Equity Vs Equality

This is a burning question that most organizations are not able to answer and hence are unable to achieve the full potential that their resources can help them.

But, before we answer this question, we must understand how the organizations should choose between the right level of equity and equality.

We first have to understand exactly the difference between equity and equality and why it is important for us to care about this difference? Let’s first understand, what is equality?

Equality essentially means that every individual and every group of people are given the same resources, same opportunities, and the same tools. It is irrespective of color, caste, creed, and status. Hence, it is a good place for any organization if they can achieve equality. 

But is equality enough for the organizations to achieve their full potential?

Let us then first understand, what exactly equity means and how reaching equity is much better than reaching equality? 

What is equity?  Equity essentially means that while we allocate the same resources and same tools to every set of individuals or group of people, we also take into consideration their circumstances and hence allocate the exact resource and opportunities so that every person can reach an equal outcome. 

What does it mean? It means that every individual is different and every individual needs or requires different sets of tools and resources to reach their full potential. Once, the organization recognizes this aspect of dividing and allocating resources, that is when they will be able to achieve equity within all their stakeholders. And hence the question of equity and equality becomes prime most important for organizations to achieve their full potential.

But is equity and equality, a question that businesses need to answer? 

Let us first understand some of the adverse effects that businesses suffer because they are not able to observe equity but are only focusing on equality. 

Example1: having equal rules for the Management and every tier of the organization. Now, ideally, most organizations and most hierarchal Gurus suggest that every organization's structure and every hierarchy in the organization should be given the same set of rules and regulations. However, the features equity advocates that different sets of people at different junctions in their careers need different rules so that they can process and achieve their full potential. 

For example, when a person reaches a different level in an organization, that person needs to observe more flexibility in his work so he might be allowed to Work from Home. While junior-level people or L1 employees could be asked to adhere to strict office rules. This is just an example; it is not recommending anything but this is an example where equity and equality could be observed by setting different rules for different people in the organization.

Example 2: having the same leave calendar across the entire length and breadth of the organization. Let’s assume that there is a Multinational Corporation that operates in different cities. Now, those cities might have different weathers and patterns, a different set of holidays, and a different set of cultures. So it is very important, that we customize the entire leave calendar as per the background of the individual.

Now, if an organization is following a strict calendar then it becomes pretty difficult for them to understand and take into account the various needs and requirements of every individual of the organization. 

Example 3: having the same set of promotion rules for men and women in the organization. Let’s understand, physiologically speaking all men are different from women and hence their needs and requirements are different. We need to sensitize the organization’s rules towards the certain limitation of women and also simultaneously to sensitize rules for certain limitations of men.

And once we take into account, their physiological background, their mental background, their lifestyle backgrounds, we have to set different parameters for promotion, their attendance, and anything extra. This is easy to say. However, once we can observe this, empirically it has boosted that the team member and the organizational people are tending to stay for longer durations if equity is being observed at different levels.

Now the next question is, how could you sensitize your organization towards equity? 

Let’s get to it-

The first thing we need to do is, we need to go to equality first. The primary step to achieve equity is getting to equality. So you need to answer, are you allocating all the resources rationally?  Are you allocating all the opportunities rationally? If the answer is NO, then you need to figure out where those the disproportion rational of resource opportunities are happening? Once you figure it out, that’s when you will move to the second step.

• Classify stakeholders: the second step is that you need to find different sorts of people who are working in your organization or with the organization or inside or outside the organization. This is just to understand the class of people and understand their requirements meets perfectly.

• Sub-classify stakeholders: let’s say, you have a stakeholder who is a supplier to you. Now within the suppliers, you need to sub-classify those suppliers based on their status, ability, and their background. 

Once you sub-classify those suppliers then you need to understand their circumstances, how they will be able to provide the best of products and services to you as an organization. Once you can understand that, this is when you will be able to be in a position to bring in equity in whatever opportunities, tools, and resources you are going to allocate to those sub-classified people.  

• Resource utilization analysis: then you need to understand, which resources are being perfectly utilized by the stakeholders? If you see, there are classes of stakeholders who are not able to understand the resources, who are not able to leverage the tools which means that the resources are not making sense to that sub-classification of stakeholders. And that is where you need to make improvements. You need to understand through those stakeholders why exactly they are not utilizing the resources. That brings us to the next step of taking Feedback.

• Feedback: it is very important that will help you understand where is equality not transforming to equity? Where exactly are the thresholds and barriers that are not letting a class of stakeholders leverage the tools and opportunities that the organization is providing them? Once the feedback is taken, you know where to hit the nail.

• Execution: the next step is to execute the improvement loop. This essentially is going back from the feedback board to making sure that the resources are being utilized perfectly. This is a never-ending process as it helps you to rise the equity ladder. 

In nutshell, now you know the difference between equity and equality and you also know how you could move up the equity ladder, starting with equality it’s important to stretch that why equity should be observed in the organization.

As and when you increase through the length and breadth of the organization, it becomes increasingly important to understand the different classes of people and to understand the different classes of people, the organization needs to understand their circumstances, their preferences, and accordingly allocate the tools and resources. Only then the tools and resources will be leveraged and utilized in a team manner and to their full potential.