December, 20219 on this, though, it must be understood that treating your employees fairly is not the same as treating them all equally. This is where we get hung up. We think that if we treat everyone the same and offer the same salary to everyone that has the same position that everything is fair; the playing field is leveled.This is an easy assumption to make, but you have to remember that every employee is different. Almost all employees have different work ethics, styles, skill-sets, responsibilities and goals. Mike and Molly might have the same role, but the way they get the job done is likely very different. If Molly works extremely hard at getting all of her work done and goes above and beyond, while Mike simply works to meet the quota, should they be treated exactly the same?If you treat these two employees the same, then Molly might start to build resentment and anger for the lack of recognition for all of her hard work. She might stop working as hard as she was since she is treated the same as Mike and he only puts in half as much as the effort. Right then and there you lost Molly's motivation and increased productivity levels because you thought you were doing the right thing by treating these employees "equally." Had you treated them fairly, you may have given Molly an increase in pay, a promotion or some kind of recognition for all of the hard work she has put in. This wouldn't be deemed as favoritism since Molly earned her rewards.You see, the above is just an example to acting in all fairness. Over the years of interviewing the right talent into HR, I usually ask my candidates why they want to work in HR, and more often than not, the answer goes something like this: "I love working with people, developing them and helping them". In response I usually say: "If that's what you want to do then you should work in operations or general management, not HR". Shocked with my response? You should be! The misperception that HR is a "nice" profession because we work with people is pervasive, and often leads to the wrong kind of talent in the function.To be fair, being nice is usually an expectation and requirement of the job. But I think this is where some people get confused. They think the role is all about helping people, and mistakenly assume that being a nice person is qualification enough for the function. However, "nice" is only a starting point ­ it's not nearly enough.When discussing this with a former colleague, he pointed out that in HR, "We aren't in the nice business, and we're in the fair business". WHEN YOU TREAT ALL OF YOUR EMPLOYEES FAIRLY YOU CREATE STRONGER, BETTER RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES BASED ON TRUST AND RESPECT
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