Equity vs Equality: What's the Difference?
In this article, we discuss:
Equity: An Overview
The concept of equity is based on the notion that not all employees are the same the recalibration of fairness then drives and organization’s DEI goals and practices.
To ensure equity, employers examine the barriers and gaps that may hold an individual from reaching their full potential or succeeding. For instance, an employee with disabilities will require different resources from an employee without a disability to perform the same job. Thus, employers develop a system that ensures fairness, access, and advancement for all, despite their backgrounds or identities.
Throughout history, we’ve seen institutional efforts to ensure systemic equity - one such prominent example is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This federal civil rights and labor law act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. However, private companies are also playing their part in ensuring equity - although more should still be done.
Top 5 Reasons Why Equity in the Workplace Matters
A recent survey conducted by Gartner HR Research revealed that over 80% of employees report the working environment lacks fairness. On the other hand, only 18% reported they work in a high fairness environment while 22% characterized their workplace as having a high degree of fairness.
With such numbers, it's evident that companies still have more to do when it comes to promoting equity in the workplace. After all, fairness in the workplace can bring better working results.
Equity Motivates Employees
A fair and equitable workplace environment motivates its employees; inspiring them to go the extra mile. This is because these environments are usually tolerant, encourage speaking up, and address employee issues and concerns.
As a result, you get happier, motivated, committed, and loyal employees. Further, it creates a sense of belonging, and oneness, fosters employee well-being, and even promotes psychological safety.
On the other hand, an unfair workplace does the opposite; demotivating employees and creating a toxic environment. It is easy to create resentful, disloyal, and unenthusiastic employees.
2. Workplace Fairness Boosts Performance
Similarly, a fair workplace boosts performance. A survey suggests that employees in a high fairness environment perform 26% better than those who don’t. With better performance, you also enjoy higher profits and revenue generation.
3. Equity Keeps Employee Retention Numbers High
A fair and equitable workplace enjoys a high retention rate of employees and lower turnover rates. A Gartner survey reported that employees who work in a high fairness environment are 27% less likely to quit than those who don't.
4. An Equitable Workplace Attracts Top Talent
Creating a fair and equitable organization is one of the easiest ways to attract top talent during hiring. Such companies enjoy positive reputations in the work industry; making it easier for highly qualified candidates to apply during recruitment.
Potential employees can easily identify a positive workplace based on their inclusive recruitment strategy that considers every type of candidate.
5. Equity Promotes Creativity, Innovation, and Leadership
Equitable companies attract a diverse team and are usually inclusive. With individuals from various backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, you get more creative and innovative insights.
Further, with a diverse team, you are more likely to create a diverse leadership team that brings a unique perspective to the company. Plus, diverse leadership teams come with their fair share of benefits.
From bringing in a wealth of knowledge and perspective to establishing trust among your consumers from different backgrounds. Diverse leaderships also boost performance, profit-making, and positivity associated with the brand.
Equality: An Overview
Equality, on the other hand, means treating employees the same. Whether rules, policies, or availability of resources, they all apply the same to every employee.
For instance, federal laws surrounding discrimination mandate the employer to treat employees and candidates equally, without considering their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or background.
This means that an employer must hire or promote an individual if they possess the qualifications without considering their identity or background.
How Equality Works (or Doesn't)
The practice of “equality” does come with its drawbacks. For instance, a company might be hiring for a position; looking at education and experience as the prerequisite without considering the background.
While it doesn't discriminate against individuals, it already creates a barrier to accessibility. In the US, significant socioeconomic disparities between White, Black, and Hispanic communities have led to a large racial, educational, and economic achievement gap.
In this case, an organizations is more likely to receive applications from White candidates than Black or Hispanic candidates if the role has a mandatory higher education prerequisite. One of the ways to bridge this gap and create a truly fair recruitment process is to focus on skills-based hiring (if the job allows) rather than focusing on the educational background.
Unlike equity, equality fails to address the concept of intersectionality.
A good example of how intersectionality affect equality is how women's rights are sometimes approached with the idea that all women have similar experiences. Therefore, in equality and anti-discrimination, each woman should be treated equally.
