Equity vs. Equality: What's the Difference?
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Workplace equity and equality are often used interchangeably, but they mean different things. Equality ensures employees access to identical policies, while equity gives employees the tools they need to succeed, even if those tools differ from person to person. Adopting equitable policies can lead to reduced attrition and higher levels of employee satisfaction.
So many conversations these days revolve around how to foster workplace equality. Companies should take a long, hard look at their policies and practices, from remote work policies to salaries and benefits.?
And while many organizations pay lip service to diversity and inclusion practices, building a workplace where everyone can thrive often means going beyond equality. It means building equity to promote fairness and remove barriers to a productive, healthy workplace for team members.
What is Equity in the Workplace?
Workplace equity’s meaning involves creating fairness in outcomes for all team members. It identifies specific needs related to a person’s identity and seeks to provide resources and support to shore up those needs. It ensures every employee works on a level playing field, even if some employees need more structural help than others.
Difference Between Workplace Equity and Equality Explained
Some companies use the terms equity and equality interchangeably, but they differ.
Workplace equality refers to giving everyone fair treatment and equal rights to pursue opportunities. In practice, workplaces describe equality as extending the same privileges and policies to all workers. But this ignores that all workers do not come from the same starting position, and treating everyone the same does little to address existing employee-specific needs. It does practically nothing to eliminate issues like unconscious bias.
Workplace equity refers to fairness in outcomes, not just support or resources. Companies that focus on equity look for needs to address and then make changes to help facilitate growth for demographics that are traditionally underserved. They also look at individual needs and work to accommodate them when making decisions. The goal: All employees see empowerment and feel institutional support to do their best work.
Examples of Equity in the Workplace
What does workplace equity look like in practice? It involves taking steps to mitigate perceived biases and eliminate roadblocks to success for team members. In some cases, this means making decisions to accommodate one or more specific team members instead of providing them with the same resources as others.
This can mean purchasing an adjustable desk to make life and work easier for a team member who uses a wheelchair. It may also mean allowing a specific associate to work remotely or at different hours due to health issues or other concerns like childcare, despite where and when other employees perform their jobs.
Examples of Equality in the Workplace
Workplace equality means all associates receive the same treatment without discrimination due to factors such as:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enshrines these protections into federal law. Some states take even more drastic measures to reduce discrimination.
Some of the most common examples of workplace equality are easy to see. They can be as simple as evening differences in pay between people who do the same (or similar) jobs. Pay equality means offering the same pay for equal work, regardless of gender.
Another example of workplace equality involves creating policies that apply to all associates evenly. This could mean creating a PTO (Paid Time Off) policy where all employees receive the same amount of time off, regardless of needs or other accommodations.
How to Promote Equity in the Workplace
Promoting equity in the workplace often involves concrete steps and complex choices. It is not as simple as designating a sole employee responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Taking the following steps can increase workplace equity through thoughtful consideration and dedication to changing workplace practices.
1. Prioritize Wage Equity
Pay equity goes beyond ensuring every similar role pays the same rate. Instead, a company can prioritize wage equity by digging deeply into demographic data. Wage equity also can reduce the risk of discrimination lawsuits and improve workplace morale.?
The first way to understand whether an organization lacks pay equity is to perform an analysis and then correct any discrepancies, particularly if employees have faced discrimination in the past.
Pay transparency is another way to prioritize equity, starting during the hiring process. Explicit descriptions of salary rules for all roles allow new and current employees to know what to expect.?
2. Offer Accessible Resources and Job Descriptions
Transparency around salary is essential, but it is not the only part of the hiring process a company can overhaul. Some increase the avenues through which people can apply for positions. Despite how it may seem, not everyone has ready access to a desktop computer. Ensure that the application process is as mobile-friendly as possible and that any application materials pass basic accessibility tests for users.
Flexible, detailed job descriptions help applicants know if a role is right for them. They share details about the job’s daily duties, including where the work happens. Provide options for accommodations where possible and list the physical job requirements.
3. Provide Equitable Benefits
Equal benefits for all associates may seem like a good idea, but it ignores that some employees may need different benefits to do their best work.?
The primary way to offer equitable benefits to an entire company is to provide employees with choices. Allowing employees to personalize some of their benefits can increase agency among the team. In addition, offering choices to employees about their working conditions can help reduce friction. Consider the following:
4. Upgrade Onboarding Programs
Aside from an effective interview process that quickly identifies and sources talent, the next most important part of hiring and retaining talent is an onboarding program that reduces attrition. Companies focused on fast onboarding without structural support can leave employees uninformed regarding best practices, processes and information.
Because not all new hires come into an organization with the same background, it makes sense to tailor the onboarding process to their experience, knowledge and skills. For these reasons, the best onboarding programs involve the following:
5. Implement a Mentor Program
Why focus on mentorship? Connecting new hires with experienced professionals allows them to develop relationships early and gain vital insight into their roles.?
An inclusive and equitable mentorship approach goes beyond the traditional private mentorship model. It utilizes active sponsorship from trusted leaders. Mentorship can even include aspects of work that do not correlate to purely professional expertise. Other qualities that may make someone a good mentor include:
Mentorship is not a one-way street, either. The most positive mentor-mentee relationship includes growth opportunities for the mentor.
6. Offer Targeted, Inclusive Incentives
One of the best ways to increase diversity and equity across an organization is to tie incentives to meeting benchmarks for DEI initiatives. Make voluntary DEI training more attractive by tying promotions, pay raises and desirable work assignments to participation in these behaviors.
Equity priorities should last all year and not exist as focus weeks or months. It should be an ongoing plan and a continuous flow of initiatives. In addition, the inclusion of all levels and positions fosters a level of collective responsibility. If all tiers of an organization have a stake in increased equity, it will spur collaboration in making those goals a reality.?
7. Hire Based on Skills and Experience
In a perfect world, skills and experience alone would be the primary basis for hiring decisions. But we know that is not always the case. A company with an equity focus should first make hiring choices that look specifically at skills and experience.
What this means in practice is to evaluate employees and new hires with an eye to what they can accomplish, not where they previously worked. The key to this approach is to test prospective employees appropriately and avoid asking them to perform free labor. Many people seeking new jobs have limited time and energy and should not take on what amounts to a part-time job to find employment.
8. Update Equity Practices on an Ongoing Basis
Like many other human resources-related decisions, equity practices do not exist in a vacuum. Companies must regularly revisit them as new considerations come up or conversations happen. But for organizations responsive to employee needs and privilege (or lack thereof), equity comes easier than it does for companies who do not even attempt it in the first place.
Final Thoughts: Measuring Equity in the Workplace
Creating a more equitable workplace is not easy, but it is essential. Companies that place a high premium on equity tend to be happier places to work, with employees who feel equipped to thrive and take on roles that maximize their potential. If employee satisfaction and morale are flagging, taking steps toward workplace equity could be one of many remedies.
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(Reporting by NPD)