Inclusion starts within: 15 practices for a queer-friendly workplace

Values are no writings on the wall, you must live them. Some companies have the value ‘Be inclusive’. For instance, hosting meetings in gay bars. Unintentionally or not: it makes a big difference whether you tell people who you are and showing them through conscious actions. Values can be used in internal and external communication, in employer branding and in the kind of trainings that you offer. They must be carried out consistently and frequently.

Diversity can be measured based on the data that you have. How many men or women do you have, or how many nationalities do you employ? Inclusion however is far more difficult to measure, because it is about how people feel and experience whether they belong. Therefore, inclusion must be your primary focus.

As mentioned in practice 2: know your diversity and inclusion numbers. Especially the inclusion one. Obtain employee feedback data based on questions like: Do you feel that the organization is inclusive? Can you be yourself at work? Do you feel safe? This data gives you the necessary input on which you can follow up after.

This practice is about internal and external communication. You must focus on internal communication first, before you express externally that you are ‘gay friendly’. If you do not actually do anything for your queer employees and allies (e.g. a drink during the Pride), but at the same time, you launch a campaign related to the Pride externally, something is off. Communication must be consistent and not only during Pride month, but throughout the entire year.

Many organization benefits are still mainly focused on the traditional male and female partnership. To be more inclusive, an organization created budget for its employees to make a child wish possible, no matter how people wanted to create it. For instance, for a gay couple in an adoption process. A good example in the Netherlands is Tony’s Chocolonely where you can take leave for your dog.

In addition to that, a lot of programs, when they are a little bit more inclusive, are focused on lesbians and gays. But the BTQ+ still lacks. And if you actually want to be inclusive, then you should also take these employees into account.

Ask your employees about their experience. You can make it specific with questions like: How safe do you feel? How do your direct colleagues or managers (re-)act towards your gender and/or sexuality? Get to know what is really going on and create a safe environment in which people want to speak out.

It all starts with your recruitment and selection. Which platforms do you use? Are your platforms suited to attract diverse people? Take the life of diverse people into consideration, for instance women in tech. Refrain from keywords like ‘teamplayer’ or ‘hands on’ that may or may not be interpreted in the intended manner. Instead, be explicit about your expectations and what you need in a specific role, so you can speak to different kind of people.   

Whatever you do, show that you care about diversity and inclusion. For instance, during a presentation, always take some minutes to talk about these topics. Show what you are doing both internal and external.

Follow the trends in the media about queer-related topics. One of the current topics is transgenderism. In the past it was gender-neutrality, remember the introduction of gender-neutral toilets? Are you going to implement that within your organization? Start the discussion internally and ask if it matches with the wishes of employees. Follow the media and you will notice changes.

For example, the NS that has changed their common speech in the train from “ladies and gentlemen” into “dear travelers”. And then make it a topic of discussion within the organization.

Allies are people who do not belong to the queer community themselves but are there in a supporting role, for example by facilitating meetings. This has an additional positive effect if they are formal or informal leaders, or managers within the organization. Also, people from a specific group do not always want to be “the voice” of the group. Most of the time they want people who do not belong to the group to give voice to or create a platform for them.

Make it important, because it is. Especially when you are growing as an organization and do not yet have a diverse workforce. You will miss out on the advantages of more personalities and different backgrounds. The biggest struggle is on individual level.

This already starts with our education. In many of the schools, books and assignments are related to typical Dutch names like Anne (girl) and Wim (boy). Make these books and images more diverse, so people are used to being in contact with people from different origins, sexual orientations and lifestyles.

When people want to create awareness on a specific topic, the organization has an important facilitating role. Some companies have different Employee Resource Groups, for instance Asians, queer or Blacks, who organize talks and drinks. This initiative comes from the group itself.

It does not cost loads of money, since company offices can be used for location and the company platform to send out invitations. Important is that it must be completely voluntary if you want to join the group or not, and not like “you are part of this group so you must join”.

With regard to the example of the commercialization of the Pride in the introduction of this article, Booking.com has made the decision to spend their participation fee on various queer initiatives year-round.

Instead of one big investment for a single moment, they figured it has more effect when the initiating party is a group of employees, who can share about the initiative through their own (social) media channel.

The cause is different for everybody. You can show that you care when someone wants to organize or pay attention to anything, that you as manager or HR directly start thinking with them about it. Be an ally. The cause can be that someone struggles to come out. How can you as HR of manager help you with this? Another cause can be that you want to do something for the community and that the organization or HR thinks along with you.  

Broaden your own frame of reference: Read about it, have an open perspective, talk to people, be aware of your own biases and gather information. What can you do yourself? Perhaps ask about someone’s ‘partner’ instead of someone’s husband or wife. Stay true to yourself and do the things that feel comfortable to you but be conscious about your words and actions.