What is nepotism?

Nepotism refers to a situation when people in power unfairly benefit their family members at the workplace.

 Examples of this special treatment may include giving a preferred individual a job, providing greater opportunities within the company, or increasing their pay or  benefits .

What is the difference between nepotism and nepotism?

Nepotism means giving preference to family members, while cronyism means  giving preference to friends  . Someone who is in a high position in a company can use nepotism to hire, assist, or promote their friend.

Nepotism has the same consequences as nepotism. Nepotism ultimately leads to overlooking key employees who are more deserving of opportunities, often harming the company culture.

What are the consequences of nepotism?

Nepotism leads to inequality in the workplace, which can harm both the company culture and the overall viability of the business.

When leaders base promotions on favoritism, it leads to:

• Prevent qualified candidates and team members from reaching their true potential.  Nepotism can prevent your top talent from advancing in their careers and achieving high-quality results for their team and organization.

• Reduce the quality of your leadership team.  Hiring people based on personal relationships rather than ability to do the job can harm the effectiveness of your overall workforce. Furthermore, nepotism can create a homogenous environment where individuals are primarily made up of family members – who have similar cultural values ​​and upbringing. This only hinders the organization's ability to create a diverse work environment.

• Lower employee morale.  Employees who are overlooked for key roles may feel underappreciated and frustrated. Nepotism can be the catalyst for team members to resign or become apathetic to their jobs. In turn, those benefiting from nepotism may feel isolated from their co-workers. These repercussions can negatively impact employee productivity and engagement which can affect an  organization's bottom line  .

How to deal with nepotism at workplace?

It can be difficult for employees to express their concerns about nepotism. Therefore, as an employer, it is essential to provide them with a communication channel to do so without negative repercussions. This may include:

• Establish anti-nepotism policies.  These well-defined policies might include, for example, preventing family members from working in the same department or company.

• Create documentation for reporting nepotism.   Keep forms readily available for team members on  your employee database software so they can fill them out if they witness nepotism. This can demonstrate your commitment to anti-nepotism policies and make your employees feel more comfortable speaking up. Plus, these forms can serve as supporting documentation if you need to investigate a case of nepotism.

How to prevent nepotism at workplace?

To avoid nepotism, you should try to make decisions based on a person's qualifications rather than your relationship with them.

In addition to creating anti-nepotism policies, work together with your team to:

Address nepotism in manager training

The leaders of your organization must set the right example. So, make sure they maintain transparent and ethical practices by addressing nepotism and favoritism in your manager trainings.

To combat nepotism comprehensively, you may want to state the following:

• Clear definition of nepotism
• Examples of what nepotism looks like in the workplace
• Strategies managers can adopt to maintain fairness across teams

Establish a transparent hiring and promotion culture

Transparency is vital to creating a culture of integrity   and avoiding nepotism. To bring transparency to your hiring and promotion processes, make sure that:

• Involve all key stakeholders.  When you're looking to hire or promote someone, make sure you gather input from a diverse group of direct managers, executive team members, and HR representatives. HR must have the neutrality and authority to control employment-related actions.
• Ask for reasons for disqualification.  If your team decides to disqualify a candidate, ask them to provide reasons so that we can determine if their reasoning was valid.