The DEI Palette Club’s second event, How to create an LGBTQ+ inclusive workplace, gave us lots of valuable takeaways. We heard from speaker Hayley Creighton, Senior DEI Specialist for National Grid, who shared lots of actionable tips for making your workplace a safer and happier space for your LGBTQ+ coworkers. We’ve summarized what was shared in a few brief points so that everyone can make use of them, and not only during Pride Month.
When people feel like they can come to work and feel comfortable and confident to be themselves and valued, they collaborate easier, speak up more, and go the extra mile. Building an inclusive workplace means ensuring that this is possible for everyone. Let’s take a look at which actions you can take to make your workplace more inclusive for LGBTQ+ team members.
According to Hayley, one of the most common experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the workplace is that when mentioning the word “partner”, coworkers automatically assume this is a person of the opposite gender. This puts the person mentioning their partner in a very difficult position - either they go along with it in order not to make the situation more awkward, and thus hide their true authentic self, or they correct their coworker. In the latter case, they often end up apologizing to the coworker for correcting them, even though it was the coworker who made the mistake of drawing an assumption. That’s why Hayley stresses the importance of using inclusive, gender-neutral language to avoid these very uncomfortable situations.
You don’t need to start with massive gestures. This action takes little effort, but is very effective. To make sure everyone is referred to with the correct pronouns in written communication, simply ask everyone at your company to add their pronouns to their email signature. However, it’s important that everyone also understands why they’re doing this so that they identify with this action, so take time to explain it properly.
This pronoun table gives examples of some pronouns and their use in practice (this is not and exhaustive list):
Source: Springfield College
Another relatively simple step involves taking a look at your policies to determine if they’re truly LGBTQ+ inclusive. Are you using gender neutral language consistently? Does your parental leave policy cover same-sex couples? Does your healthcare policy cover those who are transitioning? Identify where there’s room for improvement and more inclusion.
This is an area many tend to forget about, but as Hayley mentions, being able to select a prefix which represents who you are is incredibly important. Many existing forms aren’t at all inclusive and usually offer a choice of Mr., Mrs. or Miss. Review the prefixes in your systems and make sure that they at least include Mx., “prefer to self-describe”, and “prefer not to say”.
Gender neutral toilets are a game changer. They offer a safe space to everyone who doesn’t feel comfortable in the environment of the binary gender toilets. In Hayley’s opinion, you don’t have to make all of your toilets gender neutral - just have them as one of the options.
When Pride Month comes along, the only action many companies take is changing their logo or posting a flag on their social media. While it’s great to show you’re on board, it actually doesn’t contribute to the cause with anything very valuable. Gestures like these need to be combined with actions such as those listed above to have a real impact.
Hayley also encourages individuals as consumers not to engage in performative allyship by supporting companies not making valuable contributions. Do your research and find out if there’s anything more to their actions than a logo change, and if these companies are actually contributing to the cause.
The most important thing according to Hayley is being able to learn from your mistakes. Nobody is perfect and mistakes happen sometimes. The key is owning up to them and finding a valuable lesson in them.
Initiate open conversations with your coworkers and don’t only stick to “safe” topics - Hayley recommends encouraging conversations on topics such as the word queer, the history of the movement, the experience of LGBTQ+ people of color (specifically Black trans women), the difference between gender and biological sex or the struggles of LGBTQ+ families.
Not everyone may immediately be on board with your efforts. There are going to be some people who are less aware of the importance of your actions. Hayley highlights the importance of not giving up on these people. To get those less willing on board with the course, Hayley recommends the following actions as examples:
These takeaways are a summary of some of the insights shared, and we hope these practical examples of inclusion-building actions will prove helpful to you in your efforts. If you’d like to watch the whole event, you can access the recording on our YouTube channel here.
