Nepotism is a bad practice in any workplace. It can destroy your company’s culture and can place employees who are square pegs in round holes. And when you have poor policies and inexperienced leaders at helms of affairs, nepotism is bound to take place. So, in this article, you will learn about some of the ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace.
Nepotism can make your company lose out on hiring the best talent in your niche.
Regardless of the nature of your business, unfair hiring and promotion practices can affect your company’s long-term development and dynamic cultural development.
But before we discuss some of the ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace, let’s look at the meaning of nepotism and how it can affect your workplace.
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What is Nepotism and How Can It Affect the Workplace?
Nepotism in the workplace is the practice of favoring family members and friends over other people. Sadly, these favored individuals occupy all the sensitive positions within the organization, even if they don’t have the training and experience.
In a nutshell, a nepotic leader cares less about the growth of the company or organization. They prioritize their friends and family’s interests over that of the company.
Nepotism is not illegal. But it’s a bad practice that can potentially drag down your company’s growth.
Surprisingly, nepotism doesn’t only affect your employees, it also limits your opportunities as an employer. And this practice makes it difficult to build a reliable team, attract top talent, develop organizational collaboration, share or expand knowledge, and retain employees.
Therefore, nepotism can potentially be corrosive if you place the wrong people in leadership positions. When this happens, there will be a high rate of employee turnover. After all, nobody wants to work in an organization where there are no future opportunities.
Of course, your company’s performance will drop when there’s a mass exodus of employees from your organization in search of a greener pasture.
So, here are some of the ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace;
5 Ways to Prevent Nepotism in the Workplace
If you are concerned about nepotism in your workplace, here’s how you can prevent or curb it to the barest minimum;
#1. Develop an Active Anti-Nepotism Policy
Developing an anti-nepotism policy is one of the effective ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace. Let every member of your team know that the organization frowns upon any act that could promote nepotism in the workplace.
Furthermore, it should be boldly written in your Employee Handbook that promoting nepotism in the workplace could lead to dismissal.
And anti-nepotism practices should be part of your leadership training. It’s important for new managers to know why any form of nepotism is bad and how it could affect the company’s growth.
A good anti-nepotism policy should prevent related individuals from working in the same team. Allowing two family members or friends to work closely together could lead to unproductive activity.
#2. Develop a Detailed Job Description for Every Role
One of the ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace is to have a detailed job description for every role. Funnily, with a detailed job description, your company can always attract the best talent within and outside the organization.
Every great job description has 5 important components. These components are;
- Heading information: The heading information of your job description includes the job title, pay grade or range, reporting relationships, hours or shifts, the possibility of overtime during the weekend, etc.
- Summary Objective of the Job: Your job description should outline the responsibilities and descriptions of the key tasks, relationship with customers and co-workers, the expected results, etc.
- Qualifications: This session includes the general responsibilities, experience, training, and technical skills that make you eligible to apply for the position.
- Special demands: They are extraordinary conditions that are peculiar to the job. It could be exposure to temperature extremes, heavy lifting, prolonged standing, travel, etc.
- The duties and responsibilities of the role
So, if your job description contains these five elements, you are more likely to give fair chance to everybody to compete for the job.
#3. Conducting Manager or Leadership Training
When you engage in frequent management or leadership training, you are more likely to limit the spread of nepotism in your workplace. Also, during such training, you need to address nepotism and clarify some of the nepotism behaviors in the workplace.
When you constantly train your managers on nepotism, they will always speak out whenever they notice it. It’s one of the ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace.
#4. Create a Transparent, Communicative Hiring, and Promotional Culture
You can prevent nepotism in the workplace if you create a transparent, communicative hiring, and promotional culture.
Ensure that the process of hiring new employees and promoting existing ones is transparent and visible to everybody. This will help improve unity and build trust within the organization.
However, if your hiring and promotional process seem mysterious, people will start asking questions. And it could negatively affect your employees’ morale because they will feel that there are no growth opportunities for them in the organization.
#5. Develop an HR or Senior Management Approval Process for Hires and Promotions
One of the best ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace is to decentralize the hiring and promotion process.
When it’s time to hire new employees or promote the existing ones, it’s important to involve the HR department. Don’t allow your manager to be in charge of hiring or promoting staff. Involving HR will go a long way to making the process fair.
And when the position is a highly sensitive one, the manager, and HR, can conduct the selection process for possible candidates. After which, they send their names to senior managers for approval.
These are some of the ways to prevent nepotism in the workplace. These strategies can help you build a more reliable and talent-driven team.
