Nepotism is not something ou should take on lightly. Even a small seed of nepotism can be damaging for your workplace culture. Hence, it is a must to prevent it from developing no matter how small the possibility is. Nepotism can occur due to poor policies and improper trained leadership. Even if you run a small family business, you have to implement fair hiring and promotion practices to avoid nepotism while also promoting company’s long-term growth. 

Can you prevent nepotism from occurring?

Nepotism can be as simple as favoring family and friends over others for opportunities within workplace. It can occurs in various occasion such as hiring, project distributions, promotions, shifts assignments, and any other open available opportunity. It may not illegal but can be damaging and destructive if left unfixed. Here are things you can do to prevent nepotism in your small business:

Develop the right policy

Reevaluate your policy and see if there is any gap where nepotism can happen, if you find any, fix it immediately. An active anti-nepotism policy should always be in the employee handbook as well as part of your leadership training. Strong and clear policies prohibit any related individuals from working in the same department. 

Create job descriptions in detailed 

You must maintain description job that is in detailed and accurate for each role. Hence, every individual own the role know what are expected from them. With detailed and accurate job description, it allows open, effective communication in the team, making everyone know what responsibilities to hold. Job descriptions should include details about skills, experience, and other attributes employee should qualify for any given position. 

Consider conducting leadership training

Through leadership training, you can address the issue of nepotism rather proactively and directly. You can include a clear definition of favoritism, what it looks like to have healthy professional relationship in the company, and strong statement of how important the role of leader or manager is to avoid any favoritism practices and to speak up about it when there is a sign being noticed. 

Create open, communicative culture 

One of the most common occurrences for nepotism practices are hiring and promotions. Hence, make sure to create open and communicative culture to those areas. Make sure the process is visible to all. Aside from preventing nepotism, it also improves the chance of unity and trust-building within your company. 

Get better understanding of nepotism types

There are generally two types of nepotism. The first one is reciprocal nepotism and the second one is entitlement nepotism. The former is when family member accepts a position because of loyalty issues, financial considerations, seek out for better family relationships, cultural norms, etc. 

The latter is when someone feels a sense of entitlement for a certain job or promotion just because a certain family member works at a company. Both serve different purpose but are still unjust. Nepotism should be avoided because it brings negative effects such as anger, disappointment, and frustration among other team members and affects the dynamic in the workplace.