However, this approach fails to address issues experienced by other subgroups of women. For instance, a Black woman experienced discrimination through both their gender and race. Similarly, a woman with a disability experienced discrimination due to their gender and their disability. Thus, while women continue to fight for quality, equity dictates that issues experienced by women from marginalized groups should also be addressed.
According to a survey, 1 in 4 C-suite leaders are women. However, women of color make up only 1 in 16 C-suite leaders. Further, women of color are the least represented compared to white men, white women, and men of color in corporate America. The same survey further reports that representation for women of color drops by 12% between entry-level and C-suite positions.
Therefore, unlike equality, equity doesn't just address inequality. It allows you to further examine and level the playing field, to create true equality; ensuring full support for every individual to reach their full potential.
What’s the Difference Between Equity and Equality?
Equity means recognition of each person's circumstances and providing the necessary tools and resources needed to reach an equal outcome.
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Equality represents equal treatment; providing the same resources and opportunities to each individual or group.
Equity and equality are different from one another; with the former representing a more tailored approach to ensuring accessibility, inclusion, and breaking barriers for those marginalized. On the other hand, the latter, i.e. equality, simply means equal treatment for all.
Nonetheless, a fair workplace environment can use both approaches to ensure justice and fairness for all its employees.
Examples of Equity vs Equality in the Workplace
Accessibility for employees with disabilities
With equality, every employee enjoys access to the same resources and tools to work.
With equity, while every employee enjoys resources and tools, they are also tailored to meet their working needs. For instance, employees without a disability receive a desk and chair while those with a physical disability enjoy access to a wheelchair-friendly desk with special chairs that accommodate their physiological needs.
Inclusive recruitment for neurodivergent candidates
With equality, everyone is given the same instructions and time to complete their written recruitment tests.
With equity, neurodivergent candidates are given more structured and direct questions as they can tackle them much easier than indirect or questions about scenarios that have nothing to do with their roles.
Annual leave based on festive celebrations
With equality, the company would follow a traditional calendar year with employees only given off days to celebrate “ mainstream” festive holidays, such as New Year’s, Easter, Christmas, and the 4th of July, among others.
In an equitable workplace, employees of different cultures and religions are allowed to take the day off and celebrate their respective and sacred festive holidays, such as Eid, Holi, or the Lunar New Year, among others. Companies that offer double pay for employees who work during the holidays would do the same for employees (who practice said cultures or religions) who work on these days.
Workplace promotions
With equality, employees are given equal chances for promotion and other advancements at the workplace.
With equity, the company puts in extra effort to they recognize barriers that different employees face, including being victims of implicit bias or lack of resources, such as access to education that can help advance their careers. The company then works to address these barriers to give every employee a fair chance.
8 Ways to Create an Equitable Employee Experience
There’s no better approach than the other when it comes to equity vs equality. A successful and effective approach is holistic; incorporating both equality and equity. After all, for equity to exist, there must be equality. Fortunately, in the workplace, there are compelling ways to create a fair, equal, and equitable workplace setting.
The four pillars of a fair and equitable workplace environment are when employees are given adequate information, feel supported, receive acknowledgment, and are given a fair chance of opportunities. Thus, your efforts to create a more equitable workplace should reflect these qualities.
1. Conduct a DEI Audit
Every organization has its own dynamics and thus, it's not easy to truly know the gaps without a proper DEI audit. The first step to transforming your organization into a fair and equitable one is understanding the problems and issues faced by employees.
Conducting surveys and gathering statistics on recruitment, promotions, and other team dynamics will give you a better understanding of what needs to be addressed and improved. If you have an inadequately equipped in-house HR team, you can hire DEI consultants or experts to assist with this.
2. Develop a DEI Strategy
While a DEI audit serves as a roadmap of where your organization stands, a DEI strategy can help you with the way forward. A DEI strategy serves as your organization's goals and priorities to promote true diversity, equity, and inclusion.
It helps leaders in your organization outline each team member’s roles and responsibilities, track progress, measure success, and figure out which changes to make. A DEI strategy works as a guide to always ensure your organization is on track.
