Fairness and objectivity. RESEARCH

Few day ago I came across a research by Gartner Gartner HR Research Reveals 82% of Employees Report Working Environment Lacks Fairness. STAMFORD, Conn., November 8, 2021

The text of the research results begins with these words: Just 18% of employees said they work in a high fairness environment and have an employee experience that is characterized as fair, according to Gartner, Inc. HR leaders feel largely the same – only 22% would characterize their workplace as having a high degree of fairness.

Gartner defines a high fairness environment as one where employees perceive that their manager and organization treat them fairly.?

Four Factors That Help Employees Feel Fairness?

Being Informed

The Gartner 3Q21 survey showed that only 33% of organizations practice true information transparency, even though nearly 70% of employees said that they would take one job offer over another based on the organizations’ transparency practices. Gartner’s research revealed that companies disseminate information unevenly across their workforce across talent processes, including recruiting and compensation.

Feeling supported

When employees feel supported at work, they are more likely to indicate that they work in a high fairness environment. Organizations have tried to support employees by investing in well-being programs. In fact, a Gartner survey of 53 HR leaders between September and November 2020 found that 64% of respondents added or expanded well-being programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these investments, most employees still don’t feel like they’re getting the support they need and deserve.

.Feeling considered

The Gartner 3Q21 survey revealed that only 18% of qualified employees are considered for the next opportunity when it emerges at their organization. Most organizations have created referral programs that give access to opportunities for qualified external candidates based on a current employee’s referral, but they have not done this for internal candidates. Instead, organizations typically rely on managers, who are asked to consider more qualified candidates, or employees, who are encouraged to take initiative to raise their profile and build their own brand.

Receiving acknowledgement

Accurate employee evaluation and recognition boosts employee perceptions of fairness, however the Gartner 3Q21 survey found only 24% of employees feel acknowledged for their contributions.

Recommendations are given at the end of the report.

The Way Forward

Progressive organizations are increasing their employees’ feelings of fairness by addressing the four factors above in the following ways:

·?Dramatically increase the amount of information given to all employees and candidates, and ensure the information employees receive is actionable by providing them guidance on how to use the information.

·?Expand support programs to all employees. Frame this support as an effort to create a more successful organization with a better work environment and?employee experiencefor everyone; help employees understand why different people are getting different support.

·?Use peer networks to provide more equitable access to opportunities between those outside the organization and those inside the organization.

·?Leverage technology to acknowledge the employees making the most important contributions. This includes ensuring employees are comfortable and consulted with the privacy implications of these technologies and, helping employees understand what behavior changes will result in changes to their performance.

My opinion about this research and recommendations.

My first and general opinion is the following: in order to create a fair atmosphere in the company, a very unfair responsibility and burden is imposed on the leaders of the company. The result is that a manager who, say, has 25 employees in a department, must pay great attention to increasing the sense of fairness in his employees in order for the business to run consistently well. What about his other duties?

Fairness is a very flexible concept and depends not only on the manager, but also on the employees. More precisely, it depends on the vision of employees and their objectivity in assessing the conditions created. And here we have a question: how objective are our employees in assessing fairness?

A simple example related to the word fairness. There are 30 people in the department. There is a vacancy and one needs to be promoted. Promote the best in the opinion of management. In any case, there will be one person who considers the atmosphere in the company fair and 29 people who do not. 29 people will consider the atmosphere in the company unfair.

I think that in the context of company management, we cannot talk about objective, universal for all or absolute fairness - we can only talk about perceived and subjective fairness within one particular company.

Another example: a company may, after a very strong effort, give employees more than it can, and employees may consider this a very small amount. What we will have as a result? The company gives more than it can, and the employees perceive and feel that there is no fairness.

The next point: the research has two keywords: it is “perceive” and “feeling”.

The words “perceive” and “feeling” are more related to a person's vision. Let's say a company takes care of a person and provides the best care of its sector within its profitability and margins, but the person does not understand this and compares his company and its conditions with companies from other areas with greater financial opportunities.

When we use words “perceive” and “feeling” in a sentence, objectivity will be subjective.

What do you think about it?