What is equity in the workplace?

Creating equity in the workplace is a process that aims to ensure that every employee within an organization works on the same playing field, regardless of their ethnic background, country of origin, physical or mental ability, or gender or sexual orientation.
Equity is not the same as equality. Instead, it aims to provide fair opportunities to all employees based on their individual needs and aspirations. This might mean providing more resources and support to some employees to ensure that they are not left behind.

At its core, equity in the workplace is all about empowering employees to be their best, and ensuring that everyone within the organization is treated fairly. Everyone expects and receives the same treatment in terms of opportunity, consequences, and rewards.
The workplace is a melting pot of all people; with varying backgrounds, races, languages, physical build, age, life experiences and peculiarities. Creating and maintaining a culture of equity amidst all this diversity while ensuring productivity and growth, can be a tasking issue no doubt.

As much as HR professionals have a huge responsibility to play in setting the standards, it falls on every team member to practice equity within their teams in their daily interactions on and off the workplace.

Below are some steps companies and HR teams can take in steering equity in the workplace.

Set Diversity and Inclusion Goals: The most successful DE&I goals are actionable, measurable, and transparent, with quantifiable progress visible across the organization. Moreover, they have a designated owner. The owner of the DE&I goal is held accountable for the progress of the goal — this helps avoid one of the main DE&I challenges: a lack of frontline leadership.

Review and Revise Company Policies: Company policies should be tailored towards achieving equity in the workplace. Oftentimes rigid work policies are clear signs of an unfavourable workplace because they are reflective of what the organization’s leaders want and not what is beneficial to a diverse work environment. In the drive towards achieving equity in the workplace, rigid company policies will have to be reviewed first.

Measure and Monitor Progress: All policies must be measurable and evidence of progress should be visible across the company.

Equitable Benefits: With Maternity, Paternity leaves, additionally for the adoption, Aged parents or family member. Spousal benefits, holidays of all cultures, prayer rooms etc.

Career Advancement: Defining the career paths in a manner where the individual is getting opportunities to meet his/her aspirations. Every single person and every single leader has an opportunity to make the way for other people if they want to. This way every single person has an opportunity to thrive by learning from others.

Leaders Training Programs: It is important to collaborate with the leaders and train them on how to have open conversations about DEI with their direct reports. Managers are in a unique position to build trust with their teams and solicit honest Feedback.

How Can Employees Ensure They Are Treated Equitably in the Workplace?

Advocating for oneself in the workplace can be difficult. Nevertheless, it is still important to ensure you are receiving fair treatment. If you feel you are being treated inequitably, there are a few steps you can take:

• Try to talk to your manager or HR department about your concerns. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, you may need to file a formal complaint or grievance.
• You can reach out to any Equal Employment Opportunity advisor or organization if you believe you have been the victim of discrimination or if you witness a lack of fairness and equity in the workplace.

A cultural shift takes time, which means organizations must set benchmarks and track their progress to assess how their efforts are moving the needle. This will not only show the leaders what strategies are working and which are failing short, but it will also help to hold them accountable for reaching their long-term goals.

By building more equitable work environments, employees come forward and share their big ideas, they feel comfortable pushing back the status quo. Everyone comes to a workplace that is innovative, embraces creative tension, and allows for meaningful debate in order to arrive at the best possible results.

Implementing equitable actions in the organization has the potential to change the lives of the employees and affect positive change in the wider world.