12 August 2020 In LGBTQ2S+ By URelles

How can you make your company inclusive of LGBTQ+ employees?

With these past few months under the banner of diversity, and as Fierté Montréal kicks off its 2020 edition, we’d like to ask you the following question: is the company you manage or in which you evolve a healthy environment for LGBTQ+ employees?

McKinsey recently conducted a survey of 2,000 participants, revealing the day-to-day challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people in organizations. The company also highlighted 6 ways in which companies can help build a friendly, supportive environment for these people.

An inclusive culture for LGBTQ+ employees

Many managers think: “My company is a healthy environment, we don’t have any disruptive elements, so we don’t have any problems”. Yet, as the study reveals, LGBTQ+ employees continue to face many challenges:

1. Coming out

Opening up about who you are, allowing yourself the freedom and transparency to be who you are, is not always easy for LGBTQ+ people, even less so in the workplace, which is rife with prejudice. In fact, one of those surveyed said that “not being yourself contributes to reduced productivity at work, as it’s a stressful and destabilizing situation.”

Only 58% of LGBTQ+ women surveyed (compared with 80% of LGBTQ+ men) said they had come out to most of their colleagues. Why is this? Because of existing gender discrimination, and the mental burden placed on women.

2. Discrimination of all kinds

Many LGBTQ+ employees are victims of discrimination in the workplace, whether in terms of recognition of their work, access to parental rights, or vis-à-vis customers, suppliers or partners who do not wish to work with LGBTQ+ people. Discriminatory acts are still too numerous and too present. Some 40% of LGBTQ+ women interviewed felt they needed to provide additional proof of their skills.

3. Daily microaggressions for LGTQ+ employees

For many LGBTQ+ employees, office life means navigating a daily series of microaggressions, whether derogatory remarks about themselves or people like them. Over 60% of those surveyed said they needed to correct their colleagues’ assumptions about their personal lives. Of these, four out of five LGBTQ+ women below VP level have had to do so in the course of their careers.

4. Lack of role models

LGBTQ+ people often lack exemplary role models. They are under-represented in professional environments, and many claim to be “the only one” in their organization or team – the only lesbian or trans person, for example.

Less than a quarter of respondents said they had an LGBTQ+ sponsor, and only around 50% of LGBTQ+ respondents said they saw themselves in leadership positions in their organization.

Making our organizations more inclusive for LGBTQ+ employees

What does it mean to “live” diversity and inclusion? What steps should an executive take to make his or her workplace more comfortable and healthy for LGBTQ+ employees?

1. Avoiding microaggressions against LGBTQ+ employees

“Microsupport” can help reduce microaggressions, such as automatically asking a woman about her husband or partner and a man about his wife or partner. Another example: because many people resent being assigned a gender that doesn’t suit them, it’s best to ask how the person wishes to be identified.

You can also ask everyone at company events to include their pronouns on their name tags. This signals support for the LGBTQ+ community, helps educate employees on the use of people’s personal pronouns, and reduces the chances of people making mistakes.

2. Leading by example

Inspiring and showing commitment to the LGBTQ+ community is one of the roles a leader must play with his or her employees. This can involve a number of actions, such as

Normalizing LGBTQ+ relationships throughout the organization on an equal footing with non-LGBTQ+ relationships. A simple mention of an LGBTQ+ employee’s relationship, such as “Eva, Pauline’s partner”, is enough to have an impact, as it signals awareness and respect for different types of relationships;
Display visible and recognizable symbols of support from the community;
Sponsor LGBTQ+ events such as Pride.

3. Train your teams

Educating employees from the moment they join the company can reduce the frequency of microaggressions, eliminate unconscious prejudice, promote respect for LGBTQ+ colleagues and enable employees to recognize and respond to inappropriate behavior.

Training also – and above all – concerns managers, as they are the ones who directly shape the day-to-day experiences of their employees. Like a funnel, it is through these people that LGBTQ+ commitment spreads throughout the organization.

4. Recruiting a diverse workforce

Creating an inclusive organization starts with recruiting, hiring and retaining a diverse set of employees. As one focus group participant in the study noted, “You can do a lot of things around inclusion, but you won’t get there if you have fundamental problems with how you bring people in, integrate them and retain them.”

For example, anonymizing resumes – removing names, gender indications and affinity group affiliations – can help reduce unconscious bias in hiring decisions.

5. Create support networks

The creation of “ally groups” enables people to get involved with the LGBTQ+ community, improve the employee experience and, at the same time, advocate for everyone working together.

6. Reinforce your policies

Finally, there are key policies that have become the norm in workplaces, which promote comfortable and safe environments for LGBTQ+ people. These can include, for example, non-discrimination policies that treat all parents equally.

Supporting a diverse workforce is the responsibility of a leader, who can start acting now. Those who make diversity and inclusion a priority aspire to become more inspiring and empathetic leaders, and to boost the productivity of their organizations. Technology is one of those industries where LGBTQ+ people are woefully under-represented. If you work in tech, ask yourself: Is my workplace healthy? Do I understand the challenges of inclusion and diversity? If not, how can I understand them so I can act and be more inclusive?

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