Equity
I like the word equity. I have some in my home, and I try to have it in my life. It’s about fairness, but like its brother, diversity, it has gotten a bad rap in some quarters recently. What I don’t understand is why? Equity is baked into almost everything we do in our lives, especially sports. We handicap golfers and bowlers to even the playing field. We divide fighters into weight classes so that fighters are evenly matched. Horses and race cars are managed to give every rider and driver an equal chance. Our public schools are divided into classes based on size. It’s about equity.
Of course, it’s an easy concept to like, but hard to put into practice. During my tenure in book publishing, when I was hiring, I looked for resumes where the candidate had graduated from either the University of Houston, where I went to school, or Stephen F. Austin, where two of my children went, and I liked bilingual candidates because we were selling books in Texas. I didn’t care about skin color, gender, or what they did in the privacy of their own home, which may be at the root of today’s push against equity. Some people want to care. Again, I don’t understand why, but who am I to judge?
It just seems as though having an equitable workplace might make good business sense. Talent is talent. And I’m pretty sure I only hurt myself by my hiring practices, which changed when I started my own company. So, giving everyone a fair shot at a job really improves the likelihood of making a good hire. And knowing you’re an equitable company once they’re hired is probably attractive to talented people. So, it’s a win, win, and good for business, which I suspect is why it will win out in the long run.