A breakdown of policies and traditional office practices supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer employees.
According to surveys, more than 40% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and almost 90% of transgender people have experienced employment discrimination, harassment, or mistreatment. Being an LGBTQ-friendly organization comes down to much more than simply non-judgemental allies occupying leadership positions. There are specific policies, benefits, and practices that can improve the lives of LBGTQ people who work for your organization.
Suppose your organization wants to be known as an LGBTQ-friendly organization. In that case, you must formulate policy or build cultural norms in the workplace because the status quo is hostile.
The real-life experiences of LGBTQ people at companies have shown which environments are supportive and which are not. The LGBTQ employees themselves have identified best practices for fostering a welcoming culture.
What is an LBGTQ Friendly organization?
Our working environment balance has been improving. However, a few representatives, unfortunately, still face segregation due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. Companies that include sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies are a way to identify an LBGTQ friendly organization.
Such companies have made a public commitment to hiring more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) employees. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which rates companies based on LGBTQ equality rating criteria, has four key pillars to be considered among the best companies:
- Workforce protections
- Inclusive benefits
- Corporate social responsibility
- Responsible citizenship
What you should do for being an LGBTQ supportive workplace
1. Workplace Experience and Culture
Within a workplace, in the daily experience of working at a company, there are many ways employers can build an environment that is comfortable for LGBTQ employees and meets their needs.
Company documents can use gender-neutral pronouns. They can use examples of queer couples in their writing. That shows a level of consideration about gender identity issues and visibility.
It spreads the message that as an LGBTQ person, your organization does not want you to hide and is willing to model the use of inclusive language for the whole organization.
De-gendering, the language of company-wide documents, may seem like a small detail, but it can be an important signal to LGBTQ team members and motivates them to be an inseparable part of the organization.
2. Nondiscrimination Policies
While Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ensures representatives against discrimination because of their sexual direction, organizations ought to have clear nondiscrimination policies covering sexual orientation.
Since Title VII applies to organizations of more than 15 individuals, it’s particularly significant for more modest organizations to clearly outline nondiscrimination policies. And for companies that operate globally, nondiscrimination policies should extend there, too, to cover all employees.
Especially for companies with many sites across the country, these policies must be reinforced on the ground and a culture of respect for LGBTQ people. All employees should also be provided clear information about how they can speak up about issues of harassment and discrimination.
An organization that expects and gets ready for employees’ sex transitions will be better prepared to help transsexual workers now and later on. For example, companies can cover management support, administrative changes, dress codes and bathroom usage, and communication with coworkers.
3. Common Dress Codes
Company dress codes can further support the well-being of LGBTQ employees. With that leniency, any LBGTQ person might be able to express themselves however they feel most comfortable.
Organizations can move their dress standards from assigning explicit outfits for ladies and men to just “business casual” or posting what things are not proper for the work environment without referencing explicit sexual orientations.
4. Gender Neutral Bathrooms
Organizations ought to permit transsexual representatives to utilize the washroom that compares to their sexual orientation character. It ought to be illustrated in organization arrangements.
Further, to help sexual orientation non-conforming employees, organizations can transform single-occupancy washrooms into gender-neutral washrooms for use by any employee.
5. Ongoing training and education
Companies that engage in regular training on unconscious bias and gender inclusion and explicitly talk about LGBTQ identity in the discussion can help ensure that the company doesn’t rely on its LBGTQ employees to teach their coworkers about their identities constantly.
Such discussions that are multifaceted help advise employees about how types of discrimination cover can uphold the encounters of workers who are members of multiple marginalized groups.
Conclusion
Hence, it’s a great experience being an LBGTQ friendly organization. Even several big brands like Coca-Cola, Adidas, Dell Technologies, eBay have shifted towards LGBTQ-friendly culture. Salt feels strongly about this emergence of LBGTQ friendly organizations.
