less happy in the workplace? I’m Sally.
Unfortunately, the above scenario is not fiction. Women earn 16% less than men in full-time jobs in the United States, and factors such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status influence discriminatory workplace pay gaps in many industries.
One way to counter this and promote equity in the workplace is to eliminate the pay gap and ensure that all employees are fairly compensated for their work, regardless of gender, race, or other characteristics.
Guarantee equal access to opportunities.
No one likes to feel like they are missing out on career and development opportunities because they are different. If left unchecked, not feeling included in the workplace can lead to decreased performance, impacting revenue and engagement metrics.
Companies must ensure that employees have equal access to training, development programs and courses, mentoring connections, and career advancement/advancement opportunities, regardless of who they are and without discrimination to help reinforce equity in efforts in the workplace.
How to measure equity in the workplace
According to 15Five’s DEIB report, which provides a transparent snapshot of a company’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging metrics, workplace equity is measured by comparing demographic representation across the entire life cycle of the employee, from pre-hire to retirement. Here are some points to take a look at.
Representation: Measure representation of different groups, such as race, gender, disability, and whether someone identifies as LGBTQ2+.
Pay– Analyze your salary structures to identify potential discrepancies in compensation between different groups and ensure that employees doing comparable work are fairly compensated.
Training: Track participation rates in training and development programs across various groups and analyze them to determine if there are any barriers to opportunity.
Promotion: Evaluate promotion rates in different groups and analyze the data to understand whether advancement is more or less likely to occur in represented or underrepresented groups.
Retention and rotation: Measure retention rates across different demographics and track turnover rates which could shed light on potential DEI-related issues in the workplace.
If you want to create an equitable workforce that improves employee engagement and satisfaction and attracts top-tier talent, start with the basics and build from there. Of course, no one expects you to get everything right the first time, but hopefully this short guide will equip you with the tools you need to get started.
