Companies who embrace and promote LGBTQ+ policies tend to outperform their competitors. This was proven in 2016 research from Credit Suisse (1), and is even more likely to be the case today.
Creating a diverse and inclusive culture in the workplace can help attract top talent and foster innovation. Plus, people are likely to perform significantly better when they can be themselves at work.
Read on for some useful tips that might help your business to foster diversity and promote LGBTQ+ inclusion.
1. Take care to use gender neutral writing in workplace policies
Review and revise policies to ensure they are inclusive of all gender identities.
This could include addressing areas such as bathroom facilities or implementing a gender neutral dress code. Make policies applicable to all staff, regardless of their gender identity.
To create an inclusive culture, take care to use gender neutral language when writing policies. Where you have existing polices or template contracts, review them with care to remove any language that could discriminate based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
This is especially important in general policies that are traditionally gendered, including areas such as:
- Maternity and paternity leave – use phrasing such as “person who gave birth” rather than mother/father
- Fertility policy – ensure this is gender neutral as it’s possible that a trans man may be trying to conceive
- Adoption leave – using the term “main adopter” avoids supposition of the gender of the person as it could be either partner in any relationship who will receive the equivalent of maternity leave
- Shared Parental Leave – offering this to all employees could be especially useful for any couple where the person giving birth may not be the person who will be the main carer for the child.
Plus, if you don’t already have an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policy, now is the time to make sure you take the time to put one in place.
It may be useful to consider having a specific Trans Equality policy. This type of specific policy could, for example, include provision for medical appointments relating to transitioning. This could help people avoid having these types of appointments categorised as sickness absence, for example.
2. Offer benefits with LGBTQ+ employees in mind
All employees should receive the same benefits and protections, regardless of their gender or sexuality.
However, there are some benefits where you may find extra provision offered as standard by certain policies or providers. So, look out for these inclusions in the employee benefits you already offer and be mindful that you may want to rethink your provider at the point of renewal to ensure you’re doing as much as possible to support the health and wellbeing of your LGBTQ+ employees.
Be mindful that:
- Private medical insurance and employee assistance programmes generally include some provision for supporting LGBTQ+ employees.
- Cash plans that offer reimbursement on prescription costs could help employees claim back the cost of hormone therapy.
- Many schemes allow partners to be added and paid for by the employee, so take care that this opportunity is open to everyone by ensuring that it’s entirely gender neutral.
While being LGBTQ+ doesn’t automatically mean someone will have mental health issues, they are often at higher risk of this.
In fact, a YouGov survey (2) carried out in July 2022 found that LGBTQ+ in the UK are more likely to suffer with anxiety, depression, and insomnia. According to the report, 51% of LGBTQ+ participants said they experienced or were diagnosed with a mental health condition.
Other research has revealed similar findings. A study by Stonewall (3), in 2018, found that over a one-year period:
- 50% of LGBTQ+ people had experienced depression
- 60% had experienced anxiety
- 12.5% of LGBTQ+ people aged 18 to 24 had attempted to end their life.
With this in mind, and with mental health problems on the rise for many people, it’s a good idea for all employers to offer mental health support and counselling services to their staff.
Read more: 4 practical ways to support employee mental health and why it matters
If you don’t already provide such services, we can help you find an appropriate package, including those that offer additional services for transitioning and non-binary employees.
3. Provide LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion training
To create a cohesive and inclusive culture, it can help to educate and inform both your recruitment team and line managers about LGBTQ+ issues. Training should be geared towards promoting greater understanding and help foster empathy.
Ideally, this kind of initiative should help ensure that an inclusive mindset and behaviours filter throughout your business, helping to create a truly inclusive workplace culture.
4. Consider showing pronouns on email signatures and internal profiles
Adding gender pronouns to company email signatures can be one way to take steps towards building gender inclusivity into the workplace. Making such a change can bring awareness to something many people might not have considered before.
This simple move will allow employees to self-identify with their preferred pronouns and, potentially, encourage more openness.
This is something that we are already doing at Aspira, so we have first-hand experience of implementing this, and seeing the difference it has made. Please get in touch to find out more.
5. Acknowledge and celebrate LGBTQ+ awareness events
Organising events and business-wide initiatives to celebrate LGBTQ+ awareness days, such as Pride Month, is a proactive and positive way to demonstrate support. This can also help create a sense of belonging for LGBTQ+ employees.
Another way to achieve this could be to use volunteer days to support LGBTQ+ causes – there are loads of charities doing all kinds of brilliant things (4) up and down the country.
Get in touch
To find out more about how you can support your LGBTQ+ employees or to talk to us about what we are doing at Aspira, please get in touch.
Email info@lebc-aspira.com or call us on 01454 632 495.
(1) research-doc.credit-suisse.com/docView?language=ENG&format=PDF&document_id=807075590&source_id=emcsplus&serialid=YU6DApYK4XIb4Ht4%2FE2TIMxtC7zr6wSCpdiQ92fLI5U%3D&cspId=null
(2) yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2022/07/05/lgbt-britons-more-likely-report-suffering-mental-h
(3) www.stonewall.org.uk/lgbt-britain-health
(4) givingisgreat.org/lgbtq-charities/