In June I attended an online conference on LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace. This one-day event was a thought-provoking day of great speakers, and I will summarise my key takeaways for you here.
The first session ‘Transforming The Workplace: Taking A Holistic Approach To LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity’ first highlighted that policy is important, but culture is key to making a workplace inclusive. The fact that 1 in 5 people are not out at work just highlights how much more there is to do in this space. The speaker highlighted that more inclusive organisations attract the best talent, and also get the best from their employees. So as well as being the right thing to do, it’s also best for business.
The session on ‘Implementing Practical Policies ‘To Transform Workplace Culture’ followed on well. The speaker highlighted that everyone wants to feel like they have value, and jobseekers are prioritising inclusion. Policies are all well and good, but they need backup of a commitment from leadership. An excellent point was made that responsibility for inclusion lies across the organisation, not just in HR, as “culture eats policy for breakfast”.
Top practical tips from this session were:
- Review gendered language in policies, e.g. Family leave
- We don’t live single issue lives e.g. being Black and queer – HR must understand intersectionality and include in policy
- In order to create trans inclusive environment we must listen to critiques and work with trans people on policy development
- Mental health and wellbeing is a diversity issue
- Collect meaningful data, be transparent about collection and use
The next session was all about data collection in the workplace. I have detailed slides available if you would like further information on this, but they key takeaway from this session was that you must build trust with your workforce to give them the confidence to disclose by fostering “psychological safety”. Mitigating cynicism is also important, so ensure you have an action plan in place to show people how you will be using the data so they don’t think “what’s the point?”.
If you would like more detailed information on these sessions, and others from the day, please contact srm50@bath.ac.uk and I can forward on to you.
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