Improving productivity is a concern for all businesses but it is harder to achieve if employees do not believe they are receiving fair treatment.
As I have said in many previous blogs, a motivated workforce is more likely to go the extra mile if they feel valued as people, this means managers treating them with respect, listening to them, showing consideration to them, recognising their contribution, rewarding their contribution and protecting them from inappropriate behaviour by others at work. In summary treating them with respect and showing them that their effort is valued.
Recognition can simply be saying “thank you” for a job well done, it is not just about money.
However, money can become an issue when there is a clear disparity in pay. While discrimination is illegal and applies to any disparity of remuneration on grounds of gender, race, religion or ethnicity, this is not about legislating for staff motivation.
To be motivated staff need to feel they are treated equally which means people doing the same job expecting the same pay and other benefits albeit they will acknowledge any adjustment to pay scales based on valid reasons such as experience, length of service, sickness record, additional responsibilities or other factors. The key is that the reasons for any difference in pay are legal, explicit and understood by everyone.
Two years ago, in April 2017, the government made some efforts to address unequal pay treatment with the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting (GPGR) for both the private and public sectors employing 250-plus people.
It then launched an inquiry into whether organisations should also be required to report on the pay differentials between people from different ethnic backgrounds, although as yet no decision has been reached largely, it is argued, because ethnicity is a very complex subject.
GPGR is regulated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and while it can take businesses to court for non-compliance and obtain an order to force them to, it has no enforcement powers beyond “naming and shaming” them.
So recent reports on the situation two years on are not encouraging reading.
The BBC cited figures from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) for the year to April 2019, saying that the gender pay gap for full-time workers rose to 8.9% – up from 8.6% the previous year.
Quoted in the article is TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady: “Government must pick up the pace. It’s clear that publishing gender pay gaps isn’t enough on its own. Companies must also be legally required to explain how they’ll close them.”
Andy Haldane, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, has recently said that the GPGR obligation should be widened to include SMEs with 30 or more employees, something that was dismissed by FSB chairman Mike Cherry because there would be a number of practical difficulties in businesses with such small work forces.
The BoE (Bank of England) has also recently analysed its data and found that ethnic minorities in the UK earn around 10% less than white workers. Andy Haldane said the gap is “strikingly” persistent, having narrowed far less the than the pay disparity between genders over the past 25 years.
But fair treatment extends beyond disparities on pay. It is also about such issues as bullying and harassment and again, recent findings show some concerns.
According to a CityAM report investigations by Business in the Community found that as many as a quarter of all ethnic minority employees at British businesses are having to put up with bullying and harassment, despite 97% of businesses having a zero tolerance policy to bullying and harassment.
A study by Equileap, which researches corporate gender equality, has found that almost six out of 10 global companies do not have an anti-sexual harassment policy.
Clearly, there is a long way to go before there is fair treatment for all workers, but if businesses want to survive and prosper in a difficult global and domestic economic climate, amid skills shortages and the uncertainties of Brexit, they would be well advised to put it much higher up their agenda than it seems many currently do.
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