HR - The Future of Workplace Ethics

HUMAN RESOURCES

Transition to Business

By Paul Falcone

The Future of Workplace Ethics

My newest book will be out in the spring of 2022 titled Workplace Ethics: Mastering Ethical Leadership and Sustaining a Moral Workplace, part of a new five-book series titled The Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Series (HarperCollins Leadership).

Why now? We’re facing evolutionary change at revolutionary speed, and it’s time to make the topic of ethics and morals in the workplace part of our common dialog and lexicon. Some of these changes will impact us directly, while others will impact our workplace and industry and the broader economy as a whole. While we can’t know what’s around the next corner, we can remain abreast of the current hot items that will likely impact our organizations and our careers in the near future. What’s important is that we discuss these foundational changes in the workplace, both in the corporate boardroom and the nearest breakroom. The following two topics are likely highest on the list in terms of what’s hot out there in corporate America, so let’s jump right in.

• Artificial Intelligence

Ethical challenges will continue to come our way for many reasons, but none more than due to the meteoric changes in technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts workplace ethics and captures more time in the media than just about anything else and for good reason: Many corporate executives believe that harnessing this information is critical to organizational growth and development, but even more will tell you that they don’t truly understand how to manage the “unintended consequences” of skewed data.

Ethical issues surrounding AI for human resources, for example, represent the future of HR but pose a real risk if not handled correctly. Everything from recruitment to workforce planning to performance management will be captured by AI technology in one form or another: cognitive technology, machine learning, and roboticprocess automation (RPA) represent the very best tools available to measure human capital as a true corporate asset. But there can be a “dark side” of “unintended consequences” if the data is skewed or biased, and legal claims of disparate impact or disparate treatment may result in class action litigation if employers aren’t careful. What makes this even more challenging is that the majority of HR professionals aren’t schooled in the evaluation of data analytics, don’t know how algorithms work, and report that they don’t have the technical acumen to evaluate these new, growing technologies.

The key: AI should be leveraged to augment the human experience--not replace it.

In other words, human analysis and AI must work together to identify common-sense limitations to the data being generated. AI isn’t intended to a be a onesize-fits-all magical solution to all of our problems. Instead, it should be viewed as an enhancement tool to identify issues that might otherwise miss awareness. Embrace new technology but ensure that you remain diligent for unintended consequences that should require you to redefine the criteria you’re using in order to generate bias-free results.

• Gender Parity and Pay Equity

The subject of wage inequality between the sexes remains a contentious topic, although it has been more

than 50 years since the Equal Pay Act (1963) and the Civil Rights Act (1964) were passed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for women is about 24 percent less than that of the median male salary—women earn 76 percent of what men earn. Although this wage disparity has decreased since the late 1970s—when it was 62 percent—it reflects the long road to realizing fully equal pay in the workplace. The disparity is even greater for black and Hispanic women. Black women earn 64 cents and Hispanic women earn 56 cents to the $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men.

In 2018, asking salary history questions during the pre-employment interview process was barred in certain states in an attempt to “blind the pay scales” of applicants’ compensation histories, thus erasing prior salary from perpetuating future incongruities in salary offers between males and females performing substantially similar work. Will your organization objectively review salary levels based on experience, education, and performance regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity? How strongly do you feel about such disparities, and how far are you willing to go to proactively address them in your organization?

Both of these large-scale issues deserve their own in-depth study. Just keep in mind that as long as human beings attempt to short cut systems and find loopholes, there will be ethical quandaries and consequences that come your way.

The greatest investment you can make in yourself lies in developing a reputation as an ethical and moral business executive and human being. Make ethics the primary driver of your leadership brand, and everything else will surely align itself and fall into place.

You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn at

www.linkedin.com/in/paulfalcone1

Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is a human resources executive and bestselling author on hiring, performance management, and leadership development.