June is Pride month, now in its 50th year. Pride is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ communities all around the world. The celebration promotes acceptance, equality and education of rights, as well as awareness of issues that the LGBTQ+ communities face.
Stonewall’s research (2018) found that in the UK:
- 35% of LGBT employees have hidden that they are LGBT at work for fear of discrimination
- 18% have been the target of negative comments at work because they are LGBT
- 12% of trans people have been attacked at work by colleagues or customers because of being trans
- 31% of non-binary people and 18% of trans people don’t feel able to wear work attire representing their gender expression.
Why should businesses be informed?
Pride is a great time to talk about inclusion and equality at your workplace. Over the past decades, huge strides have been made in diversity advancement in the workplace, but we can always look to improve on this further. It’s an area that should be continually considered by businesses. LGBTQ+ staff may not always feel fully included or safe in the workplace. Creating a culture where everyone feels included, safe, equal and able to be their true selves, will help your business in many ways from attraction and retention, to job satisfaction and engagement, to improved communication, relationships and productivity.
What can your business do to support Pride and the lives of LGBTQ+ employees
- Be clear of your support not only in employment policies (e.g. equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion etc.) but also in the conversations and communications that come from the business leaders. So staff are sure of the business’ support of their rights. Encourage open dialogues between managers and employees on LGBTQ+ topics.
- Ensure that your policies are gender appropriate and inclusive, not just referring to ‘he’ or ‘she’.
- As part of any usual engagement and satisfaction surveys, ensure your business is including topics (and getting/responding to feedback) on areas such as diversity, equality and inclusion.
- Normalize the use of pronouns throughout your business – you may have seen this used on email signatures or on LinkedIn [she/her], [he/him], [they/them]. Asking at the start of meetings for everyone’s preferred pronouns further advances the use of pronouns as standard. Some companies such as Halifax have pronoun badges in place.
- Create a culture of support and inclusion – cultural change starts with leadership but don’t under estimate how critical people managers involvement will be in implementing change. Offer suitable training to ensure managers are suitably informed on topics and can offer support and guidance where appropriate.
- Ensure employment procedures and policies are clear and in place, and take a zero tolerance approach for handling complaints including grievances, bullying and harassment, and discrimination situations.
For advice on supporting staff, please contact a member of the Nockolds HR team on 0345 646 0406 or email enquiries@nockoldshr.co.uk