Smart and progressive employers appreciate and understand the benefits of having diverse perspectives in the workforce. These views assist in understanding motivations and changes among the employees and provide insight outward to assist with customers and clients and responding to the changing world around them. Embracing the diversity that comes from creating safe, inclusive and welcoming workplaces for the LBGTQ+ community isn’t just the right thing to do; it helps with achieving business objectives.
Here are tips workplaces should be utilizing to embrace that diversity:
- Ensure your company’s anti-discrimination policies include protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Provide clear guidance regarding appropriate workplace behavior and the consequences of failing to comply with anti-discrimination policies which include gender identity.
- Ensure staff are trained on gender identity/expression topics. Train your employees on how to handle issues and encourage them to conceptualize someone else’s experience as their own. Creating a culture which cultivates compassion for another’s struggles is an incredible way to create a more harmonious workplace.
- Train employees on relevant topics like implicit bias, microaggressions, stereotyping and tokenism. These are all covert methods of discrimination that create an exclusive atmosphere.
- When seeking clarification on a gender identity, ask employees to be respectful, be discreet, and be self-aware. Apologize if an employee accidentally misgenders another employee.
- Utilize inclusive language when talking to or about employees or colleagues (e.g. y’all, everyone, folks, friends) and be rid of outdated and offensive terms once used to describe members of the community (e.g., Ladies, you guys).
- Ask appropriate self-identifying questions during the application process. Offer multiple gender identity choices and/or allow a write-in option to allow applicants to self-identify their gender (as opposed to limiting the options to the standard “male,” “female,” or “prefer not to answer”).
- Make allyship visible. Being an advocate and supporter of LGBTQ+ people allows people to lead by example and odds are strong that others will follow.
And for those employees who have difficulty in changing their personal approaches, it is important to let them know that no one is asking them to change their values or beliefs. You are simply asking all employees to be courteous and respectful to each other.