3. Transform Your Workplace Culture and Processes
True change comes from actionable behavior. Strategies and training are important. But, no true change comes without behavioral changes. For organizations, this change can stem from how things are done. For instance, you can transform your organizational procedures by incorporating an element of equitable and fair practices throughout every process.
Over time, when leaders and employees work in this system, it ultimately becomes a natural thing for them. The simplest example is developing an inclusive recruitment strategy. With this change, your recruitment process becomes more inclusive and thoughtful, considering neurodivergent candidates, those with disabilities, and other candidates at a disadvantage.
Similarly, opting for skills-based hiring practice (when the role permits) as opposed to specific educational qualifications can transform your organization. First, you enjoy access to a wider talent pool and are more likely to find the best candidate as you expand your reach.
It is worth noting that not all individuals will have opportunities to access higher education. However, this doesn't make them less qualified. You can find an intelligent, trustworthy, and loyal employee who is more qualified through their skills and experience than one with an educational background and experience.
4. Provide DEI Training
DEI training goes a long way to fostering a workplace culture that values equity, diversity, and inclusion. Through this training, you not only learn about each other’s differences but also come to appreciate and respect them. DEI and equity training can also guide leaders in creating, fostering, and promoting workplace settings that make every employee feel included and valued.
The training also helps identify and rectify shortcomings, whether conscious and unconscious biases or a complete lack of knowledge. The best part? Organizations can choose a wide range of training options that suit their needs, from DEI to bias training or inclusive leadership training.
5. Foster Support Programs
From incentives such as education and training funding to funding employee retreats and sustaining employee resource groups (ERGs), employers can create a fair and equitable workplace by facilitating support programs. Creating or supporting such programs can harness a sense of belonging, appreciation, and safety for your employees.
It is also a way for employers to promote a more pleasant employee experience. Doing so isn't just about ethics and doing what is good. It also offers better results for your organization, including enhanced employee satisfaction, better performance, more profits, and lower turnover rates.
6. Know and Acknowledge Your Employees
Employees want to be seen, acknowledged, and appreciated for their contribution to the organization. Doing so doesn't just boost your employees’ well-being and satisfaction. It also fosters a better-performing and more effective team.
Hold one-on-one sessions to get to know your employees and give performance feedback, offer support for struggling employees, and provide incentives. These can be anything from performance-based to point-based incentive systems and even opportunities for career and educational advancement.
7. Information Sharing is Key
Transparency through sharing information about the organization’s goals is vital as they make employees feel seen, included and safe. Companies cultivate more employee satisfaction by disseminating recruitment, compensation, and other work-related information evenly across all teams.
8. Provide Accessible Tools and Resources
Physical accessibility is just as important when it comes to equitable access. From wheelchair-accessible facilities to remote working and clear information sharing for neurodivergent employees, a truly equitable workplace must be easily accessible to the entire team.
Case Study: Equity Practices at Work
Accenture’s Strong ERGs
Among efforts by Accenture to support its employees is through fostering employee resource groups. Ranked among the top employers for diversity and inclusion globally, Accenture is among the companies that offer the best support for its employee ERGs. The Pride ERG, composed of over 120,000 LGBT+ employees and allies, and Disability Champions, of over 27,000 members, are among the company’s largest and most successful ERGs.
Viacom CBS's Focus on Gender Disparity
Viacom CBS has focused on gender disparity as one of its core areas of DEI. Statistics show that women on average account for less than a quarter of members on boards in the US and less than 20% globally. ViacomCBS has challenged this number by boosting its representation numbers.
According to the company, 58% of the board, 49% of VP level or above leaders in the US, and 48% globally are women. The communication giant has invested in its Female Talent Program that prepares women for the leadership path.
Procter & Gamble’s Focus on Physical Accessibility
P&G has focused one of its DEI initiatives on physical accessibility for employees with disabilities. With many organizations still failing to fully include people with disabilities, accessibility is among the top priorities at Procter & Gamble. The company’s mission is to be the most accessible company in the world and it has already implemented several effective initiatives, including:
The creation of a Global Accessibility Leader position
Launch of the Disabilities Challenge program that gathers insights from employees on how to provide more accessible products
Heavily backing People with Disabilities Network, an employee ERG
